Wonderdraft WIP - Unnamed Continent

[Eilathen]

So it seems that i found a digital tool that allows me to map without that much of a learning curve (well, that sounds arrogant, of course this map, as you will see, has lots of stuff that i can do better, but i meant on a "know the software and how it works on a basic level")! Wonderdraft. And i have to say, while the map I will show you is far faaaar from what i have seen others do with Wonderdraft, it still gives me lots of pleasure to look at what i did with it in just a couple of hours (and the help of a tutorial i found on youtube).

If you're like me, with not much of skill in any of the more advanced digital tools like PS and similar, I can heartily recommend giving Wonderdraft a try. It's pretty easy and you'll have something that looks like a map in a pretty short time.

And now, without much more rambling from my side, here's what i have so far. I know it's not finished yet, and it can't compare to what you talented people do here, but for my little mapper's heart, it was a journey of joy

What I myself am not that satisfied with yet: Overall color-scheme (especially the green of the land. I couldn't "make" a natural looking green) and rivers (it's hard to do satisfying river paths along a longer trajectory with Wonderdraft).

And as always with such threads, if you feel like it, let me know what you think and where you see room for improvement.

Thanks in advance!

[bkh1914]

I've only done a few regional maps and that was many years ago, so you can take this with a large grain of salt...
It looks like a good start.
But your river systems... They seen to take excessively long and indirect routes to the coast.
Of course, the terrain in the 'flat' areas might dictate those paths.
Showing hilly regions that force the rivers to flow the way they do would make them much more plausible.
Or reroute your rivers to give them shorter paths to the coast.
Oh, and that river in the upper right that flows from the mountains to the ocean through a range of hills -
there isn't an obvious cut/break in the hills where it flows through,
but there is a more logical path further south through a break in the hills.

[Eilathen]

Thank you for your input, bkh1914, i appreciate it. The rivers need work, there's no question. I wasn't groking the river-tool fully with that first iteration of the map. I have since worked on it and I think the flow is more natural now (as in not as straight as in the first map). Some of the points with flowing through the terrain you mention are certainly correct, I admit I placed a lot of rivers by feel, more than a 100% geological accuracy. The reasoning behind some of the more illogical paths might be something like "the map is more of a representation of terrain, not exact positioning". I know, a weak response. I could certainly look a lot closer at the paths the rivers take. But sometimes it's more aesthetics than reason that guides my hand.
But as said, I do appreciate people pointing out such things, so you have my thanks for your time and help

A version 2 of the map is on the way. I hope to upload it tomorrow or on Saturday.

[Eilathen]

So here's the improved version, i hope. I got a better understanding of the river-tool and they look much better, imho. I also added some lands here an there to round it out a bit more. The colors are still not all that good, but i guess this will stay that way for this map. At least i tried to make the transitions between the "climate-zones" a bit more non-linear (which is not that visible in the thumbnail, it's better in the full-view).

Tell me what you think!

[Varghal1]

Looks good so far. You should look on the Internet for wonderdraft themes. These are color-palettes that can be imported into the programm.