Map Making The World: Part 2-Tsya

I treat map making the same way I treat writing– if my instincts tell me it doesn’t work, then I gotta change something.

This blog series will help me finish my book images on time. I’ll be sharing my map making experience every Wednesday until the images are done.

In the last post, Map Making: The World, I shared the start of my world map for Chains of the Sciell.

I’m doing it land by land. This is a close up of Tysa.

As an experiment, I wanted see what the map would look like with a parchment background. I found a free royalty-free image on DeviantART. I’ve said this before, I love that site for map making. It has free downloadable images and brushes. For most, all you have to do is credit the artist and/or send them a link to your finished product.

I got the parchment from ElissaKarminakria.

Not bad. I like the texture. As another experiment, I decided to turn the parchment into a pattern and apply it to my lands instead.

Much better! Here’s how Tsya looks finished. I added rivers, mountains and country names.

I’m actually quite proud of this. I usually leave documents and images I’m working on open all the time. I keep going to Photoshop just to look at my maps. They make me so happy.

I got the mountains and trees from a brush set on DeviantART. Sketchy Cartography Brushes by StarRaven

Here’s a simple guide on how to covert images to patterns: Photoshop Help /Creating patterns

Note: When you’re making a pattern out of the parchment image, you should select the entire image– not just a small portion of it. At first, I turned a small section of the image into a pattern. That section wasn’t big enough to fill the entire land. The results looked terrible.When you follow the steps in the Photoshop guide, select the entire image to turn into a pattern.

You’ve probably noticed a new landmass at the bottom of the World Map. Meet Sorin.

Tsya is where architecture is born. Sorin is where weapons are born.

Creating this landmass was…interesting. With Tsya, I had an idea of how I wanted the land to look. With Sorin, I had no idea. Using the Brush Tool, I created a big brown blob, then I shaped it with the Eraser Tool. I didn’t like the first couple of tries, so I consulted the map cheat sheets I mentioned in the first post of the series. I used them as a guide to shape my land and that’s what came out of it. I’m happy with. On to the mountains!

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First Time Traveling to the Adirondack Mountains

Fantasy Map Making: A Quick Guide