Fantasy Maps in Photoshop

Get yourself some reference material of the place your going to draw. Then trace the coastlines, but don't feel like you need to stick to them. Feel free to make changes, add islands, lakes or anything else you might find interesting. This is your map and your world; go crazy!

Tip: Having a hard time making your coastlines look realistic? Study real world coastlines, maybe even do some research and try to find out what shaped them like that. This will greatly help you coming up with interesting coastlines yourself!

Now it's time to make those coastlines stand out. In the class we'll go over to way to add effects to you coastlines, but I encourage you to try and combine this methods, or try completely new things using the tools that we discussed in this lesson.

Tip: Got an idea, but you're not sure how to make it work? Just try new things, see what works and what doesn't. Trial and error is often the best way to learn!

In this class we'll create and colour our land and sea layers. I picked a green colour for the land and a blue colour for the sea. Of course you don't have to pick these exact colours, or even similar colours at all! Do you imagine your fantasy world as a desert landscape? Pick browns and yellows to colour the land areas. You can colour the ocean like I did, or you can colour the entire ocean, making it darker to show depth.

Before you put your mountains on your map, make sure you've watched the 'Mountains Styles' lesson. get yourself familiar with the technique that you want to use for your map and get started.

Tip: When drawing mountains, avoid drawing in patterns. Keep the size and height of your mountain inconsistent. It also works to vary between the thickness of the range; in one pace draw your mountain range 3 mountains wide, in other places two or even one mountain wide.

Now it's time to put your rivers on your map. Keep in mind that rivers always flow from the highest point (mountains and hills) to the lowest point (the sea). This is why we draw our mountains and hills first. Also make sure that your rivers are only joining, and never splitting up!

The next step is to add forests to your map. Don't forget that forests grow over hills and rivers, and make sure your show the underlying features through your forests! It's a good idea to leave the underlying layers visible to help you determine how to show those features.

Finally we'll add some texture to our terrain. Start by tracing your waterlines, both coastlines and rivers, with jumpy/squiggly lines. Then draw other terrain types such as grasslands, swamps and deserts. Use thin lines to show these textures, without cluttering your map.

When you're creating a set of icons it is important that you know what you want your icons to look like. Are you looking for medieval style icons, or a more modern or even futuristic style?

Tip: You can also use different sets of icons for different regions on your map. This is a good way to visualize a change in culture over long distances.

Placing your icons on your map may take some time. Make sure your icons aren't obstructed by any of the features on your map. They should always be easy to identify and read.

Tip: You can have your icons be obstructed by terrain features deliberately. For example, try to put a city of castle behind a mountain. This adds a sense of depth to your map.

Creating a hierarchy should always be done before you start putting the labels on your map. Not all labels have to be both different in style and size. You can have two different kind of labels that are the same style, but a different size. You can also use colour to show different kinds of labels

The next step is placing your labels on your map. Use the rules we discussed in the first lesson, and the hierarchy we determined in the last. Start placing the biggest labels first; these would be hard to put on your map later on when everything is already filled with labels.

Tip: work from crowded areas outwards. This will help you make all labels in these areas readable.

Finally you've put all your labels on your map. You map notice that some of the labels are very hard to read or can't be read at all. Now it's time to do some tweaking on your labels to make them more readable. You can decide to add a small outer glow to the, or use a layer mask to hide the surrounding terrain features. Also play around with colour and transparency.

At this stage you should think about what kind of vibe you want for your map. Bright and vibrant colours will create a more modern and lighthearted map, while darker or more faded colours might suggest and older and more serious map.

Tip: There's tons of palette generators online. Use those if you want to create a palette that looks nice together.

Shading is the first step of adding depth to you colours. Use the 'multiply' blending mode for this. Use a soft brush for the first layer of shading. Do some refining if necessary and then pick a hard round brush for the details, such as rigdelines, treetops and roofs.

Tip: Keep in mind where the light is coming from! Nothing ruins the effect more than an inconsisten light source!

Now it's time to add lighting to all our features. We'll follow a similar process, except we'll be using the 'screen' blending mode.

In this last step you'll go over some quick tricks to really make your map pop out! First we'll cover two way's of making your lines blend in with the rest of the map. Next we'll discuss how you can use rhumb lines as a decorative feature for you map. Finally we'll add a parchment texture to the map to create an authentic feel for your map.

Tip: Don't overdo any of these features. It may be tempting to go overboard to do complex designs, but in the end, these are just little extras, and they shouldn't take the focus away form the map itself!