talent?

i think that i wasnt clear with my question and the way i said it offended some people so ill ask it agian using differrent words and try to be more clear :

" is there an area on this website that i can go to that is set up for people like myself who make maps using the artistic skills theyve developed in theyre lives in the area of the fine arts i.e. drawing and painting because so far as i can tell this whole website is for people who make maps using computer programs"

There's no specific area but you can find hadn-drawings/paintings maps in all the forums (sometimes they're labelled hand-drawn in thread title). A search request can maybe give you answers.
By the way I see a lot of people using a mix of hand-drawing and digital work, Both areally aren't incompatibles. Plus, having called your thread "Talent?" with your following questions just implied that those who are using computers to make maps lack of talent, so I can really understand that some fell offended, just saying.

I don't believe Using a tablet or Software takes from talent, It just takes away the Work part of it. You may have a special way to draw wavy lines, but when you draw 1,000 of em its not talent. Its work. The computer takes the work part away, Not the talent. I hand draw then Trace mine in CC3, And I'm currently trying to figure out how to do something I can't figure out. Learning programs seems to be a talent too. One I don't have. Just my 2 cents as well.

There are some tutorials here focus on hand-drawn maps (that term is the best one to search on, though). There are also ones that offer suggestions on migrating skills from physical media to virtual media (undo and layers are soooo much more convenient than an eraser and sheets of vellum, in my opinion).

The technical/inspirational wars are good ones to avoid, if possible. Folks with extensive skills in a form (be it GIS, painting, programming, layout, or others) tend to be rightfully proud of those skills and usually respond badly to the suggestion that those skills might be trivial. Even if you do it inadvertently, you're likely to find yourself swimming in a sea of venom spewed by one camp or another. All skills take a whole lot of practice. Some tools can ease the development of some skill sets, but I've not yet found a tool that will do all of the work for me. And if I did, would I have any legitimate claim to its output as my own?

Talent = (Sweat + luck + tools)/ time

@drawzalot,

In actual answer to your redifined question, No, there is no area specifically for works in one media or another. It might be usefull, considering the sheer quantity of tutorials we have, if the Tutorial forum was further divided along those line, but I am sure that that would be a real hassle to arrange at this point, due again to the numbers involved.

I think the Guild prefers to focus more on the end result, no matter what the media, than on what the map was done in. If your weapon of choice was a loom and shuttlecock, and you were able to create a decent map with it, I don't see anyone here turning that map away from our doors. In fact it is just those sort of maps, those done with unconventional tools, that garner lots of interest, if not praise. I remember seeing one done in Excel of all things and I for one would LOVE to see a tapestry map ;)

In short, it is the map that is important here, and I have yet to see anyone be put down for having used Paint and Brush, Pencil and Paper, Computer and Tablet or even Styrofoam to create that map.

Heck, for some maps I go through about 5+ programs before i'm happy with it.

Styrofoam seams like an awesome medium now that you said something about it. And a Tapestry map.. I think I'de Just die If I saw one. I LOVE tapestries.

Bayeux Tapestry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I like to think of this as a map of history Majere :-)

Also check out the "May 2012 Challenge" as everyone's entry was hand drawn. The link only gives you the artist's names and the maps they created unfortunately it was before we started putting the links into the voting thread. So you may have to search for them but that shouldn't be too awful.