WiP - World map

[Gan]

http://www.cartographersguild.com/fi...258-world.html

Remember that one? Probably not.
Anyway, I lost all my stupid files time ago, and I never had a really good map of the world, my world.

Aven.jpg

I already recreated it, I found it almost perfect, edited and tweaked something, but just minor things. Plus, I removed the top left island, was useless and had no story.

So, what I want to make is basically a very simple map, showing the mountains and the vegetations, not even the rivers. What do you suggest in a map with this style? Draw them by hand? Or making various layers for different high levels? I have no idea how to proceed.

A question - You see the two big lakes/sea in the two continents? I'm no geographic expert, I know I should know at least something about this, but sorry I'm really stupid regarding these things. Is it possible that the right lake is a salt lake? No river go in and no river go out, just a big depression. For the other one: is it possible for it to be surrounded by mountains for 3/4 of the space, leaving only a bit where one big river flows out?

- Thank you guys, hope to hear ya soon, good luck with your projects

EDIT - Damn, forgot the map lol. Added at start.

[- Max -]

As soon as you're going to put some topographic elements like mountains and vegetation, no rivers don't makes that much sense imo.

[leen]

looking nice so far! some good shapes. i personally don't like that island group in the middle, it seems to be too regular, too well ditributed...

About the lakes (i don't much either):
If a lake has no inflow, it will vanish with time, in your case with very much time if thats ok with you, then its ok to have such a lake. you probably need a explanation though, how the water got there...
I think i read in the river tut here in the forum (but i'm not sure) that a lake only has one outflow. it can have more, but they will merge in one.
Correct me if i'm wrong, riverpolice

Cheers

[Gan]

To Max: Yes, you are very right. I'm probably going to make some major rivers

To Leen: I don't like that archipelago either, I'm still tweaking it but the core of it is there: a large group of islands connecting the two continents. For the lakes: what would you suggest doing for these? Making them normal lakes? Is it believeble that they are so large? For the big one on the top-right continent, I was looking for something like the Dead Sea, defined as an endorheic basin (a lake with no outflows). For the other big-great lake, I'm still not sure.

Thanks for your answers

[Londonsmee]

Great start, how about some Arctic, or subarctic .

[Gan]

Aven.jpg

Here you go. I went for my old "style" (if you can call it a style lol). The brown things are ofc the big and main mountains ranges. I know most of them are not correct and seem awkward, but what I can do.

How are the colours? Also: can you redirect me to a tutorial or something that tells how to do the cartographer lines in the oceans? I don't know how they are called, but I'd like to make them or at least try, never did them.

PS: I don't like the borders of the land, it seems wrong.

[Gan]

Aven.jpg

I have a pretty good base now, I guess.
Have no idea how to make better mountains. Maybe I'm missing some cool spray/dirt brushes to make the elevations correct, I don't know. Right now, they look really awkward and don't fit into the rest of the map.

The rivers came up better than I excepted (well, they are not the best one either).

EDIT - Sorry for the double post.

[- Max -]

Maybe try some highlights on the highests parts of the mountains? Also it seems that there's only a very few rivers for a whole world and like said above some may have issues. The orange parts (deserts?) are a bit popping up and I'd try to tone them a bit
And I guess there's no problem with double posts on this forum since you posted updates

[Gan]

Hey Max, thank you for the feedback =)
Let me see

a) Highlights the mountains? As in making them lighter? I actually did the inverse: the higher the darker...

b) For the few rivers issue: yes, I knew this. It's because being a world map, I want to show only the most important things, the main mountains, the main forests: all the minor things are left out. But I think I should add more rivers. May you tell me the problems with the rivers you say? Like, some rivers being misplaced, lakes, etc?

c) Thanks for letting me know about the deserts' color.

merci beaucoup ^^

[- Max -]

Hey Max, thank you for the feedback =)
merci beaucoup ^^

Je t'en prie

For the mountains, I think you can keep the colors you currently have and add heavier highlights on the highest peaks to simulate the elevation (not an expert on this kind of mountains style though).
I think the two lakes should have inflows, since they are almost rurrounded by mountains (in Santia and Goria) Also some rivers in Tanzeh that flows into the lake seems should rather have sources on elevated areas imo.