Greetings all

I just wanted to thank everyone for making this such a fantastic resource. I'm working on a book at the moment and being directionally challenged thought it would be a good idea to draw a rough map to make sure I didn't get too confused when writing.

Not having an artistic bone in my body I decided to look for some free map design software and came across a trial version of Ortelius. Trying to figure out how to draw rivers, I stumbled across this site and my mind was blown! I spent a good few hours looking through the beautiful maps that members have created and a monster was born... I dusted off my photoshop and scanned in the outline of my map. Ten hours of confusion whilst trying to work out how to use PS (I've never really used it before), and much studying of the tutorials here I now have the beginnings of a rather nice looking map. Fortunately I have now worked out how to do the basics and so the creation process is beginning to speed up a little.

Having started off with wanting to create a basic map for my own reference I now feel inspired to create something of beauty that I can put up on my office wall to help me feel inspired in those times when the words are hard to get down.

I honestly can't say enough good things about this place - I had no idea that cartography was such a huge thing (although being a gamer and huge fan of fantasy I should really have had an inkling lol) but I can completely see why. I stumbled across this site looking for hints and tips but think I may be staying for a long time!

Looking forward to hanging out with you

Moombles