Firstly do the geographic features (lakes, forests and mountains), and then build settlements around them. For example villages will be near rivers for trade and water, and maybe even forests to get wood to build things. Mines will be near or on mountains, but reasonably close to a city or river. Maybe include a dot for the character’s house, but don’t do specific buildings unless they’re important. Remember to use different colored dots to mark cities, towns, temples and shrines. In real life we had to build around the natural features, so you should do the same in your map. Answer from CreatorCreature on reddit.com
Instructables
instructables.com › design › art
Draw Your Own Fantasy Maps : 11 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables
August 15, 2022 - Sketch out where you would like the forests to be. You will add more detail to these in a later step, but for now, just lightly draw an outline. Again, thinking about where cities are located in the real world, place some city and town markers across your map.
Inkarnate
inkarnate.com
Inkarnate - Create Fantasy Maps Online
Create fantasy maps online. With Inkarnate you can create world maps, regional maps and city maps for dungeons & dragons, fantasy books and more! FREE SIGN-UP!
Videos
10:11
Making Fantasy Maps the Old School Way! - YouTube
How To Make A Fantasy World Map In Minutes!
09:59
How to draw a Fantasy Map - tutorial for beginners - YouTube
03:34
How to Draw Fantasy Map Features | 5 ways to make your maps more ...
Mountain Lakes - How to Draw on Fantasy Maps
19:16
How to Draw Mountains, Forests, Swamps and Cities for a Fantasy ...
Reddit
reddit.com › r/worldbuilding › how to draw fantasy maps?
r/worldbuilding on Reddit: How to draw fantasy maps?
November 4, 2020 -
I want to make a map of the country I made up for my world, but I'm not sure what I should include. I know the basics - mountain ranges, forests, stuff like that - but what else? Should I include the character's houses? Specific buildings? Or should I just stick with the geographical features, like rivers and lakes and stuff?
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Firstly do the geographic features (lakes, forests and mountains), and then build settlements around them. For example villages will be near rivers for trade and water, and maybe even forests to get wood to build things. Mines will be near or on mountains, but reasonably close to a city or river. Maybe include a dot for the character’s house, but don’t do specific buildings unless they’re important. Remember to use different colored dots to mark cities, towns, temples and shrines. In real life we had to build around the natural features, so you should do the same in your map.
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It is a long winded route, but well worth it in the finish i feel. I begin by creating a WORLD map. For this i use GPlates, a free to download program which can simulate plate tectonics and movement, and how this effects the land masses over time. You can find an Artifexian video on this Draw in your tectonics, they can be any random shape, but make sure that all interactions create T shapes, rather than X shapes. Decide in your mind where you want the bulk of your landmasses to be, and the decided which will be continental, and which will be oceanic. From here, decide in which direction each plate is moving, begining from your worlds mid atlantic ridge, where three or more plates are all moving away from each other, and then draw all other movements in correlation of each other. From here decide how your landmasses fit with your plates. If you followed those instructions, you should have a somewhat realistic shaped world map, but if you follow Artifexians two GPlates world map building videos, you should have a real good looking world map. After this i would just use the program, zoom right into a place at which you like most, and draw your map following the shapes you see, and fill it in with whatever you like. Happy map making!
Map Effects
mapeffects.co › drawing-tutorials
Need a Fantasy Map? Check Out These Drawing Tutorials! — Map Effects
Do you want to learn how to draw fantasy maps for your story? Here you will find a collection of tutorials for drawing mountains, forests, canyons, and more!
YouTube
youtube.com › playlist
Maps & Drawing - YouTube
Map making for tabletop role-playing games and fictional worlds.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/worldbuilding › any methods of drawing world maps?
r/worldbuilding on Reddit: Any methods of drawing world maps?
January 26, 2022 -
Currently in the process of making a fantasy world, and would love for some tips and/or tricks to do so. I've been trying to figure out a starting point as well, not being very confident to just freehand the shape of the countries and continents.
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Use the rice trick: take a sheet of paper, dump a handful of rice or small pasta shapes or lentils or some other granular, dry stuff (I used grass seed for my map) and give it a bit of a wobble. Poke it a bit until you think the shapes like alright then just go round the outlines with a pen or pencil. Tip the rice off the paper and you've got a good starting point for a map.
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get a bunch of different colored d20s, assign the colors to different land featrues, and toss em out on a piece of paper.
