Author: Jon

How to Draw Roads on a Map (with the Stroke Tool)

Parallel lines are a good way to indicate a road on a map. But drawing parallel lines is next to impossible. Photoshop to the rescue – there’s a simple trick to get this effect quickly and easily. Continue reading “How to Draw Roads on a Map (with the Stroke Tool)”

A map of Danelaw Britain

I can never predict my next client – something that came very true when I was approached by Inkshares to create a map for Gary Whitta’s debut novel Abomination. Now Gary has an interesting background: writer for Star Wars, Book of Eli, and – of course – After Earth, for which I did the expanded universe maps. Though we both have 1 degree of Will Smith, it turned out that it was pure chance that Inkshares came to me for a map of Danelaw Britain.

Continue reading “A map of Danelaw Britain”

Where is Hardhome?

The ruined town of Hardhome is northeast of Castle Black, at the end of Storrold’s point, north of the Wall, but alarmingly close.

map of the location of hardhome
© George RR Martin 2012, used with permission

At the end of episode 8 we leave Jon Snow and Tormund Giantsbane on a boat looking at the army of the dead. So where did they come from? And how far is the army of the dead from the Wall? Continue reading “Where is Hardhome?”

Mapping Slaver’s Bay

I’ve been building a web based hex mapper for a few months, and I thought it would be fun to put it through it’s paces mapping Slaver’s Bay (the official map is here for comparison). If this catches your interest and you’d like to be an alpha tester – here’s the sign up form.

Here’s the result:

SlaversBay
Slaver’s Bay, click to see it larger.

A few observations for next steps for the tool:

  • I need blasted wasteland – hills+volcanoes don’t do Valyria justice
  • Pins with titles aren’t enough to label regions, like Slaver’s Bay or the Gulf of Grief
  • I need better deserts, and cliffs
  • Roads don’t show up well enough on deserts.

Other than those notes, this went surprisingly well. I may well continue to expand out this map with more of Essos. Of course, if you want a big map, you can always grab the huge poster maps I drew for Lands of Ice and Fire :).