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Beyond the Wall

I was wondering which map to post next, and then the weather made the decision for me. I can hardly see downtown Manhattan any more due to the snow outside my window. Winter has definitely come – in...

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How to Draw Swamps

Here’s the breakdown of how I draw lineart for swamps. 1. Rivers Swamps are often around a river – if this is the case, then begin with the river at the heart of the swamp. Unlike most rivers which...

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King’s Landing

King’s Landing, © George RR Martin 2012, used with permission King’s Landing, heart of power in Westeros, location of the Iron Throne. This city acts as the fulcrum for the plots and machinations of...

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The East

The East, © George RR Martin 2012, used with permission Today we visit the trackless East – land of mystery, off the edge of the known world. Where Westeros is detailed down to the last inch here the...

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Defining Scale using Mountains

I’ve been asked a lot about how to depict different scales recently. The question is – how do you tell the viewer of one map that they’re looking at a zoomed in region of a small area, and on another...

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The Official Map of Westeros

Westeros, © George RR Martin, 2012, used with permission Westeros is the beating heart of A Song of Ice and Fire. In this map Westeros gets its own official map in the form of a 3 foot by 2 foot...

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New Map Pack – The Iconic Town

The town that started as a very rough sketch has now been turned into a full blown map pack, and is for sale on RPGNow and Paizo. Here’s the rough sketch that started it all: Rough sketch of the town...

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Highlighting Featured Buildings – Shape, Detail and Contrast

Cities and buildings come up a lot in questions. I’ll put together a software specific tutorial on buildings, but today I’m just going to go through my philosophy when illustrating a featured building...

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Heroes of the Jade Oath

It’s always a little daunting to take on a brand new style of map. When Steve Russell asked for an map inspired by the Orient for Heroes of the Jade Oath I took it on with some trepidation. After a ton...

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Quick Mountain Tutorial!

Today, a quick one on isometric pen and ink mountain ranges. 1. Draw in the ridgeline Draw in the ridgeline of the mountains. Add bumps and wiggles and allow the path to wander. 2. Add Slopes With the...

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Parsantium – City at the Crossroads

City maps are complex beasts. There’s a balance to be found between detail and time. The ideal is to be able to imply all the detail of a city, without getting lost drawing every single roof tile....

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How to Draw Coastlines on a Fantasy Map

I’ve realised I have a particular workflow for drawing coastlines in my maps. Here’s a quick walkthrough. Each step is done on a new layer in photoshop, and I use a 5px hard round brush in each case...

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How to Draw Forested Hills on a Top Down Map

Often hills are indicated on a map by drawing an outline, but when you have forest on top, that outline gets obscured. So how do you draw forested hills? The trick is to use the detail of the forest to...

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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...

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How 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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Mapping An Ember in the Ashes

I was commissioned to map the world of An Ember in the Ashes, the New York Times bestselling debut novel by Sabaa Tahir. The final is at the top of this post (and a larger version below). It’s great to...

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