How to Draw a Fantasy Map (Part 1: Landmasses)
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- čas přidán 14. 03. 2019
- A NEW map making tutorial! Coastlines, and the shape of your world.
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I have a friend who is a dairy farmer. He uses the patterns on the cows as inspiration for world building.
haha
that's fucking genius really
I wish I was into D&D when I lived on a dairy farm, I could have had many maps and whole world maps from those cows.
That’s beautiful XD
The Cows in our Area are just brown...
K. Next Map is gonna be the shape of a cow.👍
"so i'll take my eraser and erase the parts i didn't like"
(rubs out whole thing)
Oh no
Me: Ok, this seems easy enough even though my artistic skills at trash.
Me, 5 minutes later: Ah, I see, step one is drawing the map
True story
Westin Donnell
I’ve never been good at drawing anything except maps. With maps of you mess up, it’s hard for others to tell.
@@justanotherbaptistjew5659 literally me
Me and the boys at 2AM making a fantasy map using *_BeAnS_*
not funny
didn't laugh
@@popepiusxv not laugh didnt funny
@@z80ad85
@Pope Pius XV
not laugh didn't funny
A h yes- I've seen that video-
Wat
“You probably don’t want to use canned beans”
Dang it I already messed up
Maybe they add some colour for your maps:)
@@Max1990Power wait what if you put food coloring in a can of baked beans
@@thisisnotokiedokie5246 maybe die from the smell?
I took a picture of a cloud in the sky. Instant original continent.
The cloud district?:)
@@Max1990Power do you go there very often?
@@cornamenpython6760 sadly I dont. But I would like to visit it again(get images of New zeeland and Uganda which have a lot of clouds)
@@Max1990Power uh what am i saying of course you dont-
Everyone noticed how Westeros is clearly UK, but no one's really bummed about it!
I drew a map once, before I new about game of thrones, and once I saw Westeros and Esteros I realized that my map looked basically the same.
Middle Earth is prehistoric Europe, as well
Well, the story in GoT is basically the War of the Roses, which is also English history. :)
Technically, Westeros is based off an upside down Ireland.
yeah i saw it as a meme on nstagram, that maked me laughing. xD
CZcams’S FINALLY RECOMMENDING SOMETHING THAT I LIKE!
Your caps lock is on
Poppy Tyler Hi edit: your profile pic makes me cry
Park ChimMin and something useful
*claps*
Obviously a bug in the algorithm, give it a day or two, it will be fixed and only recommending videos that they are paid to promote.
Another option for inspiration:
Go to a gems and mineral store, some place that sells those polished stone spheres/orbs. Find one you really like with some interesting patterns and inclusions, and bam - not only do you now have an inspiration for a world you can difinitively refer to, but if you buy it you also have a physical spherical representation of your fictional planet!
Me: *has spent over a decade creating a fantasy world that spans an entire planet"
Also me: *sweating profusely* I'm gonna need more beans . . .
Use dice
Same,i created it for 1 decade and i troubled for creating a fictional map.
@@mr.potato2223 For what?
@@Alaethancar bro I only have a phone
Woah, that’s awesome! What’s it called?
Nate- when are you going to develop a Photoshop Virtual Bean Scattering Addin, so we can toss digital beans on our digital canvases???
haha... dude you need to get out more. Your computer needs a break! :-D
Can't you just use a bean brush with a high jitter?
I think that's called a spray paint tool. Works better in vector though since you can move the "beans" around.
Sounds like an add on for tabletop Sim lol
World Anvil has one thing to say about this - SUPER HYPE!!!
Love that you two sponsor so many interesting videos.
@@GodOfMoxie555 We try our best to support great talent and helpful resources :)
World Anvil and WASD20, two of my favorite world building resources together! Huzzah!
Just started using the service because of this video and I love how organized it keeps me when world building and creating. Even the unpaid service proved to be capable of so much amazing stuff! Love the product and I am super excited to see all future updates,keep up the awesome work!
You can use rice. Rice can do the job.🐹😁🤔
I once opened a jar of mayonnaise and thought to myself, "Wow. The mayo on the lid looks a lot like a map"
Try a ketchup stain on a napkin. Condiments actually tend to work very well.
oh bruh, you HIGH high.
