For the Love of Maps
The journey of Map Effects began a little bit by accident, but it came out of my love of fantasy stories like The Lord of the Rings, The Name of the Wind, Mistborn, and pouring over the maps in those books. Art and drawing had always been an important part of my life, so it wasn’t long before I took up a pen and started to create maps of my own.
The First Post
Nothing serious came of this little hobby until June 28, 2018, when I shared a picture of a map I just doodled to my personal Instagram page. There was nothing particularly special about it, and looking back at it now I can see a host of things I would do differently. But, the thing that made this moment significant was the overwhelming response I received.
I’d posted different pieces of art to Instagram before and would usually get crickets. When I posted this simple map though, I discovered that there is just something about maps that resonates with people. Even people who aren’t artistic or particularly immersed in the fantasy genre will often stop and get sucked into looking at a map hanging on the wall. Maps stir something in us that longs for adventure, discovery, and to learn more about the stories they tell.
Tutorials & Equipping Other Cartographers
Motivated by the response, I began to share more maps and I quickly discovered a robust community of other cartographers who were creating amazing maps that were far superior to the ones I was accustomed to seeing in books. At the same time, there were also many people in a similar place to me who wanted to learn to create maps of their own for the stories they were writing.
Even though there were and are people more skilled than myself, I decided to try and share what I knew in order to help my peers. It was then that I discovered something else, and it’s that I love teaching and seeing what they create as much as I enjoy creating maps.
I began to share tutorials on my Instagram page regularly and the positive response was amazing. I would often receive messages thanking me for showing them how to draw a particular feature on their map and some people even shared they decided to take up drawing for the first time because of one of my tutorials.
The Pivot to Create Map Effects
I began to see how important maps were in creating an immersive experience for those who campaigned in these worlds with their friends, or who used a map to drive the narrative of the book they were writing. I loved the way maps were bringing people together while creating friendships as they shared stories together.
Up to this point I had been posting everything to my personal Instagram page, and even created a website under my own name as a central location where people could find my tutorials. Eventually though, I wanted it to be less about me and more about creating a place where people could go and learn and be equipped on their quest to becoming a fantasy cartographer. It was then that I decided to pivot and began working under the name Map Effects with the desire to be the place you could go and get all your supplies, or “effects”, for your map making journey.
In addition to tutorials, I began to create different tools and brushes for map makers like myself who choose to draw with digital tools like an Ipad or a drawing tablet. I was often asked what brushes I was using for my tutorials in order to get more natural looking lines and textures in opposed to the sterile, “plastic” look that is a common shortcoming of the digital medium. In order to provide another helpful resource that I could just hand to anyone, I created a collection of my 15 favorite brushes that I had used on a daily basis in tutorials as well as several professional commissions. The Modern Map Maker Essential Brushes was very well received and still one of my best selling products today.
Map Effects has continued to flourish and grow to include map builders for classic Fantasy Maps, as well as City Maps, and many more tutorials and blogs to equip writers, game masters, and artists to map their stories. There is much more to come and I am excited to continue this journey with you. It’s a privilege to be part of this map making community.
Happy Mapping!
- Josh Stolarz