Kingdom Pen
kingdompen.org › forums › topic › fantasy-maps
Fantasy Maps | Kingdom Pen
However, if your map is big enough you can draw buildings as small squares/other shapes, depending on how they’re built. Axiom is right, there are many different angles. If you draw a city up beside mountains or trees, make sure their height matches what it would look like in reality. 😉 · As for fantasy ...
Amazon
amazon.com › How-Draw-Fantasy-Art-Maps › dp › 1440340242
Amazon.com: How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps: Step by Step Cartography for Gamers and Fans: 9781440340246: Blando, Jared: Books
Amazon.com: How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps: Step by Step Cartography for Gamers and Fans: 9781440340246: Blando, Jared: Books
Amazon.com: How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps: Step by Step Cartography for Gamers and Fans: 9781440340246: Blando, Jared: Books
Price $10.13
Fantastic Maps
fantasticmaps.com › home
Fantastic Maps - Fantasy maps and mapmaking tutorials by Jonathan Roberts
I'm a professional fantasy mapmaker posting tutorials on how to draw maps, free map resources, and my published work.
Paths Peculiar
wistedt.net › home › tutorials – how to draw fantasy maps
Tutorials - how to draw fantasy maps - Paths Peculiar
November 3, 2024 - Learn how to create great looking maps with these easy-to-follow tutorials on how to draw maps for classic fantasy roleplaying games.
James T Kelly
jamestkelly.com › home › how to draw fantasy maps
How to draw fantasy maps - James T Kelly
February 8, 2021 - Do you know how to make a fantasy map with both quality and realism? Find out how to draw fantasy maps without getting a degree in cartography first.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/mapmaking › new fantasy map (hand drawn)
r/mapmaking on Reddit: New Fantasy map (hand drawn)
February 7, 2024 - First post here. My first attempt at a fantasy map. ... Critique my Hand-Drawn Map!
Writing Forums
writingforums.com › the living areas › the tavern
Fantasy Maps | Writing Forums
April 4, 2015 - A couple others I draw inspiration from is to look at familiar land masses from another point of view, or hidden land masses (look up what the Antarctic Archipelago looks like some time) or maps of the Moon,or Mars, etc. ... Your maps are really good! Thank gods i'm not the only one who has some issues with finding names. It either looks too weird or too similar to things that already exists. haha I also think that paper versions are better, it's fantasy!
Pinterest
pinterest.com › matthewtroness › map-drawing
30 Map Drawing ideas to save in 2025
Hand-drawn Castle Sketch · Mountain Pen Sketch · Fantasy Map · Art Instructions · Dessin Noir Et Blanc · Drawing Lessons · Medieval Village Map Design · Detailed Fantasy Village Map · Hobbit Village Dnd Map · Hobbit Village Battle Map · Halfling Village Map 5e Pdf ·
Map Effects
mapeffects.co › tutorials › forests
How to Draw a Forest on Your Fantasy Maps — Map Effects
February 13, 2023 - Rather than just doing a scattering of trees though, I like to draw this first pass more as connected arches of trees which will give it some more cohesive form. This forest is on a relatively level landscape, so you don’t want to go too crazy with it, but if you want to learn how to draw a forest on a hill or climbing up the side of a mountain, then check my Map Tip on How to Draw Forest on Hills.
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EN World
enworld.org › community › general tabletop discussion › *ttrpgs general
Drawing fantasy maps | Page 2 | EN World D&D & Tabletop RPG News & Reviews
April 4, 2024 - I got a book on drawing FRPG maps, and managed to make an okay map for part of my game world: View attachment 356546 Is it great? No. Is it sufficient? Yes. Click to expand... It looks great! ... Pangea? I like the map. Click to expand... Yeah, and thanks. IIRC, it's not really Pangea, but a mashup of recognizable continents that approximates Pangea. But I thought it looked like a good map for a fantasy realm.
Inksorcery
inksorcery.com › fantasy-map-tutorial-part-i-the-basics
Fantasy Map Tutorial: Part I, The Basics – Inksorcery.com
February 21, 2019 - Add rivers to your map in the same manner you did the coastline. Don’t use overly straight lines or smooth lines as rivers don’t usually look that way as seen from above. Keep in mind that water always takes the path of least resistance, so don’t draw a river going over a hill. You get the idea. Alright, now for the fun part; mountains, trees, hills, swamps, desserts, you name it. Tall mountains and rugged foothills dominate many fantasy ...
Fantasy Town Generator
fantasytowngenerator.com
Fantasy Town Generator
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