The Reaching Coast of Thesa

[Diamond]

Hi Dornier; at this point I don't have too much advice to give. Your rivers look a bit odd. Generally rivers flow together and merge as they make their way from higher elevations to lower, which you've done, but it almost looks to me like they're backwards though, kind of as if the joining rivers are flowing uphill to join the main river and then flowing downhill. Rivers find the path of least resistance as they travel downhill. I guess it's possible that there'd be places where rivers flow the opposite direction to join the main one (and I know there are in real life), but every river you've got there is doing it. I flipped one river around the other way so you can see what I mean.

As far as making stuff with Gimp or PaintNet, I can't help you there. I did make a little coat-of-arms tutorial a couple of years ago (for photoshop, but it might be adaptable to Gimp): http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...photoshop.html
I want to redo it at some point since I've learned things since then that streamline things and look better, but maybe that'll help you out at least a little.

[Dornier Spy]

Thanks for the advice, I'm not sure if it matters. But the reason I had it that way is because I'll be adding mountains later so the rivers are flowling down into the ocean from the mountains. As for the tutorial, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for the advice, Diamond.

[- Max -]

Supposing the ocean is the blue area, even if you add mountains later, Diamond is right, they look flow from ocean to the land ( because the way they split ). Also the northern river seems to have a source then flow and stop in the land which is odd.

[RobA]

Dornier-

Thanks for reaching out to the community for help - it is one of the best ways to gain proficiency!

There are a couple threads on "getting your rivers right" which you should read , as I agree with both Diamond and Max that yours look a bit off.

Regarding the coat of arms - I'd suggest downloading Inkscape, as I find it is easier than a raster program like gimp or paint.net for creating geometric, line based artwork.

-Rob A>

[Dornier Spy]

Thanks to a horrible snow storm in my area. My job is closed down until further notice, so...free day

Here is what I've been working on.

Due to the rivers being backwards and some (very little) research on what Steampunk Maps look like, the color-scheme seems too bright for a steam/industrial era of mappery. So, I reversed the rivers and deleted that odd river that has no real purpose (Says this now, later on goes "WAIT! WHERE'D THAT THING GO!" oh well...) Also made the coasts a bit more jagged using the wand tool and repainting it. Also changed the color scheme to a more grungy like base. Tell me what you think.

[Schyzm]

Rivers are looking quite a bit better now. Though - what's going on with that river that's connected to nothing (upper left)? I think you'll have an easier time with the rest of your mapping if you do some work with elevations (mountains, hills, etc..) now, as opposed to later.

[Dornier Spy]

Any good ideas on how to draw mountains would be really appreciated.

[jbgibson]

The rivers are a little odd. Take a look at the Most Excellent tutorial on Getting Your Rivers in the Right Place, in the tutorial forum-- you'll quickly get the few rules of thumb that make a set of rivers look plausible.

[Dornier Spy]

Not to be rude, and I do respect the comments on it. But I'm just gonna leave the rivers as they are. Me redoing the rivers requires me to restart the map to the outline and it's getting slightly annoying. I will start doing the mountains and the borders soon, if anyone has a good tutorial on that.

[RobA]

Not to be rude, and I do respect the comments on it. But I'm just gonna leave the rivers as they are. Me redoing the rivers requires me to restart the map to the outline and it's getting slightly annoying. I will start doing the mountains and the borders soon, if anyone has a good tutorial on that.

I think you latest rivers (post 15) are a fine start.

Regarding mountains:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...hallenged.html
http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...udge-tool.html
http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...ks=#post173184
http://www.cartographersguild.com/tu...tml#post178638

Regarding borders, I can't locate any tutorials, but the common way is by stoking paths (dotted lines) or by making selection and applying inner glows (coloured).

-Rob A>