Cartography Course
Added 2023-02-03 08:00:03 +0000 UTCThis will be the menu post for all things for the cartography course both the original and new versions. Items are posted in the order they should be experienced.
Cartography Course V2
I wanted to bring you through the process of creating a world from scratch, doing world building, drawing it, and learning where to add features by using some basic Earth Science to help you draw better maps, so I'm revising my original course (below) to do just that! This version is currently being created and new links will be added here once posted.
Plans for future course sections:
- Prop map tutorial
- The Business of Cartography (how to earn a living as a fantasy cartographer)
- Creating Scouting Maps
- Creating Treasure Maps
- Creating Encounter Maps
- Creating Interior Maps
- Creating Assets
Cartography Course V1
This information is still relevant and a good place to extend your cartography skills beyond the revised course. It delves more into the Earth Sciences and world building aspects. Links for the individual classes are in the order in which they should be viewed:
- Materials & Tools List - Updated to include digital items
- Understanding Scale & Distance
- Note Taking for Map Making
- Planning the Project
Start Sketching
- Laying Down the Foundation
- Creating Borders
- The Lay of the Land
- Biomes: Tundra & Desert, Forests, Savannas, Temperate & Steppes
- Bodies of Water
- Archipelagos
- Cartography Shorthand
- Let's Sketch
Inking & Shading
- Basic Inking
- Shading Evergreen Trees
- Shading Hills
- Shading Trees
- Creating ruins
- Creating a Desert Landscape
- Shading Mountains
- Creating Cliffs
- Finishing the Raven's Call Map
- The Compass Rose
Copics for Cartography
About Copic Markers
- Why I use Copic Markers
- Differences in Copic Marker Types
- Color Code
- Refilling Your Markers
- Copic Care
Coloring A Map
- Prepping Your Project
- Creating a Palette
- Blending
- Highlights & Shadows
- Unexpected Color
- Coloring the Raven's Call Map
World Building Resources:
- Rock formations
- Ocean currents - A kitchen experiment to learn how ocean currents work.
- Creating Ocean Currents: Learn how to determine where your world's currents are & what they affect.
- Satellites of your world
- Interactive map of earth over millions of years
- Creating Realistic Waterways
- Projections: Putting globes to paper
- World Building Prompt: No North
- World Building Prompt: Regionally Unique Problems
- World Building Prompt: Bizarre Places
- World Building Prompt: Water Features
- World Building Prompt: Map the Stars
- World Building Prompt: Sounds
- World Building Prompt: Unique Plant Life
- World Building Prompt: Ancient Culture Markers
- World Building Prompt: Quarries
Digital Cartography
- Basic map setup in Photoshop (i.e. Best Photoshop Organizing Practices)
- Creating a rough sketch
- Working with layers, locks, & subfolders (i.e. Keeping your layers separated)
- Photoshop Brushes I Use
- Photoshop: Basic Map Setup
- Scanning your Maps for Photoshop
- Make your own Photoshop brushes
- Make Photoshop brushes from drawings
- Building layers using my cartography brushes
Drawing Variations
- Alternative to Drawing Tree Clusters
- How to represent different types of tree clusters
- Creating snow lines & drifts
- Creating various stone & rocks
- Scout Map Mountains
Earth Sciences, Geology, & Geography
- Creating Coastlines
- Creating a Rough Sketch from a Draft
- Earth Sciences & Fantasy Maps
- Give Towns Character
- Inaccuracies in Map Making - Why we can't make maps perfectly to scale
- Myths & Misunderstandings in Cartography
- Society's Relation to Landscape - A worldbuilding guide to how the landscape of a world can directly affect it's inhabitants.
Extras
- Dicey Map Making: Let Fate Design your World
- Kartografrs Sifr - Cartographer's Code
