I've noticed a few people have asked for talented map artists. I'm not particularly talented, but that gave me the idea to see what kinds of ways we might draw maps, and to share them.
As for me, for mountains, I tend to show them as contour lines. Each contour line would represent a certain amount of height. If the lines are closer together, then it is steeper. If the lines touch, then there is a cliff there, with the higher value being at the top and the lowest value being at the bottom essentially creating a cliff. I don't show individual trees on most maps, but color an area green to represent a space of more than 10 trees on smaller maps like area maps and a space to show more than 100 trees on larger represented areas such as whole continents. It's not particularly necessary to show fewer trees than that unless they are important because of being a specific place.
I show rivers just cutting down mountain terrain lines and going towards the larger body of water such as an ocean.
villages tend to be reasonably sized dots so we can find them with a number on them so I can write notes about the village on another paper if the village is important.
If this pic works, here is an example.<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_08/57a8c03f8238b_Sampleislandwith10villagesand2mountains.Onewithtwopeaks.png.e64e65bd83d76a0cfc6ccc3b8bbb7929.png" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="28381" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_08/57a8c03f8238b_Sampleislandwith10villagesand2mountains.Onewithtwopeaks.png.e64e65bd83d76a0cfc6ccc3b8bbb7929.png" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
As for me, for mountains, I tend to show them as contour lines. Each contour line would represent a certain amount of height. If the lines are closer together, then it is steeper. If the lines touch, then there is a cliff there, with the higher value being at the top and the lowest value being at the bottom essentially creating a cliff. I don't show individual trees on most maps, but color an area green to represent a space of more than 10 trees on smaller maps like area maps and a space to show more than 100 trees on larger represented areas such as whole continents. It's not particularly necessary to show fewer trees than that unless they are important because of being a specific place.
I show rivers just cutting down mountain terrain lines and going towards the larger body of water such as an ocean.
villages tend to be reasonably sized dots so we can find them with a number on them so I can write notes about the village on another paper if the village is important.
If this pic works, here is an example.<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_08/57a8c03f8238b_Sampleislandwith10villagesand2mountains.Onewithtwopeaks.png.e64e65bd83d76a0cfc6ccc3b8bbb7929.png" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="28381" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_08/57a8c03f8238b_Sampleislandwith10villagesand2mountains.Onewithtwopeaks.png.e64e65bd83d76a0cfc6ccc3b8bbb7929.png" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>
I am getting a drawing tablet soon though so hopefully then I can draw all the details on the map myself, without brushes.
