Hand Drawn Cartography -- By Stu Glennie

My Start in Hand-Drawn Cartography

To start, a bit about myself and why I started drawing maps. I’m a writer/author and wanted a map for the novel I am currently working on. I have played various RPG’s since D&D first hit the shelves back in 1974. I used to draw my own maps back then so I thought I’d give it a go now. I hadn’t drawn maps for about 20 years, but hey, how hard could it be? I quickly learned it wasn’t as easy as I had remembered. That’s not to say that drawing maps is tough, it’s just that I am holding myself to a much higher standard now than when I was 10 years old.
I joined a Facebook group called RPG Map Creations to get some idea of where to start and to see what folks were doing now. Were people using the computer or did most still draw on paper? I’ve found that it’s about 50/50. I decided to go the pens and paper route, mostly because I had done it before and I knew I had some talent in that area but also because I had pens and paper lying around so it was cheaper. (There are good, free map drawing programs out there, you just need to go find them. I didn’t/haven’t as it wasn’t what interested me.) My wife would disagree with the “cheaper” part of that sentence as I have since purchased quite a few cool pens. Once I saw what people were posting on Facebook I was hooked. A lot of the maps are amazing and have astounding amounts of detail. Then I saw one map that I knew I could draw mine in the style of, sort of a Lord of the Rings type, like it was hand drawn by someone, not quickly but not by someone who was not a professional. (Take a look at the pictures with this article and you’ll see what I mean.) So I opened one of my many drawing books and… …stared at the blank page. For an hour. I had no idea how to start. Where do the mountains go? The cities? Villages? Rivers? Is there a sea? Coastline? And more importantly: what do they all look like? What icons do I use to convey what’s what? I had no idea, therefore the page was blank. So I went looking.

Around a year or so ago I read an amazing book by Austin Kleon called ‘Steal Like An Artist – 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative’. The very first chapter deals with where you get your creative ideas from, where to steal them from so to speak. I realized that a lot of people had designed map icons before and I would be wasting my time and energy trying to do the same thing again. I got on the internet and looked at maps from medieval times, maps from fantasy books (like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings), current military maps and a lot more. I took what I liked and left what I didn’t. Then I sat down and drew them out, changing some a lot and modifying others just a tiny amount until I had what I liked. Then I did a Very Scary Thing. One of the chapters in ‘Steal Like An Artist’ deals with sharing your stuff – so I did. I posted a picture of my collection of icons on the RPG Map Creations Page on Facebook and asked for feedback. The response was overwhelming! And positive! (Be warned, not all responses to what you share will be positive. In fact some feedback can be downright hurtful if you let it be.) I took the feedback I received, thanked the people, applied it and shared an updated set of icons. More positive results!

Since then I’ve drawn a couple of maps using the icon set and received nothing but great responses including one person who asked me to let him know when he’d be able to buy them! Keep in mind I hadn’t drawn a map in about 20 years. So, keep trying and you’ll eventually find what works for you. Share your stuff and use the feedback you receive to better your work. But most of all, have fun creating your worlds – otherwise, what’s the point? Some technical stuff: - I draw with a variety of pens: Pigma Microns, Faber-Castell and Sharpies - I draw on artist’s drawing paper you can buy at Michaels in books of all sizes as well as handmade paper in handmade leather bound books - I learned to do a Test Page at the back of each book to see how each pen looks and bleeds on the page BEFORE you use it on something important