Howdy.
I've been lurking here for a while while trying to learn. I am more a writer and storyteller than graphics artists. However, I am fascinated with maps as part of fantasy stories and worlds. I am working on my first map for a story I am writing and trying to apply some of the things I have learned reading and admiring here on CG. Since I am way new to this and, as I said, not a graphics artist, I thought I would post the work in stages. My hope is that I can fix some things as I go along rather than having to scrap and start over later based on feedback from you all. Also, I hope that by showing a newbie progression through this thread that other newbs might also learn.

Below are my first two snap shots (hopefully I attached them correctly and you can see them). One is the base image and the other is an image with a rough grid and scale thrown on if it will help discussion.

Just to give some background on where I am:

- I have a basic coast line of a large Bay and main river mouths. This is a regional scale as you can see from the "mile" marker on the grid version. I do plan to add some islands.
- The 'line' part of the rivers are simply for my reference down the road and to see how it might look. My plan is to delete those and redraw. My thought was to have them thicker near the mouth and taper them down a bit as toward their headwaters.
- THere will be mountains to the "west" side of the picture. They will sweep from NE to SW. I am unsure how I want to present these yet.
- There will also be forest, towns, swamps, etc, etc.
- I plan on the entire project in B&W.
- I am working in Inscape with multiple layers. It is new to me but I am getting the hang of it. I am not yet versed in the GIMP although I have it downloaded.

Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	55451Click image for larger version. 

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I do appreciate your honest input. I am thick skinned and can take it; I can't learn if I don't first listen. I appreciate your input and thoughts - please don't hold back. It will be up to this old dog to see if he can learn new tricks.

Thanks.

Mac