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    Default Mini world building mentoring

    As has been mentioned in the past we have a lot of registered members, but only a few truly active members. In order to increase participation of those inactive members I’m going to try something here. This is to be a Mini World Building Challenge so to speak. A lot of the new registrees ask for help or for someone to make a map for them, well its time for their pencil to hit the paper.

    Here’s the plan of attack and I’m going to use Socks as the test subject as he seems willing to participate and he has some ideas about his world but doesn’t really know where to start. All you new and inactive beginners may participate ( I actually want you to participate) but I’m going to mentor Sock only atm from a logistic stand point. I’m going to try and help him develop his world map, a mini skill building exercise where we will ignore the more complex issues of world creation (many of which I truly don’t know myself) and focus on the basics. Time frame is open ended, maybe something like torstan’s assorted tips and tricks thread. Or I may run this for the month of Feb/Mar and then if I can get other members to mentor another member we’ll see where we can take this. In either case this is going to lag a bit at the start on my end (I have a kitchen remodel project in progress and the wife likes water LOL )

    Objective: Develop pencil / paper hand drawn overall world of the members choice in Pencil / Ink
    Required Tools: .5mm HB lead mechanical pencil, copy paper, eraser (the most important tool), triangles, ruler, ball point pen, a .005 micron ink pen, something to use as a drawing board, tape and a window, yes a window(for tracing, more later on). Oh good light!!
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Map Brief: A 5 continent world map with island chain, border and compass rose. We are going to try to hit a 70% water area to 30% land mass area for this work (close to earth’s distribution so you have a reference point). Here’s a copy of Sock’s brief with a bit more detail.

    Sock's Brief:
    "What I'm going to need is 5 continents. With a string of islands (both individual islands, and chains) going from the south of one continent to the western part of another continent.

    Continent 1:
    A long, thin country. It is more north-south oriented as opposed to east-west. So think the Americas vs. Eurasia.
    • A snowy, mountainous region to the north
    • A densely wooded region with rivers running through it, ponds and lakes within, etc. Very wet region I'm thinking.
    • Another region with a lot of coastal land.
    • A region good for raising a large population of horses and perhaps growing things as well.
    • A region which is on an oddly shaped peninsula with a large mountain-barrier between it and the main continent. Also a small island off the coast of this peninsula.
    • A desert region with a river, or a few, running through it to offer the life it needs to grow things. Similar to how the Nile is for Egypt.
    • A dead wasteland on the western side of this country-continent.


    Continent 2:
    A roundish continent. Think Australia when imagining the shape perhaps? And scale as well. It exists to the west of of Continent 1.
    • Highlands (hill-y) region
    • Flatland (plains, etc.) region
    • A swamp region
    • A mountainous region
    • A desert
    • River lands
    • An island off the south.


    Continent 3:
    A wide continent. Think Eurasia.
    • A double-peninsula country. Western end of this continent.
    • A good region for a nomadic culture. Just a large swath of land I was thinking. To the east of the double-peninsula
    • Another peninsular country. To the south of the nomadic country.
    • Another country to the east.
    • A large island between the two peninsulas with mountains on it.


    Continent 4:
    A continent to the south of Continent 4. It is wide as well and it is mostly a desert continent. With rivers and some lakes running through it. Oases as well for life to exist.

    Continent 5:
    A deserted country. Nothing on it. But the idea I want is that it would look really great for population so lots of lush forest, rivers, lakes, etc. But it just has no civilization.

    Island String:
    My idea was that the string of islands would be trailing from the south of continent 1 to the western edge of continent 4."


    Assignment #1: on the copy paper (“landscape orientation”, short vertical- wide horizontal) in pencil:
    1. Draw a single line border 1/8” +/- from the edges, this is a reference to keep you from drawing your continents into the final border area.
    2. Draw a horizontal line for your “equator” through the middle of the sheet (to seperate hemispheres)
    3. Bubble diagram in your land masses for all continents. What we are after here is not to worry about how the actual continents are shaped, but relative sizing so they fit on the paper , within the border and show their relationship to each other as outlined in your brief. Keep in mind the 30%land mass.70% water mass in your bubble diagram. Ok what's a bubble diagram lets take Socks continent #1 as an example. this will be an oval shape (ie the bubble) standing vertically. I want Socks to do this first then I'll "redline" his work to further refine this. (Sock’s you have previously skirted around this and drawn only portions of individual continents, this is your refinement assignment).

    Get Crackin Socks LOL If you have questions on what I'm talking about Socks post em here so anyone else with the same question can follow along.
    Last edited by Vellum; 02-07-2013 at 04:28 PM.

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