James Lenihan, I once got bitten by an ostrich
Justacrusader this man is going places even tolkien didn’t
Any map made because of mayonnaise, is a map of hell for me. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
I actually used to get inspiration from the way fallen leaves (and pollen) would pattern after a rain fall. Leaves would clump together into piles and leave rivulets that the water would drain out from. Sometimes the leaves would be in one large pile. Sometimes it would be a archipelago of piles. Either way, each passing rain system would always create something unique and interesting. I wish I knew how to share a photo to better explain it.
For “the bean technique,” I found that using legos works well too, especially because of all the different shapes and sizes of the pieces, it gives nice landforms.
Rice is even better when I want even more precise shapes
Something I took note of: I took this from the geography of the United Kingdom and other places like Finland, Russia, Denmark and Sweden, and even the US East Coast, is a lot of the times when there is very uneven and sharp coasts, islands appear as to show erosion, so it gives that feel that your map is of an old place.
Also, something I like to do, is I try and make the lines fade when they get close to the edge of the paper/canvas.
I like that!
I found an old notebook that looked old so I thought what if this was a diary of an explorer who documents these creatures and new plants and stuff along those lines.
Now I’m creating a world to put him in...
"Small things can be made into big things, it's just the matter of how and when you're gonna make such big things happen"
That's a great idea ,sure it will look good.
this will be great for my expansions on the bionicle universe
xD good to know im not the only one who still remembers bionicle
@@Furno-hm8yp the community is still fairly active
@@DovaDude really!
@@DovaDude i was born too late to enjoy it in its prime
@@Furno-hm8yp me too 2006 the only sets from a store i got was like 2 of the stars in 2011
generate a minecraft world
map it out
find area you like
Yeah, but that's gonna be very unrealistic
@@fgdbbddhhdhdj1591 there are some Minecraft mods that make the world generation more realistic
That’s a lazy but effective method, and since I once was a MC player for a while, I can say it’s valid
"and now my 45th woodland mansion to map out and interiorize"
If you want to use that method I recommend using the website chunkbase. It displays the map without you having to generate one and map it out!
I always go overboard and create entire worlds...
as in planets...
Awsome!
Same
Same and then I go way overboard and make entire businesses and companies and vehicles and then my impatient, OCD self gives up.
I’m currently in the process of creating an entire galaxy. And an empire to fill it. As well as an enemy to fight the empire. All while keeping everything as scientifically accurate as is humanly possible while still being cool.
help...
That really sounds like something I would do, however I forced myself to drop my pencil the moment I had enough for my fantasy novel that I’m trying to write, so as not to go too overboard
Protip: if you haven’t any beans on hand, human teeth work just as well! All you need is a pencil, paper, and a heavy blunt object. Invite friends over to collaborate and watch your map grow!
P.S this is an unoriginal comment, I went back to the original video on map making and saw this. It's hilarious so I felt the need to share it.
Pure gold hahaha
If you get a couple of golden teeth, use them to pinpoint major landmarks. Lol
Tristan Hawkins honest plagiarism “ah yes hello there sir I used your jokes and the only credit I gave was google.”
I clicked on the second episode of this series and was like oh wait I should episode one so went to episode one but i went to the original one like you saw this comment and then came here once i realised that was a very old video, then i saw this comment and was about to call you out but props to you for the P.S ^^
Also works with human knuckles. I can tell you from experience to not use your own.
One way to get inspiration for landmasses is to look at the ground in cities. The ground is never ever clean and the concrete titles are usually cracked. Following the cracks and garbage usually makes some half-decent coastlines, but you'll obviously need to make things look a little more weathered afterward
Saw this in my recommendations, thought it would be pretty cool so I watched it.
I am quite possibly the least artistic person i know. I try to make cool fonts or copy other people's handwriting if I'm bored.
Then this struck me. I feel so inspired by this I feel like I could just take out my old notepads and art kits and just start mapping away.
Thank you so much for this. I finally feel like I actually have something to do and another "hobby" to add to the relatively short list.
First inspiration: Tamriel!
I'm creating a whole world for a novel i'm writting, this serie and the previous one are so usefull for me ! i hope you keep on going with that
thank you sir.
Ohh, that's nice! Good job!
Cool!
Very nice! How is the novel coming along?
Nice lad
Are you still writing it?
Stoked you’re redoing this series. The first one was great. I fell into a trap you pointed out about not leaving space for names and having to force them in wherever they fit. Looking forward to this new series in its completion.
My parents still have a giant atlas they bought at a library book sale so I go over and steal it for a bit so I can trace over different parts to create a map. I really like it because it's physically there and has a variety of types of maps which I can use for reference and I don't get distracted because it's not online. I love world building but I can get sidetracked way too easily (so many research rabbit holes!) so the fewer possible distractions the better.
