Quote Originally Posted by nmsheldon View Post
The main purpose of this map was simply practice. I've also discovered in the process of making this map that having a real purpose for the map is more important than I thought it would be. My future practice maps must be more specific.
I like to think of a map as "An abstraction of a place fixed in a specific medium for a specific client's specific purpose." The hardest part of the art of cartography (OK, art in general) is the abstraction. You need to figure out which things to put on the map and which things to leave out, which goes back directly to what you're supposed to be showing. If your map is "The Lake Winnebago Basin", then that's a somewhat different set of things to show than "Federal Lands in the Lake Winnebago Basin", "Interstate Accessibility in the Lake Winnebago Basin", or "Farming Communities of the Lake Winnebago Basin" would be. It's the same underlying data set, but you get to decide which parts are more important for the client's needs.

The best part of a practice map is that you can start from the base set of stuff that you have here and then iterate on showing different kinds of things with the same data. Semi-mechanical translations of DEMs and land cover maps will end up looking very different than a more artistic slant on the same data that might end up. For example, a "Natural Attractions" map might shows the interesting natural features of the area as small insets. Little insets of the kinds and abundance of fish might work for a "fishing guide" (along with the Evil Towers of the Fish and Game service). The purpose of the map will guide you on what needs to go in there!

Tom Patterson has a lovely site at https://www.shadedrelief.com/ that shows a lot of kinds of maps that he did for the USGS.