Map Creation

Creating a map for my world has been an ongoing battle. I am not very skilled at drawing but I want a hand drawn map for my world.

There have already been several iterations of this map as I worked on creating a more concrete world. Below are two of my very first drawings of world maps.

These were ROUGH. But I had some of the basics down. I got an idea of the general shape.

Recently, I created a digital map. I was going to concede and accept that maybe hand drawing my world map was beyond my skill.

But after trying several different map building websites, I could never get it quite how I wanted it. There are certain aspects of my world that need to be intentional. Certain rivers that need to be in specific places. Most of the online map building sites, really do not give you the creative freedom you need.

So, I got an idea. I created a general concept digitally and got the baseline down. Some of this map still wasn’t want I needed. But with a nearly burnt out projector on standby, I plugged my laptop in, taped some paper to the wall and created a giant outline.

Finally, a piece of paper big enough for me to actually draw details. I was proud of my self for this idea. A large part of my struggle with drawing was because I was attempting to draw an entire continent on a small piece of paper. I wanted certain details that simply didn’t make sense drawn at that scale. I wanted to create a city map, and a world map.

Now that I have a giant version of my map, I traced a smaller zoomed in version of the actually inhabited part of my world.

After watching a couple of Youtube videos, I started at it again. The walls between the cities are supposed to be large, but I feel as though they’re a little too large in comparison to some of the rivers. Scale is quite challenging for me.

But at this time, it’s still practice. So I continued on and started creating city blocks and roads.

It’s starting to come together a bit more. I can’t decide if I should zoom in even more and cut up each city individually or continue at this scale.

But for tonight, this is where I end it. I will keep playing around with the scale, adding in city details and who knows, maybe it will all come together and I can just go straight into tracing with a pen.

Drawing maps is hard for me. And once I get it drawn, I will have to figure out how to digitize the hand drawn map so I can even add it to my manuscript.

It stresses me out just thinking about it. But, it also excites me to think of having a giant world map hung on a wall in my home of my own creation. Something I’ll be proud of.

P.S. These maps roll up into perfect scrolls and feel like old school maps. The nerd in me gets giddy when I roll them up to store them away.

That’s all for tonight. Thanks for reading ❤

-K.M.