Cartography Course
Added 2017-06-13 17:00:01 +0000 UTCUpdated: 8/16/2020 - Archipelago article added
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
Bonus Lessons
- The Compass Rose
- Scanning Your Maps for Photoshop
- Geography: Society's Relation to Landscape
- Coming Up with Names
- Give Towns Character
- Earth Sciences & Fantasy Maps
- Myths & Misunderstandings in Cartography
- Telling the Story
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
Further Study
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
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
- Creating Coastlines
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
Cartographers' Code
I created a secret code for cartographers to use along with a cipher & lexicon of the most commonly used words. And then I turned them both into a font you can use on your computer! Click here to download them along with use instructions.
