My 1st map.

[ravells]

My advice, FWIW is that getting good, rather than passable results with CC is hard. It's just too tempting to throw in lots of symbols which are not quite consistent in colour or theme, or line strength etc. CC has a real danger of making one not see these things because it's just a little too easy to pop a symbol in which doesn't quite fit.

Don't get me wrong, CC is a great piece of software and I've seen some maps done in CC2 (let alone CC3) which are real stunners, but those have been by people who have had a good idea of the end result they wanted to achieve, knew the limitations of the software they were using and worked hard to create the results they wanted.

I love the 'Skull Island' theme of your map, but the colours and symbols used don't tell the story to me that it has been drawn by pirates (although the labels do). All this doesn't matter if you are happy with it of course and it serves the purposes you want it to. For me a pirate map, drawn by pirates would have a much more handdrawn feel, ink bleeding into parchment, stains etc.

Just my 2p, and it IS possible (I believe) to get the feel you want in CC3 much more so than CC2 (which is what I used many moons ago). My only advice with CC is don't get seduced by the easy option and consider making your own symbols. You can always re-use them, but most of all...try to make the map consistent in feel and to tell a story - and try to get the feel and story of the map to mesh together. Get those two things right and you're well on the way to making great fantasy maps.

It's a really hard trick to pull off but if you can do it, you've made it!

best

Ravs

[MadCartographer]

My advice, FWIW is that getting good, rather than passable results with CC is hard. It's just too tempting to throw in lots of symbols which are not quite consistent in colour or theme, or line strength etc. CC has a real danger of making one not see these things because it's just a little too easy to pop a symbol in which doesn't quite fit.

Don't get me wrong, CC is a great piece of software and I've seen some maps done in CC2 (let alone CC3) which are real stunners, but those have been by people who have had a good idea of the end result they wanted to achieve, knew the limitations of the software they were using and worked hard to create the results they wanted.

I love the 'Skull Island' theme of your map, but the colours and symbols used don't tell the story to me that it has been drawn by pirates (although the labels do). All this doesn't matter if you are happy with it of course and it serves the purposes you want it to. For me a pirate map, drawn by pirates would have a much more handdrawn feel, ink bleeding into parchment, stains etc.

Just my 2p, and it IS possible (I believe) to get the feel you want in CC3 much more so than CC2 (which is what I used many moons ago). My only advice with CC is don't get seduced by the easy option and consider making your own symbols. You can always re-use them, but most of all...try to make the map consistent in feel and to tell a story - and try to get the feel and story of the map to mesh together. Get those two things right and you're well on the way to making great fantasy maps.

It's a really hard trick to pull off but if you can do it, you've made it!

best

Ravs

Ravs,
Thank you for your comments etc... I really do appreaciate them.
For someone that cant draw alick, CC2 or 3 is perfect for me. I'm not aiming to be a pro at this, I just want to draw a map and use it in my D&D games.

I also do understand what you said about the symbols. And yes, it's easy to just "plop" them in. I'll keep an eye out on the colors and line sharpness you mentioned.

Thank you
MadCartographer