Continent of Saalem. My second hand-drawn map.

[Skyeshard]

Hey all! So I've discovered that I am better at hand drawing a map than making one digitally (Probably because of my lack of expertise). I'm looking for some tips on colouring. What's the best technique? Just regular pencil crayons? Or should I colour it digitally?

[Reilith]

That looks pretty good. I don't know much about hand colouring them, but you could totally scan it and make it easier for yourself on PC. Also you could add fonts to make it more readable and neat, your labels are a bit all over the place.

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[Lucifer]

Looks good to me. I like the coastline. A few things, though:

Your rivers in the central south (N. Hadid and S. Hadid Rivers) seem strange, given that they flow west towards the sea when they spring into existence quite close to the eastern shore. Nothing impossible to explain, the terrain could just be forcing that particular path, especially given that this is continent scale. But it does seem strange at first sight and a little off-putting to me.

I agree with Reilith on the labels: They are all over the place and a little inconsistent. Having consistent text on your map makes it a lot easier to read and understand. Remember, after all, that a map is not just a piece of art but something that conveys information to those that view it.

You seem to have some splitting rivers in the western south (near Yiz). Is that supposed to be a delta? It seems a little wide for a delta, given continent scale. I'm no expert on deltas though, this might be completely fine, especially if this is a smaller continent. If this is not supposed to be delta, remember that rivers don't usually split; they converge on their path towards the lowest possible terrain (which usually ends up being either basins or the sea).

Finally, you seem to have very few rivers in general. Maybe this is intended, it's just something I noticed.

Other than that, I like the style you chose. Your mountains could be a littler darker, to contrast the paper more strongly. Sadly, I cannot help you when it comes to colouring other than possibly inking and scanning it, then doing colouring in GIMP or PS.

[Mapsburgh]

I've had good success in using watercolors to hand-color a map. You do need to do your linework in black ink and erase all the pencil first, of course.

[Skyeshard]

Wow I'd love to see a watercolor painted map! Also Lucifer thanks for the advice about rivers. I've read a few rants and tutorials about rivers, and I still have trouble figuring them out. I'm working on a 3rd map and it has a lot more rivers. As to this map though, there aren't many rivers because I only drew the main rivers, not smaller offshoots, also because it's meant to be mainly a desert. As far as I know, there aren't too many rivers and lakes in a desert. I could be very wrong though. Since starting this mapping thing, I've slowly been learning a lot more about geology and how landforms work and whatnot. Thanks for all the advice so far.