“You could use some kind of small objects on the paper to outline a continent!”
Me: *looks at the array of pills on my desk*
What kind of pills?...
normal pills
abnormal pills
Tried the bean method with lentils
Half way through i knocked the glass over and had lentils all over the floor
Was a pain in the ass to clean everything up (lenils EVERYWHERE) but that was one dope map on my floor XD
So thanks i guess
Great content, keep it up
Haha!
Thanks.
Rice works just as well.
@@clockworkpotato9892 that's what I'm using now
Damn, used a tin of Heinz. Ruined the table.
You style is very similar to mine when I started drawing my first maps 40 years ago! Thanks for the video, keep working at your craft!
Wow! Thanks. You’ve been at it a while. I’d love to see some of your work if you have a link.
My work is mostly in-studio, but that will be changing in the near future as I am working on publishing a NEW (Pen n Paper) RPG with maps through my own LLC and label.
I recently found a ball bearing that had rust spots all over it. I'm working on making a world map inspired by the rust shapes. Your videos are really helping me with the more artistic aspects of it. Thank you very much for your content!
One of the most inspiring things for me are clouds because if I imagine the terrain features through the texture of the clouds it looks like an island.
I like the bean method but I think I'm going to try very tiny macaroni noodles for the nice little curve effects
In response to your intro... I once heard that the difference between fantasy and reality is that fantasy must be believable.
Pertaining to the drawing bit, I started working on my own map years ago, but only recently began to work it out in earnest. It's gone through a ton of revisions, too. I started in Photoshop with a cloud texture, at which point I messed with the opacity, I think. Made it a black-and-white image with randomly-shaped chunks. Years later, I pulled out the original save file, moved it to MS Paint, and started moving them around. Found something I liked, then started transferring to one of those giant sketchpads by hand. As a result, it changed a little more. By the time I got it where I wanted it in terms of general shape, it evolved quite a bit.
Turns out, though, that you can get some really convincing landmass shapes with smooth, curvy lines and also semi-geometric lines. I have many places on my map where there are some soft corners that break up otherwise straight lines. I was surprised to learn how "sharp" coastlines could be.
This reminds me of a show on PBS I watched as a kid after school. The guy had a huge blank wall, and each day, he would add more to it, drawing a city from a bird's eye view. I wish I could remember what it was called, but thanks for taking me down memory lane!
Starting with whatever tools you have is key because sketching a setting is great for inspiring adventures or a whole campaign. Once port cities show up around deltas and bays, you have capitals of nations! But all you need is that one small river town by a spooky forest! Is this true for anyone else?
Can't wait for part 2!
Lol...
"You probably don't want to use canned beans."
Brilliant!
speaking of which who shaped this mans head it's a perfect sphere; did he grow up in the sea?
His creative mind is so massive that it's gravity formed a nearly perfect sphere.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣😏🤣🤣🤣this is me reigt now haha baldy man
A humble personal tip for world building, something I started back when I was a kid. Partially peel a tangerine or orange. (Tangerines are better since they peel more easily.) The peeled off sections are the oceans, the sections with peels intact are continents and you wind up with a view of a 3-D world you can turn into your fantasy world.
That's just wonderful. 🤣
Trying that
I somehow managed to peel the entire tangerine in one single piece...
Just a note, you get the crinkly bits (e.g. around Norway) from glaciers and ice ages, so you see them more it the extreme Northern and Southern areas.
Ah, the beans. They are a sight for sore eyes.
I can't be the only person who sees Goofy at the top of the continent on the right.
Oof
@@zev-gb8dk Goof.
Cool Dan Mumford posters in the background. Such a unique style. I could recognize them from a mile away
Omg I am so happy you are making another one. I have been using your old series for the last few months to work on my map for my book! Super happy!
so I saw your old tutorial last summer and now I thought on finally drawing a map, and when I looked the tutorial up I found out that you revamped it! Great vid!
A good place to start getting inspiration from real landmasses that nobody would be familiar with are Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Canada. Just zoom into some random rural area and you'll probably find some nice coastline to work with.
I can't get over seeing people's maps in videos like that WorldAnvil ad and seeing those old map brushes I made years and years ago. They've gone so far. I'm so proud of them. :'3
I used that donjon generator, and I've never made a map before, and this is my first time as DM, but the images really inspired me for some reason, my mind just starting running wild. Thank you WASD20, you're the best.
