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Tips on Drawing a Map for My Novel



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Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:28 pm
Aedomir says...



Wow! Cool maps! I need to make my own...
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Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:48 pm
Sleeping Valor says...



lol.

Maps. I never thought I'd need one. On the other hand, I never thought I'd do much research either. Apparently I'm serious about my novel, since I'm putting all this work into doing it right.

1) Draw the continent. Actually, i go my sister to. It's pretty.

2) Pick a scale. Add that to the corner.

3) Look at some maps, both fictional and otherwise.

4) Go crazy. Try and keep in mind the environment you're using...if this is the tropics they might not have mountains smack in the middle of a major city.

5) You have a map. ^_^

Now I shall go follow my own advice and work on my map. ^_^

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Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:51 pm
JFW1415 says...



Here's the one I did the other day (well, last night and this morning,) on the country/state(?) that's been taking over my mind for the past few years. (GAH.) It has taken me about 10 hours so far, and it's still not finished (I need oceans, islands, a way to get them food, ect.) The towns/forests/mountains/etc. all have lame names because I stink at coming up with names. Oh, and my scanner got all messed up and cut off the bottom half of both of them (they don't match anymore!) and messed up the coloring in one...but oh, well! Here is an example for you, or anyone else who comes here to rip off our ideas. :lol:
Attachments
Top of Amora.png
The top of Amora...
Top of Amora.png (456.8 KiB) Viewed 310 times
  





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Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:54 pm
JFW1415 says...



It didn't let me post the bottom half, so here is the bottom of Amora! (Still don't know how this darned file attatchment works...)
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Bottom of Amora.png
The bottom of Amora.
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Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:04 pm
Monki says...



Those are AWESOME JFW! I'm no good at drawing so I really gave up.
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Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:45 pm
JFW1415 says...



Trust me; I STINK at drawing (my brother got all of the good drawing genes. :P) Try this; start drawing dots for cities and squiggly lines for rivers. Put cloud-shaped things for forests. For the border, hold the pencil in the wrong hand; I held it in my left. Then put it somewhere to start, look where you want it to end up, and bring it there while allowing your hand to shake and weave around. I NEVER thought I could draw a map, but when I did this, it worked and I liked it. Just give it a shot; it's loads of fun. :P
  





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Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:00 pm
Lynlyn says...



I might be reviving a dead topic, but I love making maps. I never even wrote the story I drew this map for (this one was definitely done during school, I can tell you that). This one in particular I scanned and pulled into photoshop, and apparently added some sort of texture matte. It looks cheesy now, but I guess it was cool at the time. My mom found the original the other day and tried to throw it away XD I got mad at her.
Attachments
map2.png
I had to rescale this, since the first one was like 15 MB (it was huge), so my handwriting is like, totally illegible.
map2.png (724.95 KiB) Viewed 205 times
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Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:37 pm
Monki says...



Woah! That's really cool! I'm no artiste. So... I kind of gave up on drawing maps.
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Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:54 pm
ProfessorRabbit says...



It doesn't have to look all pretty, Monki. You can just use it for a reference, and then, when you get published, they'll pay someone to draw it all fancy.

XD
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Fri Jul 18, 2008 3:46 pm
Swires says...



I actually create maps as a hobby - sad perhaps but I really enjoy inventing new worlds.
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