Hello guys!

[Karan]

My name is Karan, I live in canada, I am in electrical engineering. I have a million different interests! Cartography is one of them, but first, I must learn to draw. Like really well. Any tips??

[jbgibson]

Welcome, Karan - I too am an EE... As for learning, get you over to the tutorials forum and start reading - then start trying :-). Or I should say DOING, since there is no "try". Particularly look at Gidde's marvelous Hand Drawn Mapping (for the artistically impaired), and the QuickStart guide. There's plenty of maps that can be built almost wholly procedurally, with just some guided chaos to place features.

Learning to draw is a fine goal, but not entirely necessary. Unless you wish to map known real territory, any unintended marks you make just become a slightly different reality than you had aimed for. What sort of map, what style are you looking to create? For what purpose? And "just because maps are cool" is acceptable - one does not have to be illustrating a novel or playing a game.

To learn drawing, one draws. Beyond knowing which end of the implement makes marks, little else is absolutely required. It has been well said that drawing is a natural outgrowth of seeing, so perhaps first one just studies landforms, existing maps, whatever one wants to depict. Google Earth is your friend :-).

[Chick]

Hello Karan, Welcome to the Guild!

There is a great tutorial in the sticky section of Tutorials, called Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4276

From there, go to Hand Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=10655

Once you have completed those two tutorials, you'll be well on your way!!