This section will cover the properties of the layout of your map. You will learn where and how to place landforms, and what to do about balancing and toning your map. I will discuss each major landform in turn, and then provide you with a short list of hints on using those landforms to their utmost potential.
The concept of balance
Anyone with a bit of knowledge of art should know about balance. Balance is keeping your picture proportional to the opposite side, with no place being 'weightier' than another. Balance in maps is a thing of true delicacy: you have to have places where you draw absolutely nothing, and yet you need places where the concentration of image is the greatest. Avoiding these two things can be the downfall of an otherwise truly wonderful map.
All maps need open, flat places and dark, clustered images. To avoid the clumping of each I recommend long mountain chains and rivers and many small clusters of images as though they were netted together into one big mesh. Try to spread that mesh so that the holes on it are of uniform size and shading. Presto-chango, you have balance.
Overview
Overview is where the map is seen from: usually from high above. Why take overview seriously? Because with overview comes distance, size, and shading.
The distance part of it is fairly obvious. The higher up you seem to be, the greater the distance it is between any two given points on the paper. Keep this in mind when deciding how big your land is. If you want to show 18,000 miles worth of land on one paper, you're going to have to draw very small. If you want to show one mile, however, your images should be larger.
Shading is a tough part of your map. You have to decide where the light source of the map is, and stick to it. You can't have mountains shaded on different sides right next to each other: it doesn't look good.
Dead space
Ah, dead space, the scourge of cartographers everywhere. What to do with dead space? Usually you would want to leave it alone. Sometimes, though, you need something there to achieve balance. I reccommend a compass rose or a distance guage to fill in some of the larger spaces. Vary the types of images you use to the need for balance; you do not want to upset the balance in just the opposite way by filling in too much!
The main types of land images
There you have it. You now know how to make all of the necessary images that form a map. If there is a special image that you did not find here that you need, just make it up. Be sure that other people can tell what it is, though.