Mapping Guide: Herwin Wielink's Overland Style

Introduction
Welcome to the April issue
of the Cartographer's Annual
2012.
This month we are
continuing our tradition of
presenting the work of
accomplished cartography
artists as Campaign
Cartographer 3 mapping
styles.
I'm particularly pleased to present
the first issue with work from
Herwin Wielink (known as The Work of Herwin Wielink
"Djekspek" on Deviantart). Herwin You can find a large
creates wonderful landscapes and amazing isometric dungeons (among other things), and we'll be selection of artwork samples
presenting both in the Annual 2012. This month we start out with a overland mapping style created by Herwin Wielink on his
website.
by Herwin. Follow along as we create a map with this style in CC3.

Starting the Map

Start out as usual, using the New
drawing wizard. Choose the map
type Overland Maps, map style
Annual Herwin Wielink and the
option Decide your own setting.
From the template wizard create a
map of the size you want. For this
example I will create a map of
1000x800 miles, enough to show a
good-sized region.
You can add any cartouches, a title
and a scale bar at this point, but I
prefer to do this at the end of the creation process, so I simply put in my size
values and click "Finish" at the first
opportunity, saving the map in a
convenient location.

Drawing the Landmass

Use the Default Landmass drawing tool
to draw your landmass and coast outline.
Tip: An interesting coastline is a first and
important step to an overall good-looking
map. Think of fjords, bays, river mouths,

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 islands, reefs, peninsulas, and capes, and what this geography might mean for
the people living in the region.

Mountain Ranges
Usually the next thing I draw are the major
mountain ranges of the area, as they
define the geography almost as much as
Hills Bitmap Fills
the coastline. The Terrain drawing tools
The Terrain drawing tools include one for mountain backgrounds,
also contain bitmap fills for
the hill symbols. You can which you can use to outline the general
use these to fill in larger area of your mountain ranges.
areas with hilly terrain. Then click the Mountains catalog button
and start placing symbols.
For this map I also added some Natural
Features at this point (for the volcanic area
in the east), and drew some Lava and Volcanic Rock terrain.

Rivers
Now I add rivers and lakes to the map, with
the mountain ranges giving me a good idea
where these should flow. The Rivers
drawing tools contain settings for lakes and a
variety of river widths.
Tip: Pay attention to the flow of your rivers.
One of the most common mistakes in fantasy
map-making is to create impossible river
flows.
Take a look at a real world atlas to get an
idea of how river systems look.

Terrain
Next up are the different terrain fills
available by clicking the Terrain
drawing tool button. Add forests, deserts,
swamps, grassland farmland areas, plains,
scrubs and so on to the map. Don't add
vegetation symbols to the map yet, we'll
do that later.
Tip: River valleys tend to be fertile areas, so
surround your rivers with green grassland or
– in civilized regions – farmland areas.

Structures and Roads

Let's add cities, towns, and special sites to
the map. You'll find the necessary symbols in

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the Structures catalog. Then connect at least the major settlements by
roads using the Road drawing tools.
Tip: If you are using the map for a game, take special care with the structures
symbols and roads. This is what will most interest your players – if they get to
see the map – and they will most likely base their plans on these signs of
civilization.

Forest Symbols
After I know where my cities and roads are, I
add the final touch to the forests. Open the
Vegetation symbol catalog and sprinkle
trees and copses around your map. Make
them denser in and around the forest terrain
areas you drew earlier, and go lightly on
other areas in your map.

Text Labels
It's time to add text labels to the map. The Herwin Wielink style comes with its
own font as the default (Tolkien), which a bit ornamental, but still very
readable. But you can use any true type font you have installed of course. It
usually pays to experiment a bit until you
find a font that really matches your map.
Tip: You can use the Text along a curve
command (from the Draw menu) to label
larger features like mountain ranges, coasts
and kingdoms. This often looks nicer than
using the standard straight text command.
First draw a smooth path or arc to define
where the text will go, then use Text along
a curve on this entity.

Final Touches
At this point I add a few finishing touches to the map, like some land or sea
contours (both available as a drawing tool). Go over your map and see which
areas look empty, and add some small features (hills, trees, villages, etc) to
liven them up.

Sheet Effects
Finally it's time to turn on sheet effects to
see the map in its full glory. You can tweak
the effects to your liking if some details
don't match your expectations.

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 The Final Map