Coastline, should I or should I not?

[Elterio Delgard]

Hello, I was wondering if my maps would benefit from having some détails to show the coastline. The problem is that everything is hand-made (except for the dots and squares for cities and castles, as well as diamonds for ruins) and I have my limits to how small I can draw...

[ChickPea]

You could maybe try some ripples around the edges of the coast? Take a look at what Max did here to give you an idea...

http://www.cartographersguild.com/album.php?albumid=4358&attachmentid=76927

It helps to define the coast without being overly distracting.

[Elterio Delgard]

You could maybe try some ripples around the edges of the coast? Take a look at what Max did here to give you an idea...

http://www.cartographersguild.com/album.php?albumid=4358&attachmentid=76927

It helps to define the coast without being overly distracting.

Thanks! I will think about it. May be hard to do by hand with the pen I have. However, I do have to say that his ripples tend to fit in because of the lines he made for the grass and sand. In my case, I do not know. Well! We surely WONT know if I do not try! Well gonna scan my most recent version of a map and print a copy to try the ripples on it.

[Elterio Delgard]

*grumble grumble* Hard to do when right from the start I used the finest pen I had,... Swift and delicate wavy lines are easy enough, but I always end up making 1 out of 4 with an ugly shape. Up untill now I never gave much importance to the water... I regret it now XD

[jshoer]

You could also do some wave shapes that are all parallel to each other (probably horizontal to the page). They don't have to go all the way out into the ocean. Or maybe use some stippling in the shallows. There are lots of ideas; try making some test coastlines and try out anything you can think of!

[jbgibson]

Even if some coastal treatment or other MIGHT improve the look, that is already a mighty nice map!

You do have a couple of rivers doing non-water-like things - taking two widely divergent routes after a split, and what looks like two outlets to a lake. Both those can be found in nature under *very* rare circumstances, and won't last long - always one route, one outlet will be just a *leetle* bit lower, and that one will soon capture all the flow, with erosion and sedimentation ensuring the other is abandoned. Sure, some later flood could shift things - but most all such situations are geologically brief. A decent principle for fantasy mapping is to depict mostly plausible, normal terrain. Pick stuff that departs from normal physics and hydrology and use them on purpose - nothing wrong with uniqueness, in moderation. Make too much out of the ordinary, and the viewer subliminally stops believing it.

Right now this is such a very nice looking map that my eye forgives the hydrologic illogic - besides which if it's ink on paper, it's a done deal, right? <shrug> Plenty nice, no matter what. How big is the original?

"Won't know until I try" : bravo!

[Elterio Delgard]

Erm about your questions of how big, I still need to scan the scale but I will put on my album (which is public) the collection of my maps. Feel free to look at my not up to date continent of Evozen! (Still alot of work for redoing them all XD)

[Elterio Delgard]

Even if some coastal treatment or other MIGHT improve the look, that is already a mighty nice map!

You do have a couple of rivers doing non-water-like things - taking two widely divergent routes after a split, and what looks like two outlets to a lake. Both those can be found in nature under *very* rare circumstances, and won't last long - always one route, one outlet will be just a *leetle* bit lower, and that one will soon capture all the flow, with erosion and sedimentation ensuring the other is abandoned. Sure, some later flood could shift things - but most all such situations are geologically brief. A decent principle for fantasy mapping is to depict mostly plausible, normal terrain. Pick stuff that departs from normal physics and hydrology and use them on purpose - nothing wrong with uniqueness, in moderation. Make too much out of the ordinary, and the viewer subliminally stops believing it.

Right now this is such a very nice looking map that my eye forgives the hydrologic illogic - besides which if it's ink on paper, it's a done deal, right? <shrug> Plenty nice, no matter what. How big is the original?

"Won't know until I try" : bravo!

Are you talking about the river breaking in two and then rejoining? Yeah. So far on my 16 maps, it only happens twice again but one is really small. But both of the two others are split because they are stuck between two huge mountain chain and there are some lonely mountains here and there inbetween breaking the river's course. But I won't make mor. And Thanks!
About your question of how big. Erm

[jbgibson]

Oh - I'm curious about the scale too, but I was really asking about the size paper you are drawing on.

[Elterio Delgard]

Mmmm... Today I will be rescanning a map I made (the only thing I added was the scale lol...) To give you an idea, on a normal paper for printing, 1cm=50 miles.

I always do a border of 1cm from the margin of the sheet in order to always keep the same scale if scanned and printed or redrawn on another paper.


If you are interested in more critics, I will be posting a new thread on several of my other maps.