My first attempt of a map

[Larthis]

I checked out one of the guild's tutorials for GIMP and, well, I think this can be addressed as my first try.

I'm still not sure if this is an island or a continent, and so far I still don't have any idea of towns, roads or people or creatures that live on it. The same goes for the names.

At least, I want to know what can I do to make it better (since I still don't feel it's "right"), and I don't know if anyone can tell me how can I determine if it's a continent or an island in this case. I really don't know if there is any rule about this.

Thank you.

[RobA]

It is a nice first try. The biggest issue is the size. Such a small map will be very difficult to label, etc.

Also, because of the small size, it ends up looking a bit fuzzy.

The tutorial was designed to give regional styles more than global styles. On first glance I would say island, mainly because of the mountain size.

-Rob A>

[Laime]

I would say it's an island too, mainly because the mountains are so uniform. On a continent they'd be from different sourses and probably not so squarely in the middle... I do hope it's not the original map size though ^_^

As for making it better - I'd look into mountains. They seem a bit artificial to me, maybe try making a smoother transition? Masking with a soft brush might help. The fuzziness that was already mentioned would probably look better after some cleaning up.

You don't really need names at this stage either, but it would help testing out different styles. You could use real-world names for that, just to see how that looks. Towns and cities usually grow on rivers/trade routes, so try to imagine what would actually need transporting in this case. Do the mountains have some valuable resourses? Does the island trade with someone to the south? Is there maybe some natural/cultural/magical feature that attracts people? (if one of the mountains looks like the face of a god people are going to flock to that place for pilligrimage or settlement) On another hand, is there some particularly dangerous spot? Making up stories like that usually helps.

[Coyotemax]

My first thought when I saw the map is "That almost looks like the island for Lost"

good start!

[PlayinitCool]

My first thought when I saw the map is "That almost looks like the island for Lost"

good start!

I was thinking the same thing! LOST! I'm diggin it though... keep it up =)