Create A World With Me: The Map Part 1
Posted by: Candi in Create A World With Me, World Building Add commentsA little late but I had forgotten how much longer it takes (and how much harder on my hands) to draw several continents and not just a single shoreline with a few islands. I’ll try to plan better next week.
Here it is. As you can see right now I have only the coast lines and some major landmarks; large forests, rivers, mountain ranges, that kind of thing. This is always where I start. These kinds of landmarks help clue me in as to where to place borders of kingdoms or cities or what-have-you.
When I am drawing continents I put my pencil on the page and let it wiggle-giggle its way into shorelines. I did purposely avoid the side by side continents thing as I’ve been watching Game of Thrones lately and that map is on my mind and I was trying to avoid looking anything like it.
My husband, at this point, would be asking me about the scale. Let me tell you that that question is the bane of my existence. Or maybe just one of the banes. I have the hardest time with distances and judging them. My grandfather taught me to look at my hand for an inch and five inch measurement help (the last knuckle of your thumb for the first and the width of your palm and the length of your thumb when held out in an ‘L’ shape for the second) but that doesn’t help me when dealing with landmasses. I do however sort think of the round continent that is sorta in the middle as being Australia sized. We’ll see if that holds up as I add more details.
The equator goes through the southern continent and the north part of that land mass you see jutting on to the page. The northern part of the north continent is tundra-y in my mind. These are mostly just guides, things to think about. I may twist things a bit as I go to fit my vision of the world. The map is never meant to restrict my ideas, just give me a place to ground them.
Speaking of that southern landmass jutting in off the edge of the page, didn’t I say I wanted to show all of the continents? Didn’t I say I didn’t want to leave anything hanging off the page? Well, yes I did. When I drew the first three continents and the islands, the lower right corner kept mocking me with its emptiness. “There’s something here. There’s something here,” it said. So I drew what was there. I do have a few story ideas floating around in my noggin about an untamed lands and colonies. Now I have a place I can put them.
Next up: Naming things and putting in borders.
May 9th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Don’t forget to think about how that water and prevailing winds will affect climate and what that does for local societies, and transport between continents. You might think about the scale of the map. Is this one side of the world, or most of the landmass?
May 10th, 2011 at 6:22 am
Ahhh! You and The Hubby think too much alike. He teases me for making my rivers run inland in a map I made in high school.