Westeros is the beating heart of A Song of Ice and Fire. In this map Westeros gets its own official map in the form of a 3 foot by 2 foot poster. Continue reading “The Official Map of Westeros”
The Official Map of Westeros
Tag: fantasy map
Defining Scale using Mountains
I’ve been asked a lot about how to depict different scales recently. The question is – how do you tell the viewer of one map that they’re looking at a zoomed in region of a small area, and on another map convince the viewer that they’re looking at a large area, zoomed out. The easiest cue for the viewer is mountain ranges. These are the feature that’s different enough at different scales that they can act as a defacto scale-bar.
The East
Today we visit the trackless East – land of mystery, off the edge of the known world.
King’s Landing
King’s Landing, heart of power in Westeros, location of the Iron Throne. This city acts as the fulcrum for the plots and machinations of the warring factions of the Seven Kingdoms. This map is something of a dichotomy. It contains more detail than any of the world or regional maps, but fewer named locations. To see the high resolution version, you’ll need to pick up the poster map folio – The Lands of Ice and Fire – but if you want to see some detail shots, read on after the jump. Continue reading “King’s Landing”
How to Draw Swamps
Here’s the breakdown of how I draw lineart for swamps. Continue reading “How to Draw Swamps”
Beyond the Wall
I was wondering which map to post next, and then the weather made the decision for me. I can hardly see downtown Manhattan any more due to the snow outside my window. Winter has definitely come – in early March.
Central Essos
Today we travel to Central Essos – in the heart of the known world.
A Song of Ice and Fire feels evenly split to me between the the action in Westeros and the ongoing adventures of Daenarys Targaryen in central Essos.
The Weather Outside is Frightful
So a pretty hefty snow-dump just landed on NE and I’m inside looking out the window at a very white NYC. We were out last night and a friend was talking about his upcoming travels, to much warmer climes. So today I thought I’d buck the trend of all the snow pictures, and post a map set in the savannah:
Grids in Photoshop
Today, a quick tour of one of the hidden gems of Photoshop – especially for building and structure mapping: The Grid.
From the Archives – Ruined Keep
A while ago I was commissioned to illustrate a three story ruined keep, with a dungeon beneath, for Mongoose Publishing. This was in my pre-Photoshop days (2009). It makes me wince a bit to see the messiness of the linework in these, but they served their purpose for the job at hand, and looking at old work is a good way to gauge progress.
Images © Mongoose Publishing, reproduced with permission