Thoughts on my Map?

[sgbii]

The rivers and the rain shadow look a lot better.

Personally I kind of liked it better wtih the gap in the mountains and have something similar in my own map. I think it's pretty easy to assume that tectonic plates and mountains work differently or might have been made by magic or a slain army of giants or something. It's just the rivers and rain shadow that made me feel dumb when I made mine, since water is still, y'know, water.

On another note, there's a bit of a boxiness to it. A lot of maps have that quality. It happens because you're working on a rectangular screen or a sheet of paper. My map is different than yours of course, but I had to rotate it like 200 degrees and flip it to get rid of the boxiness. Then I had to redo a lot of things to adjust to the new north and south. You've got islands, so you'd probably want to tinker with flipping/rotating/adjust each island separately. I wouldn't consider it a must, though, the way I would have with the other things I mentioned. It all depends on how much you want to put into it.

I didn't remove the gap entirely, I tried to fill it in with some smaller mountains to make it more of a wide pass, as opposed to a monstrous field. As for the boxiness, I must be blind to it because I'm not sure how you mean. Rotating everything 200 degrees would essentially be flipping everything over

 

[Prince of Spires]

A few things stand out for me. The first is that the Northern island has only 1 river. Not impossible of course, but it looks very strange to me that the right-most rivers on that island flow all the way to the left bottom, instead of simply flowing to the sea close by.

The lake on the northern island is interesting. It's not impossible, but there are few lakes on earth which have no rivers leading into and out of it. It would probably end up being a salt water lake, since water leaves it via evaporation.

The rivers on the middle island have a bit the same issue as on the northern island, in that for some reason on the right hand side they all flow to the central river instead of to the sea which is close by. It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely that in the middle of that part, a river comes within miles of the sea, but then still flows 3-4000 miles to the very southern tip of the island. That would require some very steep cliffs in that part of the island (while also needing the rest of the island to be pretty much flat all the way.

Same with the rivers on the very north of that island of course. For them to flow all the way south requires the whole island to basically be slanting downwards. Remember, water can only run down. That means that the northern tip of your 5000 mile island needs to be a lot higher than the souther part. Not impossible, just very strange. I would believe it if it was a relatively small island, but now you basically have the northern tip of Canada by the ocean needing to be higher than the gulf of mexico, and it needing to be higher all the way.

Small detail is that a few rivers get smaller as you follow their course, probably because of drawing them the wrong way round.

On the sourthern island, I think the rain shadow would be less pronounced. It's relatively narrow, winds would blow around it often enough to have it be relatively wet. At least compared to the middle island.

 

[sgbii]

A few things stand out for me. The first is that the Northern island has only 1 river. Not impossible of course, but it looks very strange to me that the right-most rivers on that island flow all the way to the left bottom, instead of simply flowing to the sea close by.

The lake on the northern island is interesting. It's not impossible, but there are few lakes on earth which have no rivers leading into and out of it. It would probably end up being a salt water lake, since water leaves it via evaporation.

The rivers on the middle island have a bit the same issue as on the northern island, in that for some reason on the right hand side they all flow to the central river instead of to the sea which is close by. It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely that in the middle of that part, a river comes within miles of the sea, but then still flows 3-4000 miles to the very southern tip of the island. That would require some very steep cliffs in that part of the island (while also needing the rest of the island to be pretty much flat all the way.

Same with the rivers on the very north of that island of course. For them to flow all the way south requires the whole island to basically be slanting downwards. Remember, water can only run down. That means that the northern tip of your 5000 mile island needs to be a lot higher than the souther part. Not impossible, just very strange. I would believe it if it was a relatively small island, but now you basically have the northern tip of Canada by the ocean needing to be higher than the gulf of mexico, and it needing to be higher all the way.

Small detail is that a few rivers get smaller as you follow their course, probably because of drawing them the wrong way round.

On the sourthern island, I think the rain shadow would be less pronounced. It's relatively narrow, winds would blow around it often enough to have it be relatively wet. At least compared to the middle island.

You make some solid points. So you think I should go smaller and frequent instead of long and connected. And vary the direction they flow and spill into the ocean. You're right about the entire middle continent being sloped, that wouldn't make much sense haha. As for the southern island, I do like the idea of the whole thing being a rainforest jungle so that sounds like a solid suggestion as well. Thanks

 

[sgbii]

I think some of my problem is my artwork doesn't quite fit the scale so it's throwing me off too. It's busy all over. I'll work on it more this weekend and see what I come up with

 

[pmmg]

What are you building your map in?

