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How to draw, shade, and colour a mountain range
I’ve written up a couple of tutorials before on drawing isometric mountain ranges for fantasy maps – but never more than the pen and ink stage. I’ve had a few requests for how to take this to the next...
View ArticleHow to draw a horizontal mountain range
This is definitely the week of mountain ranges. I had a question on reddit on how to draw mountain ranges that go east-to-west rather than north to south. Here’s a very quick tutorial on the...
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After Earth – Mapping the Galaxy
It’s always fun to try something new, but in this case the something new was a sci fi galaxy map, and the client was Overbrook Entertainment, and Will Smith. The brief was to create 4 maps for the...
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How to draw a map
This tutorial covers my entire process for how to draw a map – from start to finish. In this case I’m illustrating a simple town map, but the steps apply to any map. Tools and Software I used Photoshop...
View ArticleHow to draw an isometric house
I’ve been asked a few times recently about how I draw isometric buildings. Here’s the run down. 1. Floorplan Use some rectangles to get an interesting floor plan. Don’t go crazy, but don’t just do a...
View ArticleHow to use Hatching to Show Elevation on a Map
None of my dungeons are flat. I always have things for people to jump off or fall into. But if you’re laying out a top down view it can be tricky to show elevation on a map. A simple method is to use...
View ArticleHow to Draw a Chasm on a Map
In a plan view map, elevation is hard. This is especially true for line art maps, where you don’t have the advantage of shading to indicate height and depth using the cast shadows. Here’s three...
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How to Draw Roads on a Map (with the Stroke Tool)
Parallel lines are a good way to indicate a road on a map. But drawing parallel lines is next to impossible. Photoshop to the rescue – there’s a simple trick to get this effect quickly and easily. 1....
View Article4 Coast Styles for Mapmaking
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...
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How To Map A Large Canyon
Vast canyons are awe inspiring. They thwart quests, halt armies, and tell the tale of vast cataclysms from times past. In this quick tutorial I’ll outline how to draw a canyon on your fantasy map. In...
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