Worldbuilding Continent Map WIP

Just a quick WIP of a map that I have been making as part of world-building for a fantasy novel I am writing. With Photoshop CS2 now available for free from Adobe (non-commercial use as I understand it), I decided to convert my hand drawn map. I have tried before using opensource and freeware apps, but unfortunately they could either not handle the complexity (too slow) or I simply did not want to go through the steep learning curves involved. Thanks Adobe.

Other than trying to for a style I have liked (countless examples on DeviantArt), I also followed or used info kindly provided by:

~calthyechild fav.me/d49xu2j
~StarRaven fav.me/d3a1hra

Cheers

Lance

UPDATE: new version here: lancedart.deviantart.com/art/W…

UPDATE (18 Feb 2013):

Please see my journal regarding map commissions (lancedart.deviantart.com/journ…)


UPDATE (14 Feb 2013):

Hey... Got a lot of feedback from the cartographers guild (www.cartographersguild.com/) about this WIP map. I thought other map newbies may benefit from understanding what I have done "wrong". Some are suggestions, others are more serious items that need attention

1) Coastline a little bleak and too smooth in some areas - more jaggies needed and small islands would help
2) Rivers need lots of work. They are too "smooth" and some of them seem to go nowhere or start from nowhere or dont flow downhill properly.
3) Overlapping trees (brushes are great but when you overlap they need to be 'cleaned' else it just looks messy with 'see-through' overlapping)
4) Colours need more depth and shading (everyone likes the mountains, but now the rest needs the same treatment)

Helpful links I was referred to:

1) For helping with the trees/forests, it was suggested that I try the following effect: www.cartographersguild.com/tut… (effect is explained using mountains but should work with trees)

2) Fixing the rivers is explained here in detail and then some: www.cartographersguild.com/tut… I am already redoing the map with a height map just so that I can correctly place the rivers for the next iteration.

3) General quickstart guide to mapping: www.cartographersguild.com/tut…

4) Coastline help: www.cartographersguild.com/tut… I tried a variation on this idea... Also, creating this with clouds as the base also gives some nice shapes you can copy and paste as edges to existing maps - i.e. create a separate doc just to get some natural looking jagged coastlines and then copy the bits to replace your own... takes longer but gives you more control.

Cheers

Lance