THE LEARNING ARCHIVES
Whether you're creating maps for a novel, rpg, or just for fun, this collection of tutorials and map tips will help you create more professional and believable maps for your story!
How to Draw An Isometric Fortress
If you want an easy way to draw three-dimensional buildings and structures on your fantasy map, then using an isometric perspective is the method for you! The reason this technique is so achievable is that it really comes down to following a grid. As long as you do that, then you can draw all kinds of things like buildings, towers, or something as complex as a city.
Population Size for a Village, Town, or City - What’s Believable?
What is a realistic population size for a medieval or ancient fantasy setting? Should a city have a couple of million people? How about 500,000 or 20,000? Let’s delve in and give you some simple guidelines as well as a cheat sheet you can easily reference as you are writing your story and drawing your map!
How to Draw a Castle Icon
Drawing castles on your map is a great way to add a sense of history and culture to the world you’ve created. Not only can they represent a seat of power in a region, but they are also a hub for trade and politics. Best of all they are pretty easy to draw with some simple shapes that can be shifted around to provide endless variety and give different cultures a unique look.
How to Draw a City Block
City maps can be a lot of fun to draw, but they come with their own unique set of challenges. It’s one thing to draw individual buildings that are completely isolated from one another; it’s another to draw a city block where everything is more mashed together. In this tutorial I’ll walk you through my process to sketching, inking, and finally coloring a city block so you can add them to your own fantasy maps!
How to Draw an Isometric Castle
Learning to draw a castle for your maps is a great way to begin telling the story of the world you’re creating. Not only do castles act as a seat of political power for a lord in the region, but they are also an important site of trade and commerce. I have broken down the steps I take when drawing a castle so you can begin drawing them on your maps.