Plate tectonics not only shoves plates together, it can tear them apart too. Consider how the sea looked between Africa and South America when the were a few hundred miles apart after splitting. A long sea with sort of constant width. Draw some land then tear a hunk off of it.
I had one map where the sea bed rose out of the water (ancient disturbance from the creation of that world) and made a land that was, well.... Think of how a large field of mud looks when it dries, smooth edged almost polygon shapes with deep cracks in between. Like that, but the water filled in the cracks. Every island had sides that went straight up. Below sea level at the edges of the swelling, but a few hundred feet up at the center.
I've been wanting to make my own map for a while now and youtube putting this up in my recommended was a blessing. I can already feel this will be a good tutorial series!
Glad to see the new videos! I'm building off of the foundations my uncle made back in high school (his world has been in the makes for almost 50 years now, it even has history from the high school campaigns) for the Old World and I think this can really help out a lot.
This and your 10 rules video are the only two I've seen, but they've inspired me immensely! Thanks!
speaking of using clouds for coastlines. Photoshop has the ability to generate cloud texture and you can do some awesome stuff with that if you draw digitally. Here are the basic 5 steps.
1) Make sure your fore-/background colors are set to black & white (just press d).
2) Go to Filters -> Render -> Clouds and render the black and white cloud texture
3) Create a new layer atop the cloud render and fill it with 50% gray (shift + F5). Set the blending mode of this layer to Hard Mix and you'll already see what we're going for.
4) Stay on this layer, pick a basic brush with 0% hardness and set the flow to 10%. I recommend having the size of the brush be equal to your resolution (for example: 300px if working in a 300ppi project), but you'll be adjusting this as you go anyway.
5) Finally, just start drawing on this layer with black and white and watch the coastlines be generated before your.
If you want to draw a landmass surrounded by water, start by painting the edge of the Hard Mix layer black so that nothing white touches the edge. Then just use the x key to alternate between your fore-/background color as you use black to fill in oceans and white for landmass. Change the size of the brush depending on how much detail you want on a coastline. I like this technique because it's a good mix of randomizing landmasses to be inspired and get a natural look while still retaining a fair deal of control over the landmass.
Thanks for the tip! I thought about mentioning this one too. I've seen a lot of people do it, but never tried it myself. :)
YES! I did this for my world map after trying the macaroni and torn paper methods and it was my favorite by far
I take pictures of my flaking nail polish and trace that
glad to see youre redoing this series!
I'm in the process of creating several maps for my DnD campaign, and have just created all the landmasses.
I used your advice (mostly from your old video) and instead of beans or rice, I bought two cheap packs of decorative stones from Amazon - a bigger grain (around fingernail size) and a smaller grain (like a tenth of an inch), and they worked perfectly!
It was really easy to shape the landmasses. For one, that is basically one giant mountain-mass, I took the whole pack of small grain stones and formed them to a mountain I liked - which ended up collapsing in the right shape a mountain would have. For others, I used the bigger stones to form a mass I already had in my head, and refined it with the smaller ones.
Then I tried to follow the outlines of all the small stones at the border to get a natural looking coastline, and it worked so well.
Never managed to draw a landmass so easily! Thank you so much!
I love this. I've been following since forever and I've tried my hand at a few landmasses, but I tend to get stuck as soon as the actual worldbuilding with cities and shrines and flavor needs attention. I bog down on those kinds of details, apparently (I'm not much of a worldbuilder, but I really like drawing the grand scale stuff)
I think this is just the classes I need to get past that!
Thank you Nate.
Yer a treasure, laddie!
Imagine you created a map and someone asked you how you made it and you said: "I made it by using .... jelly bears" *with batman's deep voice*
Thanks so much for the video! I love your tutorials! They are actually what got me interested in map making! It's awesome to see you doing a redo of the tutorials you did! Keep up the good work!
Another good way is to look at the west coast of scotland, zoom in, use any of the crazy shaped islands as basis for your continents
Getting started once school is over. Thanks for this video.
I've only ever made a map once before, and I haven't used it for anything, but I mostly just let my hand flow where it would. I've found that, sometimes, your brain just makes you see lines that aren't really there, and I just follow those. Sometimes it's from dust on the computer screen, sometimes it's from little imperfections in the paper, sometimes it's from the way light and shadow are on the sheet...