 

[sgbii]

What are you building your map in?

Other World Mapper.

 

[pmmg]

I used Inkarnate for mine. Its pretty easy to use. If this one is limiting you, you might give that one a try.

 

[sgbii]

I used Inkarnate for mine. Its pretty easy to use. If this one is limiting you, you might give that one a try.

Nah it's not the software, it's just my mistakes. I've scaled down my mountains and trees to make it look more like a 4000 mile continent instead of a 400 mile continent and its really helping pull it together.

 

[ThinkerX]

I included longitudinal and latitudinal lines on my maps, angled to prevent distortion at higher latitudes. My maps were made in MS Paint.

https://flic.kr/p/2ohVLY2

 

[pmmg]

Not saying your map is not good, in fact, it is very understandable, but I have never seen one like that in the pages of a book.

 

[ThinkerX]

Not saying your map is not good, in fact, it is very understandable, but I have never seen one like that in the pages of a book.

The shape is to account for longitudinal distortion, something not accounted for in almost all fantasy world maps. (The OP's map would look different were that taken into account.)

A couple of the reviewers commented that they liked the maps. The print versions, alas, are in black and white and shades of gray.

The ones that give me fits are for 'World 2,' which has an unusual geography that makes proper mapping difficult. It took me extensive calculations to come up with something even semi-workable.

Want me to try to make a version like that for your world?

 

[pmmg]

Yeah....there is a whole science to making a map in the right proportions. I think reader will accept whatever is presented.

In the OP'ers map. I might ask if the top is the pole, in which case, the land masses should be wrapped around it.

How does the map look in black and white? Does it look busy?

 

[ThinkerX]

Yeah....there is a whole science to making a map in the right proportions. I think reader will accept whatever is presented.

In the OP'ers map. I might ask if the top is the pole, in which case, the land masses should be wrapped around it.

How does the map look in black and white? Does it look busy?

The terrain features are still clearly discernable in the print versions - they are just literally different shades of gray. However, I wanted color, dang it!

As to the OP's map...with longitudinal correction...the bottom map would probably span 30-40 degrees of latitude. The northern continent...that would be more like 50 or 60 degrees of latitude *IF* he opted to keep the distances the same. If the northern continent does span only 30-40 degrees of latitude, it will be a *lot* smaller than it appears in these versions.

I might be willing to attempt a 'corrected' version of your map.

 

[sgbii]

I'm up for any advice, interpretation XYZ.

Now this is by no means finished but here are some of the revisions I've made so far. I scaled all the lands down to what I would think is more believable perspective wise, made the rivers (hopefully) more believable and added hills as individual items as opposed to colored in areas.

Updates

 

[sgbii]

I'm up for any advice, interpretation XYZ.

Now this is by no means finished but here are some of the revisions I've made so far. I scaled all the lands down to what I would think is more believable perspective wise, made the rivers (hopefully) more believable and added hills as individual items as opposed to colored in areas.

Updates

"Final" Map

 

[ThinkerX]

"Final" Map

Looks pretty good. Do remember that longitudinal distortion will make the northern continent 'wrap' much further around that part of the globe.

For example, if a degree of longitude at the bottom of the map = 60 miles (circumference of 21600 miles), then at latitude +45, one degree of latitude = 30 miles (circumference of 10,800 miles. If I understand the scale correctly (the numbers are a bit hard for me to read) then the upper reaches of the upper continent 'wrap' around about a third of the planet.

 

[TheKillerBs]

I'm up for any advice, interpretation XYZ.

Now this is by no means finished but here are some of the revisions I've made so far. I scaled all the lands down to what I would think is more believable perspective wise, made the rivers (hopefully) more believable and added hills as individual items as opposed to colored in areas.

Updates

Why did you change the mountain chain? It makes zero sense now

 

[pmmg]

It made sense before, but now it doesn’t?

 

[TheKillerBs]

The top mountain chain did, yes

 

[sgbii]

I tried to get rid of some of the perpendicularness by starting them on the other side of the island like a curving continuation of the lower ones.