There are lots of ways to indicate water on a map with lines – and many more with tone or colour. Here are four I regularly use. Continue reading “4 Coast Styles for Mapmaking”
Tag: world map
Worldbuilding By Map
This article was originally written for people building their own worlds for novel writing, but the process is useful for anyone who wants to create a world and draw a map.
Let’s get one thing out of the way right now.
A map shouldn’t be pretty.
Journeys – the lifelines of Westeros
The last map from the Lands of Ice and Fire is the map of Journeys – all the paths taken by the characters in the novels of A Song of Ice and Fire (up to the end of Dances with Dragons). This map contains spoilers, so don’t look too carefully if you’ve not read to the end of A Dance With Dragons.
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 map convince the viewer that they’re looking at a large area, zoomed out. The easiest cue for the viewer is mountain ranges. These are the feature that’s different enough at different scales that they can act as a defacto scale-bar.
The Dothraki Sea
Today, the Dothraki Sea – home to the horse lords who destroy everything in their path. These tribes define a large part of the early books, offering a glimpse into a totally different culture from Westeros. Daenerys is brutally inducted into their ranks to help buy and army, and transforms to become a Khaleesi in her own right. Continue reading “The Dothraki Sea”
Slaver’s Bay
Today, the cities of the Slavers. If you’re following the TV series then you might be wondering why this part of the world merits a map all to itself, but all will become clear….
This is the second map with detail illustrations of the different cities. Continue reading “Slaver’s Bay”
The Free Cities
Today we’re travelling to the Narrow Sea and visiting the city states of Lys, Pentos, Myr and Braavos.
Official World Map of A Song of Ice and Fire
Here’s the first official world map of Game of Thrones, which I was commissioned to illustrated for the Lands of Ice and Fire poster set for Random House. The Song of Ice and Fire is an epic series, and it was a privilege to create the map of the known world for the first time.
It was a dream commission for me. I originally read the books in college and, like so many others, was absorbed by the rich world. The lack of good maps bothered me, but I assumed that some day they would be created. I never expected I’d be the one to do it.
Continue reading “Official World Map of A Song of Ice and Fire”
Lands of Ice and Fire Video from Random House
I ran across this video from Random House the other day. It’s the best preview I’ve seen out there of the maps I illustrated of the world of Game of Thrones.
Also, everything should be narrated by this guy. He could make the opening of the humblest letter sound Epic.
The World of Ilkor: Dark Rising
In 2011 I was commissioned to create a map of the world of Ilkor for the browser game Ilkor: Dark Rising. The brief was to use a style inspired by the classic Middle Earth maps. Recently GAD Games have released a few of the detail views that I did for them so I get to show them off! I’ll have to wait a little for the full world map to be released, but for now, here’s the detail views: Continue reading “The World of Ilkor: Dark Rising”