I watched this with my 8 yr old son, and he went and got paper and a pen and started drawing a map. He used the twisted woods idea and drew big city markers and put the circles around them. Then we drew a map together. It was a lot of fun. I have never seen him so excited to draw a map before like that. Thanks for the great video. I took a lot of inspiration from it.
I cant believe it. Im sitting here trying to sketch exactly this type of landmark for my map of Amn and Im struggling hard. And here you come, saving my day again! Your Vids are great man! Keep up the good work!
When you added the sun shining in the illustration for Sunwell Point, I thought it would be interesting to make that a thing for a couple of cities. Each would have an simple icon -- like a sun or a moon or a strangely angular spiral or whatever -- that would break out of a different part of the city's circular frame. Not every city needs one, for sure! Just a few cities that could use a bit more identity or that are linked together in some way. The frames need not be circles, or even all the same shape. Some cities could have dark backgrounds or solid borders instead of the double-lined kind; the border could be drawn to suggest a wall... there are lots of possibilities for slight variations that would still look like a unified style but make the reader ask, "why is this city different from the others"!
I personally like the last map you showed the most. Probably because I like having a proper scale to the maps. Like Mountains beeing the biggest and Forests and Cities beeing the smalles. But yours do have something to them aswell which I like.
Seeing the variations from the other artist was really helpful! The first D&D map I worked on had these token-like elements just without the circles, and it ended being a fun way to look back on our adventures
very cool Nate -thanks for more inspiration - i would definitely use a circle drawer as my shaking ovals would make it look like an earthquake or teleportation was happening...
If you want some more ideas on how to do this sort of location marker, this is exactly what Baldur's Gate 1 did with its world map. Every area in the game, be it a wilderness zone, a small town, or one of the segments of the city of Baldur's Gate itself, has a marker like this. There's a lot of ideas for wilderness zones in that game - might be useful if you're looking to make a more instanced sort of map - several major points of interest, and brushing over the travel between those points.
Just had to say that I stumbled on your page the other day, never really thinking about drawing my own maps. I binge watched a bunch of your videos, and opened up my iPad and started drawing. Honestly, I surprised the heck out of myslef! Without your videos and great explanations (quick and easy) it would probably have looked terrible and I would have deleted it and moved on! So, thanks! Now you have me hooked on drawing maps - even just to draw them! I had a blast!
oooh i had great fun trying this out !! i first gave it a go on an experiment where i used this kind of style to recreate central hyrule , now im hoping to do the whole map !! (ah projects, theres 14 sections im 4 down lol) so far though ive used this location method to highlight; the temple of time, hyrule castle, kakariko and hateno villages, fort hateno, the sacred springs, coliseum and lanayru promenade ! i also used a couple of highlighted circles for important areas otherwise like large mountains or points of interest ... it was also useful for covering over some points that might have been difficult to draw or convey what was there in detail so very recommend if youre going for a story-esque fantastical kind, almost like a sightseeing guide maybe ?
I have collected quite an assortment of templates over the years (35yrs) of art. Archetectual, technical, and shape templates are fantastic tools for any artist. I've been free hand mapping for awhile now and like Nate only recently perfected and locked in my design technique for both speed and ease, and consistency throughout all my maps. I have my own game system and host league play with many groups and need maps often. I also run alot of teach and train events for world/adventure building as well. I recommend Nates videos often. Great video as usual. Hope all is well. Michigan weather will be turning to snow soon enough so we will have a lot of "indoor activity" time for mapping. Great stuff Nate. I really like your mapping progress up to this point. Love the final product.
Cool technique! I've seen it done before but for some reason never occured to me to use it in my own work. I'll definitely include it, as i struggle with readability of some of my landmarks. Thanks!
Excellent technique Nate. I can't wait to try it out. I recommend putting a piece of masking tape on the back of your templates if you're going to ink with them. This lifts the template off of the paper, preventing you from smearing the line as you lift the template. It also helps you avoid any ink bleeding/wicking under the template that might occur if the template is in direct contact with the paper.
woah! that looks really cool! wish i was better at map making so that i could recreate the scroll of dragons at the beginning of the Wings Of Fire books!
Nate! Wow - congratulations on your channel's awesome success! I took a few years off from mine to go to grad school and now I'm wondering if that was a good move - haha! All kidding aside, congrats and this map video is awesome!
the one i always love too is the crest of the family or whatever that lives/rules there, or the portrait of the leader of that location. kings, mayors, lords, noblemen and women etc
That's a very nice style. I will put on the list of things I need to try out. Thanks for sharing! I finally joined the Discord. Might share the map I made while following your beginner's tutorial. I am still very impressed by how it turned out.
