I'm a fantasy writer who needs to map her world and is too broke at present to hire a cartographer/artist. Plus also making the map is a great way to avoid writing. I use GIMP and have been tearing my hair out "translating" PSspeak into GIMP2.6speak. And of course I must jump in at the deep end because that's how I'm wired. Anyway, this is a terrific site and I've already gotten further along with my project than I ever thought possible. Thanks to all the tutorial writers.