Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: First post and also first WIP!!

  1. #1
    Guild Applicant Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Venray, Netherlands
    Posts
    4

    Wip First post and also first WIP!!

    Hello dear members of Cartographers Guild,

    Here we go then, my first post and also first WIP
    First of some introduction about myself, Im Miel Hanen from the Netherlands. I work for a big cable company in the netherlands, supporting people with their technical difficulties. Before that i did a few Studies in graphical design, but in the end i found out that i really enjoy it helping people out and solving issues they cannot solve. Since those studies i enjoy graphical design a lot, but i decided that it would not be my work

    That being said, in those years of studies i was introduced to photoshop and the adobe suite. From Iluustrator, to photoshop, to premiere Pro and after effects and since then been using it for hobby. Creating my own websites and for small local customers but also just making some artwork etc for myself.
    Becuase the main purpose was mosty websites etc and also because i dont have really good overall drawing skills i've never really used a tablet for drawing and really since now, making my first map, im really starting to miss out on that.

    In My free time i'm also a big big fan of Dungeons and Dragons and the likes, Board games, card games and everything that goes with that.
    As it comes to D&D i've been a player for almost 13 years now with a stable Dungeon master guiding it, but since some time i started playing with a different group that switches between DM quite often. Because of that i started from last week being DM and making my own quest/story.

    Thats is when i found this awesome forum. I wanted to have a map for my campaing so i found this website and began searching around. In the beginning i was considering just using a map, but after some searching i just couldnt do that. I hate it when people use my work for stuff without telling etc, and seeing the immense effort you guys put into your work and the awesome maps you make i just couldnt do that, so i decided i would make one of my own.

    After like reading 60 tutorials on this site and seeing all the different techniques people use, i started out. not having a tablet for drawing it started out quite difficult making the coastline etc. From then it went on steady, and in all i've spend about 20h on it so far. It's a map for one of the regions in my campaign, named Ulster. A lush forest rich area in the land of Edacia

    Ok so enough typing, here are my efforts until so far. Im really hoping i can get a few tips tricks, how you guys feel about the work so far when it comes to colours, linework, composition and the work in it's whole

    Greetings,

    Miel

    Last edited by Tjerno; 06-26-2014 at 09:12 AM.

  2. #2
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Meshon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    1,166

    Default

    Looks like you're off to a good start! I just have a couple of suggestions which you can take as you will.

    There's a good tutorial for doing lines around your coast here.

    I would also add some kind of colour under the mountains to show that they are different, they sort of blend into the green at the moment. You might already be planning to do this

    Also the river police might pull you over for your lake. One of those rivers leading to the sea is going to be a lower channel than the other and it will be the one that the water flows down. The other one you could turn into a dry canyon that used to be the main channel and then something changed in the landscape.

    Keep posting, it's going great!

    cheers,
    Meshon

  3. #3
    Guild Applicant Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Venray, Netherlands
    Posts
    4

    Default

    Hey there Meshon,

    I didnt see that useful tutorial ! i think the spacing and opacity of my lines could use some work as i see

    When it comes to the mountains i was planning on adding more colors indeed, yesterday evening is was playing around with the landmass colors. When i was quite pleased with it finally (after like 5 hours ) i added the mountains with a stamp i found on the forums and then it was to late to do some more work on the map

    I must say i wasnt really content with the rivers myself to be honest. to explain a bit, i do have a knack for technical stuff but when it comes to topography i really dont I was talking today with a colleague who does a lot of mapwork and the first thing he said was that the rivers are the wrong way around, they dont flow to rivers but from them so that will be changed the next time im gonna work on the map

    Thnx for all the useful tips sir!

    ill keep posting updates on the work in progress

  4. #4
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Meshon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
    Posts
    1,166

    Default

    Great, yes, I thought you probably just hadn't added colour or texture to the mountains yet. I do really like the texture and colouring you're using for the plains, it's well done.

    I actually think most of your rivers are exactly right: many small tributaries running from the mountains combining to one large stream that flows to the coast. I'm also no expert but there are actual River Police here and I think you can find good tutorials on making rivers run right. From what I understand though, water will flow towards the path of least resistance, and there will only be one such path. The second river coming from the lake could exist temporarily, say if flooding dramatically increased the depth of the lake, but it would only last a brief time until the water level was lower.

    So actually making it into a canyon that is occasionally filled with flood waters might be okay actually.

    cheers,
    Meshon

  5. #5
    Guild Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Veenendaal, Netherlands
    Posts
    94

    Default

    I was going to point out the rivers, but that's been covered already. I like the map and the coastline, but if I could make one suggestion, it would be this:

    I'm having a hard time understanding the scale of this map. I'm going through the same issue with my own work-in-progress at the moment, and it stems mostly from the lack of variation in land texture. This can be easily sorted on your map by adding some forests, though. There's a handy tool that I was linked to on this forum, called TreeThing. Here's the thread for it. It comes with an easy to understand guide and has really nice results!

    Keep us updated, it looks like a really nice map already!

  6. #6
    Guild Applicant Facebook Connected
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Venray, Netherlands
    Posts
    4

    Default

    thnx for the reply Raziel,

    I Agree with the scale issue, ive been busy with that program last night, but havent finished yet, so after work ill continue and post the update later this evening

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •