Map of my story world

Bigger scale: http://puu.sh/t8EtE/76060d48a4.png

So, for my story, I am trying to devise a reasonably realistic map of the main continent it all takes place on. I went in, detailed it, planned deserts, swamps and jungles in the south, a massive and thick forest in the mid range, and some rather dramatic plateau's for the icy north. Then after that I planned to populate it with cities and towns that will be important to the story. The problem is, I am making this on a continental scale. So I have no idea how to make jungle trees, no idea how to define a swamp as even basic water ways would have to be massive to be seen on this scale, along with everything else.

I can use a symbolic images to label towns, but I have no other ideas on how to decorate my map. Any suggestions, and maybe examples would be nice.

Also, since I am not the greatest in geography, if someone out there is good with maps, please tell me how realistic this is, and what I should look into to make it more reasonable.

Thank you, anyone who replies to this in advance.

8D Maps! Cartography is my secret love.

I'll point you first to the Cartographers Guild for an endless source of tutorials and inspiration.

What program are you using? The most important thing I learned about making maps is to make each major aspect on a different layer during the planning phase, then you can edit and morph them as you add more stuff and come up with new ideas.

Maps are rarely realistic, it's impractical to make them so, so you can have much more fun being creative with it. For example, a really tall mountain range might be significant in its height, but look meagre on a map that views it only from the top down. A lot of modern cartography is about stretching and shrinking various aspects to make a realistic representation that better reflects the nature of the landscape rather than having a real image that gives a false representation. Rivers also tend to be enlarged, even though they're tiny on the landscape their impact is much more noteworthy than the vast deserts surrounding them which can be shrunk to accommodate.

For trees and forests you can use duplicated tiny images (which usually look weird), or just use speckles. You can use the texture, shade and density to represent how thick or tall the forest is.

For swamps I usually work with the basic layer, and add a murky-coloured lumpy texture over it, then blend it into its nearby landmarks. The great thing about swamps is that they're usually surrounded by wetlands, near beaches or broad rivers, so even if the swamp itself is too small to define it can usually be exaggerated by its nearby landmarks.

Here are some tutorials on how to create depth and detail on a basic map, which can be transferred over onto one that's more realistic.

For things like icy regions, try to work with the earth. The cold on your map cuts straight across the top. I imagine it would probably warmer on the inside of that curve and colder along the outside. The air is colder higher up, so the icy climate would probably bend and follow the mountain range further down.

Your continent also has a lot of beach. In many places forests break into the sea area, or reach the edge of cliffs, reefs, that kind of thing.

Hope this helps. If you want any more feedback from me tag me, I'll be happy to help =]

@Tenyo Currently using Clip Studio Paint. I usually use Clip for line work pieces, and Krita for more flowing pictures like this one. But map making requires a few more exacts and a bit fewer flows then most of my more painted works.

As for layers, I have 5 folders worth of layers, each one min 10.

In order from bottom to top, first for texturing, second for straight line work, third for land and sea coloring, fourth for land mass objects, fifth for text and special measures such as the compass rose.

I kept the shore line clear because I plan to add a few harbors, and I am still contemplating where a few of them are going to be placed, and how I will depict them.

Beyond those questions, thanks for the advice, and massively so for those links.