The big issue I have when drawing my maps is I tend to mess up the scaling. And I figured out why watching this video. I draw my mountains too big and it makes the rest of the landmass look much smaller and gives me less space to work with. I don't know why it suddenly just clicked for me. So thanks my guy. Not only did you give me a cool new way to do my cities, but you also solved a problem I've been having for a while now. My next map is gonna be so much better now.
I really like the idea of using such markers for natural locations as well. And your mention of underground locations got me thinking - how about an underwater cave? Or maybe a sunken ship on the oceans floor? I think that would be really cool as well :)
I have noticed on really old maps that include the sea or an ocean, there are very often monsters like sea serpents, ship wrecks, mighty kraken or even treasure chests etc. Where there are vast mountain ranges or unknown lands, monsters are indicated by the use of three headed ogres, dragons, phoenix, and flying lizards. Can you do an episode where you explore these elements, what causes them to be there and what other creatures could be lurking and how they should be drawn ?
Consider big enemies. Legendary enemies take residence in legendary lairs and these ought to be considered, lots of sources on UA-cam for inspiration on where monsters like to call home
@@dindapriska especially if the building in question is obscured from general view by other buildings, like if your city map has a 3d perspective to it
When I name my map locations, I usually take names of finnish lakes, rivers, cities and towns. Then I just literally translate them in english. It got me some interesting names.
Have you ever tried a pantograph for making different scales of a map you had already made? I stumbled upon a video on them for general art and am thinking of getting one as I suck at reproducing coastlines for when I want multiple maps at differing scales.
Was wondering if you could do a series on making fictional characters into D&D characters. I'm looking to do a campaign with my daughters and making disney princesses as characters. So doing a stat block where Elsa is a powerful ice wizard and pocahontas is like a druid and some other princess is a bard. I think it would be cool to see the process on filling out a character sheet based off a real/fictional character.
Where can I go to submit my map to you? I think you'll love it and I would love some feedback wheather it's on a new video like ones previous or just personal I don't care. It's the map of my world in my book I'm publishing so any info or thoughts could really help.
A good name for your astounding map may be Iltharia or Elkimar. I think they may sound kind of Elvish, but maybe they are the ones that named this land. I don’t know the various magical, religious and etc practices of your world, so maybe elves don’t exist. If that is the case then Ormalgen may be a good name, or Terthalys.
This new mapping technique is pretty neat. Are your links to the map drawing items affiliate codes? The HTML looks like it and I really dislike when people aren't honest when they get a kickback for making sales.
I watched this with my 8 yr old son, and he went and got paper and a pen and started drawing a map. He used the twisted woods idea and drew big city markers and put the circles around them. Then we drew a map together. It was a lot of fun. I have never seen him so excited to draw a map before like that. Thanks for the great video. I took a lot of inspiration from it.
ooohhh that looks cool.
idea I had along the way, you could use hexagons or octogons for difference countries/allignment what ever
That's actually really smart, I might use that
A really good idea. Or you could use the differing shapes to denote different population sizes like towns or cities.
Patrick, like a reference to dice sizes for city/population size
You could also use different colours for the outlines for allegiance or maybe dominant race?
I cant believe it. Im sitting here trying to sketch exactly this type of landmark for my map of Amn and Im struggling hard. And here you come, saving my day again! Your Vids are great man! Keep up the good work!
Haha! Nice! Made my day, Jacky. I knew there was a reason for this video.
Loving this technique, i will try it in the map i am drawing right now!
When you added the sun shining in the illustration for Sunwell Point, I thought it would be interesting to make that a thing for a couple of cities. Each would have an simple icon -- like a sun or a moon or a strangely angular spiral or whatever -- that would break out of a different part of the city's circular frame. Not every city needs one, for sure! Just a few cities that could use a bit more identity or that are linked together in some way.
The frames need not be circles, or even all the same shape. Some cities could have dark backgrounds or solid borders instead of the double-lined kind; the border could be drawn to suggest a wall... there are lots of possibilities for slight variations that would still look like a unified style but make the reader ask, "why is this city different from the others"!
I personally like the last map you showed the most. Probably because I like having a proper scale to the maps. Like Mountains beeing the biggest and Forests and Cities beeing the smalles. But yours do have something to them aswell which I like.
Seeing the variations from the other artist was really helpful! The first D&D map I worked on had these token-like elements just without the circles, and it ended being a fun way to look back on our adventures
very cool Nate -thanks for more inspiration - i would definitely use a circle drawer as my shaking ovals would make it look like an earthquake or teleportation was happening...
