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 Castle Icon
Tutorial Josh Stolarz Tutorial Josh Stolarz

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.

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How to Create and Shade City Walls
Map Tip Josh Stolarz Map Tip Josh Stolarz

How to Create and Shade City Walls

In this tutorial, I will show you how to build fortifications for your settlement using the brushes included in the City Map Builder. And even if you don’t own that particular tool, there will be plenty to glean and apply to your own hand-drawn city maps!

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How to Create a Hill Shrine with the City Map Builder
Map Tip Josh Stolarz Map Tip Josh Stolarz

How to Create a Hill Shrine with the City Map Builder

How can you use the grassland brushes included in the City Map Builder to create a Hill Shrine? Here you’ll find some tips on using the grassland brushes so you can begin using them to create interesting settings of your own on your fantasy maps.
And if you’re drawing everything by hand rather than using the map builder, stick around and you’ll find a lot of helpful tips you can apply to your own work.

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How to Draw a Water Wheel Mill
Tutorial Josh Stolarz Tutorial Josh Stolarz

How to Draw a Water Wheel Mill

How do you turn grain into flour without electricity? One of the most effective methods was to harness the power of water to turn a large water wheel, which would turn a great stone that would grind large quantities of grain into flour. Including a water wheel on your city or village map is a great way to give another layer of interest and realism to your fantasy setting.

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Countries Should Have Wonky Borders
Map Tip Josh Stolarz Map Tip Josh Stolarz

Countries Should Have Wonky Borders

One mistake people often make when drawing maps is they make their borders look like a geometric grid. In reality, this reflects a relatively modern way of thinking. With the ability to see our world from an airplane or even space, we tend to want to divide things up in very clean, simple boxes. But, if you were on the ground and the best you could do was climb a mountain to get a read on the land, then how would you divide up borders?

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