Map reference

Your vital visual guide to Westeros and beyond

Not sure how to make your coastlines more interesting? Here is a little cheat sheet to give you some ideas on how you can make your fantasy maps more dynamic! #rpg #dungeonsanddragons #fantasy #pathfinder

I’ve realised I have a particular workflow for drawing coastlines in my maps. Here’s a quick walkthrough. Each step is done on a new layer in photoshop, and I use a 5px hard round brush in each case with size set to pressure. However, all of these steps can be done in Gimp – or … Continue reading "How to Draw Coastlines on a Fantasy Map"

Cartography brushes for Fantasy.

Photoshop brushes are serious time-savers. The correct brush can instantly enhance a plain-looking photo. The right brush can highlight a specific area in an image without putting too many touch-ups. The great thing about Photoshop brushes is that they are…

Creating city maps can be hard. Here's four quick steps I use to design believable town and city maps.

There are lots of ways to indicate water on a map with lines – and many more with tone or colour. Here are four I regularly use. 1. Broken Waves After you have your coastline, use short, gently curving lines along the shore. The lines should follow the shapes of the coast, but smooth out … Continue reading "4 Coast Styles for Mapmaking"

Rivers do not flow from coastline to coastline because everything would be at sea level. In essence, it would be a canal rather than a river. This is a common mistake on many fantasy maps but it's easy to fix once you are aware of it. Click here to view my full tutorial on how to draw rivers on your maps! #mapeffects #map #fantasy #rpg #worldbuilding #fantasymap #geography