Either way, it's more or less just letting pareidolia do the hard part for you, and then you just follow along and place things according to your gut/instinct.
I'm excited for this series! I loved your first one, and I've been thinking about doing some world-building for the past few weeks. Who knows? Maybe I'll finally get off my ass and start on that!
I just drew my first landmasses and I'm surprised at how good they look. Can't wait for the next episode.
3:42 I found the *BEANS*
also nice tutorial -
Dammit, forgot to buy the pinto beans. _sigh_ Back to walmart...
haha... gotta be pinto, gotta be pinto, gotta be pinto!!!
Another series! Yay! I loved the last one, looking forward to this.
Hay I just started being Game master in our roleplay group a few months ago and your old map drawing videos help me out quite a bit on building my world I just want to thank you for this and also for the new videos I am looking forward to all of them. Have a nice day!
Didn’t you steal the chipmunks
man this comment made my day
Who else is just watching cause they're bored???
I really enjoyed your first series, which I only discovered maybe 6 months ago? So really looking forward to this one and see what you've learned over the last few years!
I am a writer, story telling is what I live for, your channel has helped me build endless beautiful fantasy worlds for my stories and I can never thank you enough for it!
Speaking of land masses, can we please talk about the fact that his head is shaped like a globe?
'it's like a planetoid!...he can cry himself to sleep on his great big pilluh!'
My biggest issue has always been developing a "realistic" climate and weather pattern system.
I hate that weather is only mentioned in game when its due to some supernatural effect. Weather happens.
When I draw my world maps I take a few moments to make tweaks and adjustments to the continents and islands so I can solidify the water currents. It helps to identify them first then use them to use a bit of science to determine where surface winds move and bring the weather patterns across your world. Magical effects for weather are cool, but with a bit os simple science applied to your world you can bring it alive and allow it to effect your creation.
You should check Artifexian if you want to worldbuild a scientifically accurate planet, biomes, weather, tides and all included!
Thank you, I am just now getting started and doing research on how to draw maps, and your channel is a tremendous help!
Watching your videos about how to make maps has give me peace in this quarentine. Specially because I study a Health career and I was call to practices to atend people.
Covid has afected a lot of people, but learning how to make fantasy maps with your videos has give me an activity to relax. Thank you.
Love from Chile, southamerica.
Se algum Brasileiro assistiu o vídeo e riu dele falando que tá com um tal de "Pintos"
Tamo junto.
Delicious pintos kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Kkkkkkkkk
Kk
Sou português mas também percebo
Everytime I try to draw my main continent It turns into Europe.
The beans are back!
I'll wait for the next part!
Another great video WASD!
Your map/world creation tutorials has helped me tremendously with my own homebrew world
Who else came here for a assessment for geography
The cloud idea is such a great one, because I can snap a photo whenever I see cool clouds, and have them for reference later
Ooooh yeaaah, a new series to work on maaaaps! I'm so glad :D thank youuu!
I take inspiration from the dried up film in my tea cups when I make black tea, it sticks to the inside of the mug when you drink it. Its very coastal looking and the round shape of the mug makes it look world mappish
This has been the most useful and down to earth take on fantasy cartography ive seen so far.
Your videos are always so professional, I really enjoy them.
I should have seen this first before trying it with can beans. It does provide a very expanding map. Live and learn.
What a fantastic series! Thanks for the inspiration.
I'm glad Nate is taking the seat once again after a few years where his passion really remains. Mapping is his toasty bread and his tools are that delicious topping. Always friendly and welcoming to all. Keep up the great work my friend.
Haha! Thanks so much, Josh!
Watched the original one about 3 years ago
PS subbed because making a fantasy map or maps in general are really cool
Lol, I looked up this tutorial to refresh my memory using my Intuos S! It's the exact one in the picture, I love it. So excited.
Thanks. Beans could be just what I need to get over my current cartographer's block!
In the past, I've sometimes taken inspiration from the shapes of damp patches on the pavement after rain.
I love the bean approach!!! 😃
Creating something and working into making it very close to perfection improves your mental capabilities.
I digg the horn section setting in when the drawing begins! epic! :-)
I never knew I needed to make a fantasy map until I saw this video!
Wainting for part 2 awesome video mate !
Coming soon!
This has been a massive help, thanks dude
I’m about to start DMing for my group and I’m definitely going to be following along with this series for drawing my map
The world building of my fantasy novel will come to life now! I really appreciate this video even though too old but, hey! Nice vid sir! Thank you!