Maps: What Should I Do?

[CaraSwara]

So I'm doing a lot of background lore and stuff for a fantasy series, I feel like I definitely need a map of at least the main continent in my world. My biggest issue is that I have no talent for drawing or anything. Any fantasy maps I've drawn in the past have only brought shame on me.
I guess what I'm asking is for any tips, anything that'll make it easier for a non artist to draw a map. Are there any resources on this?
I'd appreciate any help, thanks.

 

[CupofJoe]

For me; it starts with pencil and paper. Work with that while you are writing. Don't worry about making it pretty from the start. You will need to re-draw your maps a dozen times [at least] before you are done with it.
By hand and on paper I find it a lot easier to fix a problem with my map; erase a river or add a mountain; then when I do it digitally.
I like A3 art paper. A3 as maps should feel bigger than the written page, and art paper as it is a little thicker and softer; hand drawn lines look nicer to me and it stands redrawing a lot better [but maybe that is just my quirks].

As for the actual drawing... I usually start with blobs and general locations. X is north-east of Y, Z is twice as far from A as B is from C. that sort of thing.
I usually have a feel to what I want the world to be; rolling plains or high mountain peaks, deep forests or an endless archipelago...
Then I start adding in details as I find I need them...
The MCs have crossed a big river after a fight with a pack of trolls... okay so where did the river come from and where does it go? Where did the trolls come from?
Things like that all the time...
Much of my map is blank until I'm a long way down the line. Sometimes it remains blank.

If you want to make a digital map, then there is free or low-cost software out there, like GIMP. I don't use GIMP so I can't say what it's like but it's reputation is good. I'm lucky enough to have access to a copy of PhotoShop and that is wonderful. You can find "Brushes" for PhotoShop available to download from places like DeviantArt. Install a "Tolkien" set of brushes and all of a sudden you can make your map look like those from LotR.
Okay it's not as easy as all that but there are a lot of guides and helps around if you search a little.
If you are going to be working digitally I find it better to work with a graphics tablet [like the Wacom Bamboo that I have] rather than a mouse. They aren't cheap and can be very expensive and they do take a little getting used to but the results are worth it.

But all that said... As a first step, and probably steps two and three, I'd work with pencil and paper, accept that it will look a little scrappy and only when you are certain that it is never ever going to be changed, think about work on making a final version.
My advice... Buy an A3 book of art paper, a couple of soft-ish [2b] pencils, a sharpener and a good plastic eraser.
Hey... Go crazy and add in a pack of 12 coloured pencils so you can have rivers and forests in the right colours! Enjoy world building, just don't let it take over your [writing] life.

My name is CupofJoe and I am a World-builder...

 

[Miskatonic]

Cartographers' Guild

That's what this site is all about.

 

[Devor]

I know it sounds like a joke, but I use colored pens and crayon. I outline the landscape with tiny little strokes of a green pen, use a blue one to outline the rivers, black for the roads and landmarks, and purple up arrows for the mountains. Then I shade with crayons (brown crayon over purple pen looks just fine for the mountains). If I don't like it, I get another sheet and trace over it, fixing the mistakes. I also scan it in different phases, such as after I finish the outline, so I don't have to repeat too much.

The thing is, working with pens give me a lot of freedom that I don't feel in a web program. I also find that sometimes having to do it over comes out with a much better looking landscape than the once-and-tinker maps you do on the web. I can do it on my clipboard while I watch the kids. And I think it still takes less time.

If you're going to publish a map, you should get it professionally done anyway. And for me, doing it this way, I have something detailed to send to that professional.

 

[Miskatonic]

I know it sounds like a joke, but I use colored pens and crayon. I outline the landscape with tiny little strokes of a green pen, use a blue one to outline the rivers, black for the roads and landmarks, and purple up arrows for the mountains. Then I shade with crayons (brown crayon over purple pen looks just fine for the mountains). If I don't like it, I get another sheet and trace over it, fixing the mistakes. I also scan it in different phases, such as after I finish the outline, so I don't have to repeat too much.

The thing is, working with pens give me a lot of freedom that I don't feel in a web program. I also find that sometimes having to do it over comes out with a much better looking landscape than the once-and-tinker maps you do on the web. I can do it on my clipboard while I watch the kids. And I think it still takes less time.

If you're going to publish a map, you should get it professionally done anyway. And for me, doing it this way, I have something detailed to send to that professional.

I commissioned an artist to make mine and it was worth every penny. Definitely the route to go if you can't do it yourself at a professional quality level. I plan on having two more commissioned from the same artist.

 

[WooHooMan]

I'm assuming that your going to go for that "archaic and hand-drawn" look. That's the look most people seem to go after.
I would seriously recommend going for something simpler. Maybe something more modern. Maps aren't worth all this trouble. Just do what you can. If you can't draw mountains, don't try to draw mountains. If you don't know how to add a texture to a map, don't put a texture. Work within limitations.
There's my advice.

 

[TheKillerBs]

Map-making is more of a technical skill than an artistic one, though it still requires a lot of work to learn. Unless you really think you'd enjoy it, you're probably better off asking a professional. One thing I will suggest though is that you study real-world geography so that you get yourself acquainted with continent shapes and how things generally look like. Besides, there are some really crazy things that happen in real life, and that could give you some inspiration for some nice features in your world.

 

[bradford177]

I had the same problem. I found a couple of different "map generators" online. Just google that term. After an hour or so of generating, I found something that I liked, then wrote my story around the map. I just used Microsoft Paint to add dots and names of villages, and now I have a cool looking map. If you already have your story, it might be a little tougher, luckily I thought of this when I was only two chapters into it.

 

[FifthView]

You can download a fractal map generator app here: donjon; Download Apps

It's basically an HTML file you can open in your browser once you've downloaded it. You can toy with the various drop-down menus to change the look of the map that's generated, and keep generating new maps until you see one you like. (I recommend using 1000 px size, because larger maps are easier. For instance, you could generate the large world map and then zero in on only the part that you like most for the lands in your story–i.e., if you don't need a whole world.) When you find a map you like, you can save it to your computer.

Here's an example of one I generated today:

Then you can download Gimp, which is a free to use photo/art editor similar to Photoshop, load your map into it, and begin editing. There's a slight learning curve for Gimp, so if you are going for a completely finished, polished, professional-looking map, you may need to spend some time with it learning all the things you can do. But if you just need a map for visualizing your world, a resource for when you are writing, then adding country borders, towns and cities, rivers and mountains and forests, and names for all these, is fairly simple in Gimp.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

The map maker I use is at http://donjon.bin.sh/world/ It is a wonderful tool and the map you create can be saved to your computer and opened in Photoshop to modify it as you like.
Here is one of my own. Sorry it's so big.

 

[bradford177]

Here is the one I used:

Polygon Map Generation demo

I liked it because it was a smaller world, which I needed, plus you can do 2d, 3d, shaded and lot of other mixes.