This build on what we have already learned in the tutorial on how to
draw a lake. First we start with a blank map and
change the colours of the grid and background to something that looks a
bit more like a sea.
Then we start drawing our island. You can use different tools depending
on what type of island you want. For a rugged sealine the various fractal
styles is a good choise. If you want a more rounded line then polycurve is
probably better. For this island I think I'm going to use the fractal
polyline. 
Just
draw a shape you like and don't forget to close it either by using
right-click and select "Create Closed Figure".
Now we have a rather nice island shape.
Then we use the linestyle just like we did on the lake, but ofcourse we make sure the line is faceing outwards. If we have made too narrow passages of water between the land the linestyle may cover a piece of land.
Some like it that way and say that it may be used to represent swampy
areas close to water, but your mileage may differ so let's do something
about it. First we set the fill colour to none. This isn't really
necessary, but it shows the process better. Then we use the array button
and use it to create a copy of the island shape placed at the same place
as the original. This is done by setting the count to 2 and the spacing to
0 and select "Every".
This will place an exact copy of the island directly on top of the
original. Now all we have to do is change the fill colour to a suitable
island colour like green (if you want a green island) and no exterior
line. Then use the Send backwards button (
)
to put the filling behind the outline.
Now we have a nice island, but we also may have a problem. The grid is drawn behind the island. We could ofcourse go to File -> Properies (Alt+Enter) to bring up the Map Settings and under the "Grid & Snap" tab select to draw the grid on top of everything.
While this may work sometimes it often doesn't look very good.
But if we instead use the "Current Grid Position" and set it to a low value it means the grid will be drawn on top of the island, but still below the other objects and we get a much nicer view.