Rewatching your older map videos always helps me with creating my own maps. Thanks for all your great work
If you want some more ideas on how to do this sort of location marker, this is exactly what Baldur's Gate 1 did with its world map. Every area in the game, be it a wilderness zone, a small town, or one of the segments of the city of Baldur's Gate itself, has a marker like this. There's a lot of ideas for wilderness zones in that game - might be useful if you're looking to make a more instanced sort of map - several major points of interest, and brushing over the travel between those points.
Just had to say that I stumbled on your page the other day, never really thinking about drawing my own maps. I binge watched a bunch of your videos, and opened up my iPad and started drawing. Honestly, I surprised the heck out of myslef! Without your videos and great explanations (quick and easy) it would probably have looked terrible and I would have deleted it and moved on! So, thanks! Now you have me hooked on drawing maps - even just to draw them! I had a blast!
oooh i had great fun trying this out !! i first gave it a go on an experiment where i used this kind of style to recreate central hyrule , now im hoping to do the whole map !! (ah projects, theres 14 sections im 4 down lol)
so far though ive used this location method to highlight; the temple of time, hyrule castle, kakariko and hateno villages, fort hateno, the sacred springs, coliseum and lanayru promenade ! i also used a couple of highlighted circles for important areas otherwise like large mountains or points of interest ...
it was also useful for covering over some points that might have been difficult to draw or convey what was there in detail so very recommend if youre going for a story-esque fantastical kind, almost like a sightseeing guide maybe ?
Civilization vi have a ton of templates for buildings and natural wonders that might help you guys get inspired.
Worth take a look
"A good artist knows how to make mistakes look beautiful."
My 3rd grade teacher told me that once
I have collected quite an assortment of templates over the years (35yrs) of art. Archetectual, technical, and shape templates are fantastic tools for any artist. I've been free hand mapping for awhile now and like Nate only recently perfected and locked in my design technique for both speed and ease, and consistency throughout all my maps. I have my own game system and host league play with many groups and need maps often. I also run alot of teach and train events for world/adventure building as well. I recommend Nates videos often. Great video as usual. Hope all is well. Michigan weather will be turning to snow soon enough so we will have a lot of "indoor activity" time for mapping. Great stuff Nate. I really like your mapping progress up to this point. Love the final product.
Man your maps are so cool! I get a sens of your Passion when you talk about it and the ideas are really inspirational.
Cool technique! I've seen it done before but for some reason never occured to me to use it in my own work.
I'll definitely include it, as i struggle with readability of some of my landmarks.
Thanks!
Excellent technique Nate. I can't wait to try it out. I recommend putting a piece of masking tape on the back of your templates if you're going to ink with them. This lifts the template off of the paper, preventing you from smearing the line as you lift the template. It also helps you avoid any ink bleeding/wicking under the template that might occur if the template is in direct contact with the paper.
Hey Nate I really would like you to continue vids like this I've improved so much cause of you
Thanks! They'll definitely continue. :)
woah! that looks really cool! wish i was better at map making so that i could recreate the scroll of dragons at the beginning of the Wings Of Fire books!
That's a really cool process. I like the idea of calling it a window into the city.
Nate! Wow - congratulations on your channel's awesome success! I took a few years off from mine to go to grad school and now I'm wondering if that was a good move - haha! All kidding aside, congrats and this map video is awesome!
Thanks! :)
the one i always love too is the crest of the family or whatever that lives/rules there, or the portrait of the leader of that location. kings, mayors, lords, noblemen and women etc
That's a very nice style. I will put on the list of things I need to try out. Thanks for sharing!
I finally joined the Discord. Might share the map I made while following your beginner's tutorial. I am still very impressed by how it turned out.
I like the idea of highlighting just the most iconic structure or land mark of a big city instead of trying to draw a miniature city.
I love this idea for marking areas. I plan to try out this idea for my upcoming maps.
I started using this technique in my maps and it's turning out beautifully! Thanks!
The big issue I have when drawing my maps is I tend to mess up the scaling. And I figured out why watching this video. I draw my mountains too big and it makes the rest of the landmass look much smaller and gives me less space to work with. I don't know why it suddenly just clicked for me. So thanks my guy. Not only did you give me a cool new way to do my cities, but you also solved a problem I've been having for a while now. My next map is gonna be so much better now.
I love your drawings. Hope to see more in the future
I think the last variation you show is a good way to fill empty paper without hindering the detail around your location.
Really amazing brother! Keep up the great vidz.
Thanks so much!
I really like the idea of using such markers for natural locations as well. And your mention of underground locations got me thinking - how about an underwater cave? Or maybe a sunken ship on the oceans floor? I think that would be really cool as well :)
Great ideas! Thanks, Conny.
Very, intuitive I didn't see this it this way. I will try to make one myself
You are the internet's Bob Ross of fantasy cartography!
