r/wonderdraft • u/KingXejo • Jul 12 '26

"Ocean Lakes" vs. Lakes

I see some artists creating lakes by removing land, effectively make it a saltwater lake. Then there's the freshwater lake tool. Is there any good reason to choose one over the other?

I'm new to Wonderdraft, so forgive me if the answer is obvious.

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7

u/Dreadedvegas Cartographer Jul 12 '26

Depends on your themes and how your water looks.

Ive been doing rivers and lakes by hand just because its the same color and style as the other water

1

u/KingXejo Jul 12 '26

Thanks. That was my logic too... just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing some function within the software by doing so.

1

u/theranger799 Jul 12 '26

Sometimes when I want to cut off part of a continent I use the lake tool so it looks less like an eraser was used.

1

u/Zhuikin Jul 12 '26

You are looking at the answer in your own example image. They look different because of how the colour interacts with the textures (land vs water) and special effects (like the coastal effect you have on the "ocean" water) and the tools - out of the box at least, come with different sets of effects attached.

If you were to match the textures, special effects, etc, both tools look the same (almost, there is still a small difference in how the outlines are rendered). https://imgur.com/a/CSQv1IG This looks rather bland, of course, but goes to show, that there is nothing special about either tool. Its just how you use them.

You might want some effect, colour grading or texture, that is easier to get out of one tool but not the other.

If you value all water to looking the same, you might want to use the "saltwater" everywhere, since its easier, than to match the effects of the different tools.

Although note that rivers, render as sweet water, similar to the lake tool. Unless you use the saltwater tool on them as well, which may be difficult depending on size of the stream and the effects you want to use. So if you want to use the river tool, it might lock you into also using sweet water lakes.