Hi, I thought I'd de-lurk a tad and introduce myself.

I'm 28 years old and I've been drawing maps since childhood. When I was a child my parents painted my room half yellow and half blue for an eventual beach theme. That never really happened but part of the paint peeled and it looked like a series of islands. I ended up drawing them and turning them into an atlas for an island chain. Unfortunately that atlas has been lost to the ages. I used to draw maps about other things too. For my 4th grade geography project I drew an entire planet and wrote a history for it that got me a prize. That map too is lost.

Anyway, as an adult I've decided get back into it and I'm glad I found this site. I use FM5, FM8, CC3 and others. I find it's a learning curve---easier to draw by hand!