Sometimes working on maps makes me crazy

[LS-Jebus]

Usually when I have to redo something big.

For an alternate history map, I couldn't find a good reference for the western hemisphere in the right topographic style. I tried different ones, but they were too warped, too small, too simplistic, or far too detailed and fancy to be useful.

And for my fantasy map, I have had to redo the coastlines and mountains when I switched to a higher resolution to eliminate the annoying blurriness. Then I had to redo the trees a couple times to get the right type of look. Then I spent a long time drawing tons of tiny trees. Then I drew the cities and found that I needed a smaller scale, and redid the cities. Then the trees were too big, so I needed to break up the tree layer, shrink them and draw in a lot more trees.

I think I am torturing myself a bit with the totally hand-drawn aspect, but I really prefer the look. I'm a bit picky, and I dislike seeing the exact same symbols all over a map that is supposed to be hand-drawn. On the bright side, the craziness made me take breaks, during which I developed the world quite a bit. I have many more ideas for cultures, religion, institutions, militaries, architecture, and magic.

I have now grown attached to it, especially the cults, and intend on making it my definitive fantasy world.

[Ascension]

I'm usually the other way...I start out making everything too small and that makes things take forever so after a few hours I scrap it all and go bigger. Lather, rinse, and repeat a few times. I usually do about 6 or 7 different mtn styles before I'm happy. So, yes, hand-drawn style maps can take a real long time if you're picky like us...and makes me insane and burns me out.