I have noticed on really old maps that include the sea or an ocean, there are very often monsters like sea serpents, ship wrecks, mighty kraken or even treasure chests etc.
Where there are vast mountain ranges or unknown lands, monsters are indicated by the use of three headed ogres, dragons, phoenix, and flying lizards.
Can you do an episode where you explore these elements, what causes them to be there and what other creatures could be lurking and how they should be drawn ?
Thank you! You helped me learn about d&d because my friends kept asking me to play
Great Vid! When I get to a region map going to definitely try this technique.
I was extremely lucky to find this channel. Keep up the excellent work.
Thanks, will do!
Consider big enemies. Legendary enemies take residence in legendary lairs and these ought to be considered, lots of sources on UA-cam for inspiration on where monsters like to call home
Not usually my favorite style of map, but I gotta admit that it’s incredible.
Your so good at drawing maps
Thank you for all the tips!
I actually want to see you applying this technique to a city-size map
Like for specific city landmarks such as temples, palaces, taverns etc? Cool
@@alannah-maedawson9225 Yeah, like that
Though I think this technique works best for big and/or crowded city maps
@@dindapriska especially if the building in question is obscured from general view by other buildings, like if your city map has a 3d perspective to it
Such a cool idea. I’m going to give it a try!
Just found this channel, love it
Awesome, thank you!
Nate at 8:44 : did this dude just call himself a genius?, hwo does that?
me: donal trump
When I name my map locations, I usually take names of finnish lakes, rivers, cities and towns. Then I just literally translate them in english.
It got me some interesting names.
This looks really great.
Looks absolutely fantastic and also looks easier to make with digital tools. anyway, great content again! XD
Never change Nate....Never change
Have you ever tried a pantograph for making different scales of a map you had already made? I stumbled upon a video on them for general art and am thinking of getting one as I suck at reproducing coastlines for when I want multiple maps at differing scales.
I notice you didn't include the sketchpad in the links for your supplies in the description. What sketchpad is it?
Well, it seems that staying awake until 1 am has its benefits, if I can see a new video right when it comes out
Dm for the first time next week can’t wait
Stick with it, it's a source 😁👍
Like incredibly good
Looks great!
Love the vids!
I like the bit where the map gets drawn
Do you have a link to a copy of this map ? 🤔 Pretty good drawing I should say 😊
So will you be adding this to your digital toolset as well?
Also great work
Yes, The map I made a couple months ag that I showed toward the end was done digitally.
When you were drawing the trees for the wizard's tower, I sorta hopped you'd say they were "happy little trees"...
Haha. I've used that joke too many times already. :P
Was wondering if you could do a series on making fictional characters into D&D characters. I'm looking to do a campaign with my daughters and making disney princesses as characters. So doing a stat block where Elsa is a powerful ice wizard and pocahontas is like a druid and some other princess is a bard. I think it would be cool to see the process on filling out a character sheet based off a real/fictional character.
Where can I go to submit my map to you? I think you'll love it and I would love some feedback wheather it's on a new video like ones previous or just personal I don't care. It's the map of my world in my book I'm publishing so any info or thoughts could really help.
probably in his discord server
Yep
This guy is super cool! ☺☺☺☺
Waterfalls or other natural wonders like from civ (videogame)
Could you draw the map of Skyrim in your style? Or even Tamriel?
A good name for your astounding map may be Iltharia or Elkimar. I think they may sound kind of Elvish, but maybe they are the ones that named this land. I don’t know the various magical, religious and etc practices of your world, so maybe elves don’t exist. If that is the case then Ormalgen may be a good name, or Terthalys.
Maybe try Durathon for the title?
Nice! I'll have 2 use that technique for my political maps.
A city up in the trees? Dragonlance fans knows this well
3:30 For that one? I think you searched for the tower of London.
Please tell me when is the next mapenning
Not sure!
@@WASD20 Ok thanks
This new mapping technique is pretty neat.
Are your links to the map drawing items affiliate codes?
The HTML looks like it and I really dislike when people aren't honest when they get a kickback for making sales.
They sure are! I'll add a note to the description.
sort of similar like gothic map did. important things were drawn big. well circles are not included there..
Sooo little comments
I have an idea. Maybe you can have select quotes from important peoples from your map world.🌍🌎🌏
Hmm. Tell me more about this. Sounds very interesting, but I’m not sure I am understanding.
Ive seen old maps with quotes from historical figures on them. Possibly have them in scrolls for artistic effect.
Oh! Yes, that’s great. I like the idea.
anyone has a tip to draw a foggy swamp? I'm creating a heavly foggy swamp and i can't do something that look nice. Sorry about my english, its a wip.
Dude how do you look so good when you’re a bald dude who plays DnD yk.