If you’ve added some variety to your beans, then you can let certain beans represent certain things. Step Four: Grab a pencil (or a pen, if you’re brave, or crayon if you’re me and that’s literally the only writing utensil you can find in your entire residence) and start sketching land around the beans. Step Three: Hold a handful of your beans over the paper (not too high, only a few inches or so, depending how large your paper is), and drop them, letting them scatter randomly on the page. Step Two: Gather your beans (or rice or dice sets or pasta…or, if you’re me, your toddlers’ sensory bin contents) Step One: Lay out a piece of paper (or a large sheet of paper, or a piece of poster board) on the ground or table. Then, repeat the final steps of method one.

Then, connect them! You can be as adherent or liberal as you want. Using more gives you less empty space, using fewer gives you the opportunity to fill in that space however you want. On a blank paper, draw an assortment of random dots. If you have feedback, please give it! Method Two: Connect the dots I hope you can find it useful! I hope to make more such things in the future. Includes 23 brushes and it’s free to download and use. (It’s always a good place to start, get your creative juices flowing, even if you don’t end up using the maps you create.)Īlso - HERE is a link to the Photoshop brush set I created while making these maps. You can be as random or as intentional as you want, but this method relies almost entirely on your brain and offers little help if you’re stuck. This method gives you a lot of power and control.

I, personally, start adding land forms and cities somewhat randomly, following patterns that make sense and follow regional climates. You’d be amazed at the difference that makes in sketching out landmasses, thinking about them all fitting together in misshapen puzzle pieces.Ĭontinue sketching, if you need to, and then you have a nice(ish) looking thing.įrom there, you can do what suits you. What helps me design islands and–especially–adjacent continents is the theory of continental drift. That’s not meant to be advice, just…a me thing. Inevitably, I see silly faces in my land masses and I always make a point to name them. I usually end up with something like this:Ī single country. I sit down with a pencil (or a drawing tablet, more often) and sketch a wiggly line in a nonsensical shape.

Or, at least, fanning the spark of your idea and developing it further. I’ve done a few things regarding maps in the past, but this will be a more comprehensive look at the physical act of getting the image of your world down on paper.

There are so many ways to go about making a map for your story, that I’m almost intimidated to try and make a useful post.

Fantasy world map creator online