MIP (Maps in Progress): Aundes Aura May 2

Quite a while ago I posted the basic map for Aundes Aura with just the major villages, cities, forests and such. I never had much reason to add the other things, but eventually I will have to, as I've decided it will be easier to work on the map myself for publication than to pay someone else to do it, mainly because each time a new book in the series is written the map will need to change. But even more, if I can do this on my own, that's less cash I have to pay out to get my books looking good and legit.

Here is the original map again.

 

Here's the map I'm working on with the free downloadable program "Gimp", which is similar to photoshop. It's nowhere near finished, but this should give you a good indication of how it will look in the end.


When I get back to this, I'll be adding the outline, maybe some more mountains, lots of trees, a compass, maybe water effects and possible sea names, as well as more villages that may never even be seen in the book. I might also see if I can darken the mountains (which, by the way, were generously offered as an image from someone over at the Cartograpgers' Guild).

If you're interested in working on your own maps as well, head over to the Cartographers' Guild website, sign up and look for some Gimp tutorials, but if you like what you see above, then you know what you can do without any tutorials -- even without any previous image manipulation experience.

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4 comments:

Angela Ackerman said...

Oh cool. I will definitely check this program out. With books that involve a lot of travel, I find making maps really help me visualize.

Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse

Botanist said...

I find maps invaluable too. Mine are little more than rough sketches to help me keep my story straight. I've never thought about anything for publication...if only :D

Ryan Sullivan said...

I just figured ... I mean, I was originally always going to hire an artist to do it for me, but I thought I may as well try this. I love working with maps anyway. But I never thought it would come out the way it is now, and I'm so glad I tried it out because the results are fantastic!

I'm maybe halfway done now, and I can't wait to show you guys what's come out of it. And afterwards, I think I'd love to do some fantasy map-making tutorials.

WritingNut said...

This is a very cool idea... I'm constantly googling places for my setting, and this tool sounds neat :)

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Welcome to The Dark Corner of the Mind. My name is Ryan Sullivan and my aim with this blog is to help others with their own writing, as well as to make note of some of my own writing endeavours.

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