Hello everyone!

First time poster here. Back before the days of Photoshop CS, I was big into roleplaying. Not in person, but in writing. This gave me the idea to make some maps for the stories I made with others. They were very bad (parchment texture with very round black lines to show land and roads and such) but it was fun to do. But after about 3 or 4 of these maps, I stopped and did not give it any more thought until about a week ago.

I decided to dust off the old Photoshop and start something new, figuring that now (years later) there would be much better resources available. And so there are!

Boring story is boring, here's the finished version of the map I made. Mind you, this is downsized because for some insane reason I decided to go for 4K resolution.

Click image for larger version.  Name: iudpnIX.png  Views: 125  Size: 1.37 MB  ID: 65039

I didn't think to save if as a different file at multiple stages to show progress, since I wasn't planning on showing it to anyone. I only just now found this site. I started off with a very broad definition of the land mass, by using a very big round brush to make white shapes on a seperate black background layer. After this, I used a 4pixel eraser to define all of the land, including the tiny islands off the coasts.

After that I used a set of brushes to put in the mountains, trees and cities. There were later all colored in by hand. The trees made this particularly painful and I'm desperately hoping there's an easier way for it. The rest, I'm sure, is obvious to all you guys.

Anyway, I just found this website and have already found many useful links. So I thought I'd join! I'd like to know what you guys think.

Raziel