Watercolor mapmaker here :)

[WaterWitchRPG]

Hello,

My name is Valerie, I'm new here and I'm excited to become a part of the community! I have been creating hand-drawn maps of various fantasy places for about a year now. I enjoy making city maps the most, but I'm also trying out drawing regions (like fictional countries) and some world maps as well. Some are places from my home D&D campaign we play with some friends, some are commissions from authors and other worldbuilders.

I think my style is a bit different from most of the maps I see here but I hope it's not a problem and you will like it

Now that I have introduced myself I'm not sure where to go from here, haha. How can I share my creations, what are the rules and traditions of the community? Is it allowed to share links to the portfolio on other sites for others to follow? I don't want to break any rules or something. Please share how it works here, if you can, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Kind regards,
Valerie

[wminish]

Hi Valerie, welcome to the guild. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your maps, it's always really nice to see unique styles and different takes on fantasy map-making.

In terms of sharing your maps, I would recommend creating posts in the pen & paper maps forum or the finished maps forum (there should be pinned posts at the top of each forum with guidelines about posting). In terms of linking to a portfolio, from what I've seen the done thing is to upload images to the forum directly so people don't have to navigate away to view maps but link to your portfolio in your signature (although I don't think you can make one until you are past your initial 5 posts and the training wheels get taken off) so people can navigate here if they are interested in seeing a wider range of your work (see my signature for an example of this). You can also create albums associated with your profile, although once again I don't think you can do this until after your initial 5 posts.

I hope this helps and Mods please correct me if I'm wrong.

[KaiAeon]

Hi Valerie, welcome to the guild. I'm a fellow watercolour lover so I'm looking forward to seeing your creations and learning from you.

[WaterWitchRPG]

Hi Valerie, welcome to the guild. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your maps, it's always really nice to see unique styles and different takes on fantasy map-making.

In terms of sharing your maps, I would recommend creating posts in the pen & paper maps forum or the finished maps forum (there should be pinned posts at the top of each forum with guidelines about posting). In terms of linking to a portfolio, from what I've seen the done thing is to upload images to the forum directly so people don't have to navigate away to view maps but link to your portfolio in your signature (although I don't think you can make one until you are past your initial 5 posts and the training wheels get taken off) so people can navigate here if they are interested in seeing a wider range of your work (see my signature for an example of this). You can also create albums associated with your profile, although once again I don't think you can do this until after your initial 5 posts.

I hope this helps and Mods please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you for the information! I will start by sharing my finished maps then, as you advise.

Do you know if it is ok to write comments in the map requests section for a newbie like me? Or do I need to get the 5 posts up and running first?

[WaterWitchRPG]

Hi Valerie, welcome to the guild. I'm a fellow watercolour lover so I'm looking forward to seeing your creations and learning from you.

Yay, I'm not alone! Great, looking forward to seeing your work as well.

[Kellerica]

Do you know if it is ok to write comments in the map requests section for a newbie like me? Or do I need to get the 5 posts up and running first?

It is OK, no rules against it People might take a greater interest if you've shared a bit more and have an active portfolio to showcase, but no reason to wait for the 5 post threshold. You are well on your way getting past that anyway, though.

Welcome to the Guild! We are a fairly relaxed group here, so no need to worry about stepping on any toes here. As long as you're polite, you're not breaking the rules. If there is anything in particular you are wondering or need help with, just say the word. Glad to have you join the community!

[Tiana]

Just read around and look at how some other people include and present their work, make some comments on some maps you like, you'll have 5 posts in no time at all. Having a portfolio is pretty vital to getting jobs, so make one for sure, even if it's just the basic gallery on this site.

[DrWho42]

hello and welcome valerie!

[Redrobes]

Hi and welcome to the guild. Just have a good ole browse around and post some new threads in the finished maps section if you have some to show off. You can start an album of your work here and you can post to map related links in other places. The best option is likely to set your signature and have the link to your main site there so that its attached to every post you make and also you can change it and it will update for all of your posts.

If your particularly pen and paper sort of art then that forum topic is a good place to discuss techniques and ask for help. I think most people use the "Whats New" and recent posts to check up on the latest rather than to hit up each topic and see the latest threads. So in a sense and in the short term it doesn't make a huge difference where you post it for day to day responses but for longer term keeping threads on topics grouped together will help you get more responses after a few days once the daily posts have rolled off of the bottom of Whats New.

You can take or offer commissions right from the start. Whatever you negotiate with clients is up to you and the guild is not involved with it so do your due diligence. If you want more people offering to chose you as a client then having a portfolio on this guild is a good idea. We tell people not to definitively trust images from other sites because there is no guarantee that they made the image. Its best if you pick a client where you can see that they have developed the work in stages - WIPs, or works in progress. Then you can be sure of their ability. So doing some threads on here showing WIPs gives confidence to people who need a map.

[WaterWitchRPG]

Welcome to the Guild! We are a fairly relaxed group here, so no need to worry about stepping on any toes here. As long as you're polite, you're not breaking the rules.

Thank you, it's good to know!
I've had some confusing experiences on Reddit before, getting banned for really random things, nothing like being rude or anything obvious like that. So I thought it's better to ask!