Hello, Cartographers!

[ravells]

Wow, how do you become a professional graphic designer when you can't draw? The good news is that you don't need to know how to draw to make decent maps! (Yay!). Check out the tutorial sites - there's plenty of advice there about how to make believable coastlines from initial primitive shapes (it's by RobA and one of the most if not the most useful tutorial in the entire list IMO).

Welcome to the Guild!

[VossBC]

I know, it seems like a contradiction, but well... I did it. The fact is, my job is mostly layout, so drawing doesn't really enter into it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, I'll be sure to check out RobA's tutorials.

[Nomadic]

Wow, how do you become a professional graphic designer when you can't draw? The good news is that you don't need to know how to draw to make decent maps! (Yay!). Check out the tutorial sites - there's plenty of advice there about how to make believable coastlines from initial primitive shapes (it's by RobA and one of the most if not the most useful tutorial in the entire list IMO).

Welcome to the Guild!

Very few graphic designers I know have any pen and paper artistic talent. But graphic design and hand drawn art don't work the same.

Anyhow, welcome to the guild. I know there are several tutorials in the tutorial section on making high quality randomly generated maps. This is perfect if you are not sure what you want or you don't have the skill to hand draw things. Remember, photoshop filters and effects are your friends