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 a Cave Entrance
Tutorial Josh Stolarz Tutorial Josh Stolarz

How to Draw a Cave Entrance

If you want to create interesting maps for your RPG adventure, including points of interest to encourage exploration is key. Discovering a cave entrance in the face of a cliff lends to a number of storytelling possibilities and encounters. But, how exactly do you draw something like that, especially if you’re using a top-down perspective? It’s certainly a challenge, but I want to walk you through the process and share some tricks so you can draw a cave like this on your next map. Let’s start mapping!

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How to Draw a Banner
Tutorial Josh Stolarz Tutorial Josh Stolarz

How to Draw a Banner

Learning how to draw banners is an essential part of creating an immersive fantasy map. You can use them to share the name of the region you’re mapping, or for individual cities, locations, or territories.
However, learning to draw banners can feel overwhelming if you’re not confident in your artistic skills. In this tutorial I want to walk you through how to draw a relatively simple banner anyone can draw, that still looks interesting and professional.

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How to Draw a Dungeon Toilet
Tutorial Josh Stolarz Tutorial Josh Stolarz

How to Draw a Dungeon Toilet

What do you do when you’re raiding an orc-infested dungeon and nature calls? Well, if the wizard who designed the dungeon wants to create a sanitary work environment, then hopefully he installed some toilets. If you want to be prepared, then in this tutorial I’ll walk you through every step to making a throne worthy of any goblin king.

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How to Draw Dungeon Walls - Rough Stone
Tutorial Josh Stolarz Tutorial Josh Stolarz

How to Draw Dungeon Walls - Rough Stone

There are so many ways to draw walls for a dungeon map, but if you want something that looks like it’s hand-made from uncut stone then this is the technique for you. This is great if you’re creating a map of a tomb or a cultic site for your next rpg campaign; anywhere you want a setting that feels ancient and lost to time. In this tutorial, I’ll break down the process so you can draw rough stone walls on your next dungeon map. Let’s get mapping!

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