Hello there

[Misthowl]

Greetings travelers of all worlds,

My name's Kainan, i'm 30 and currently working and living in NL, i go by Misthowl online, and I have been stumbling onto the website whenever looking for cartography topics and ideas on how maps are supposed to look like, so finally decided to register and say hello!
I've have taken over an Explorer's & Cartographer's guild (mostly just on the forums and discord) for an under development game called Chronicles of Elyria and i am trying to gather as much information on cartography as I can to try and feed the imagination of the guild members (and my own) with maps of other worlds, for now at least;
Once things settle down I would like to commission a map of the starting continent, the kingdom, duchy and counties within it, sooo pretty much big plans all.

Nice to meet you all, I look forward to working with you all

[Kellerica]

Sounds like you have big plans indeed. I know lot of artists here who take commission, but if you're looking to get many maps done, I'd strongly recommend taking a stroll down our tutorial section to see if you can't be persuaded to take up making some yourself. You may find more fun and satisfying than you think. While it takes a while to really get going, I would argue making a nice map isn't by any means impossibly hard, and quite a lot of people have the potential to make great ones But of course commissioning an artist is always a good option too. Our community is blessed with a ton of amazingly talented artists.

Well, whatever you decide, the Guild is here for you! Welcome aboard!

[Tiana]

Thanks for joining. I and many others here take commissions, and we also offer advice if you decide to make your own map. Get in touch if you need help. Welcome.

[Misthowl]

thank you ^^ but from what i've seen around here i would require photoshop a lot which i do not own, and i've only ever made house shields for the guys in my community but that was done with paint and/or with pixlr, tried using gimp but all those options are confusing and overwhelming took me ages just clean a shield ._.

[JoshStolarz]

Welcome to the Guild Kainan, I’m glad you decided to join us! I second that you should check out the tutorial section and start creating some maps of your own. I always say anyone can learn the skill of drawing and map making if they have the drive and desire to do so. I don’t know what your background is, but don’t let thoughts of “I’m not an artist” get in the way.

I do look forward to seeing you around and wish you the best with your projects ��

- Josh

[Kellerica]

but from what i've seen around here i would require photoshop a lot which i do not own, and i've only ever made house shields for the guys in my community but that was done with paint and/or with pixlr, tried using gimp but all those options are confusing and overwhelming took me ages just clean a shield ._.

Photoshop is just one tool of many. GIMP is a viable option as well, and there are plenty of of tutorials related to that to get you started. It's completely normal that the new software looks confusing and overwhelming at first. That's why tutorials are so great - they tell you what to do step by step, first you'll feel like walking blindfolded, but keep at it and at some point you'll notice you're starting to understand what you are doing. And plenty of people here at the Guild to help you along, should you ever need it!

But like I said, it's of course completely up to you. I'm just talking from a perspective of someone who thought they needed a single map for a project and ended up completely falling in love with making maps. So I'm obviously very biased

[Misthowl]

Welcome to the Guild Kainan, I’m glad you decided to join us! I second that you should check out the tutorial section and start creating some maps of your own. I always say anyone can learn the skill of drawing and map making if they have the drive and desire to do so. I don’t know what your background is, but don’t let thoughts of “I’m not an artist” get in the way.

I do look forward to seeing you around and wish you the best with your projects ��

- Josh

^^ thank you for the encouraging words Josh, I will give it some shots in the weekends that's about when i have enough time to do anything with my time, last weekend i did attempt to make a gimp map background

[Misthowl]

Photoshop is just one tool of many. GIMP is a viable option as well, and there are plenty of of tutorials related to that to get you started. It's completely normal that the new software looks confusing and overwhelming at first. That's why tutorials are so great - they tell you what to do step by step, first you'll feel like walking blindfolded, but keep at it and at some point you'll notice you're starting to understand what you are doing. And plenty of people here at the Guild to help you along, should you ever need it!

But like I said, it's of course completely up to you. I'm just talking from a perspective of someone who thought they needed a single map for a project and ended up completely falling in love with making maps. So I'm obviously very biased

I did try GIMP last weekend and XD boy it took me a while to get what's what, the version used in the tutorial seems different than what i downloaded but somehow i made a map background /o/ so yay for step 1, tho i do think i made it a bit too dark =.=''