How to draw a map you have no idea how to start?

[TrueUndeadHero]

So, I have this world I am working on. It's a Fantasy World, set in the 1830s-1850s of our timeline with some mild colonialism and such (as colonialism was late). I have all these visions of great cities and docks and such, but no idea what the world itself actually looks like. I was curious if you professional map makers had this problem and how you got passed it.

I've made a number of maps, about 5-10 by the time of this post and I am starting to get frustrated. I use Paint.Net, but I am willing to learn "GIMP" if I need to. I just need some advice.

[DrWho42]

by 1830s-1850s, you mean technologically, culturally, etc.; or is it a portal fantasy? either way, you can litter the map with railroads!

[TrueUndeadHero]

Technologically and some cultural elements.

[waldronate]

You should be able to do a bit of worldbuilding to answer questions about the major players and how they relate to each other (which ones are oceanic superpowers, which ones are sharing a land border for conflict, who's allied to whom, where have recent large wars been fought and between who, and so on). Then pick up any fractal world generator, generate some coastlines until you get something with about the right number of major landmasses, draw in your major countries and cities, and finally plop down some mountains and rivers as barriers and transport corridors. Finally, add some roads, railroads, and any world-specific transport systems. Doing things in this order lets you keep things at a very high level while maintaining your necessary conflicts. The rough map will suggest additional conflicts that can lead to good stories (how to build a new port to support extraction of good mineral deposits in otherwise undeveloped lands, how to prevent your enemy from doing that, how to dam up/divert a river to reduce navigability of lower areas or destruction of an important endorheic lake, and so very many others...)

If you're doing an alternative history sort of thing, there are many, many Earth maps available. Slight changes in historic circumstances would likely make huge differences in the layout of today's world. Plus, such maps are usually fairly plausible.

[TrueUndeadHero]

You know, I've been trying to make the continents and hoping that my map will just naturally form. I never thought of making countries and having them form the continent.

[Tiana]

Map making isn't for everyone. I've never found what you're talking about to be frustrating. I map-make the same way I do most of my art, so what I would do if I had the image of a city is draw that city, because obviously that city wants to come out more than the map does. I would probably find that as I drew the city I would learn something about the denizens and at least have maybe a river to work with to form the country and from that river I could figure out the elevation and position the country along a mountain range, and just fill in the middle with pretty details.

But I'm absurdly good at churning out improvisational details. That's why I map-make professionally. I don't actually think it's unreasonable to expect the map to just 'naturally form' because by now, a lot of the time, it does just naturally take shape underneath my pen. I poke the draft, and in my mind, I can see the final image, and just close my eyes to refer to it. It's easy to accidentally forget that no, I didn't start out that way, and all those lil trees used to be hard to position, so hard I couldn't imagine not using tree stamps.

Look at a bunch of reference maps from that time period. Look at maps that inspire you. Fill your mind with images of maps and it'll be what comes out when you put pen to paper.

Above all, don't stress yourself out about it! If you have a vision of a building, then draw that building and get to know that portion of your world. Maybe while drawing the building you will think, "okay, where did the marble come from?" and "how did they transport it here?" and realize where you want a quarry to go.

I USUALLY work big to small (so if I was world building I'd start with tectonics) but you can definitely work small to big too, by considering how small details are born and interact with their surroundings.

[ThomasR]

Map making isn't for everyone.

I'll have to disagree. I am artistically challenged to say the least but mapmaking allowed me to explore and develop some skills in the field. What I've learned is that if you have no idea how your world would look like, you can start with shapes you like (taking inspiration from real world is not an issue at all if you lack the ideas). Doodle (small or big) and some ideas will come. Maybe you'll want less landmasses or more, maybe you'll think a strait here will have cool political consequences (when I say cool, it is story wise).

There are many approaches you can try for biomes, the simpler being polar(dry and cold)/temperate/tropical (dry and hot)/equatorial (hot and moist) and see what makes what on earth. Looking at maps you like in this forum and taking inspiration from some elements. Looking at satellite images is a great inspiration for land shapes, relief placement and biomes oddities (there are always reasons for these oddities).

Some, here, go the tectonic route and search for the most realistic setting possible but it is no obligation. Your world does not have to BE real, it has to feel believable enough. It also has to feel right for you and the story you wanna tell and this comes with observation and experience.

My advice, start something, post some WIPs and you'll get plenty of feedback that'll help you hone your cartographic/worldbuilding skills. Ask for some help, believe me you're in the right place to get valuable and benevolent feedback.

But I strongly believe mapmaking is something everyone can achieve.

[Tiana]

I'll have to disagree. I am artistically challenged to say the least but mapmaking allowed me to explore and develop some skills in the field.

[SNIP]

But I strongly believe mapmaking is something everyone can achieve.

I didn't say it was impossible for anyone to achieve, just that it wasn't FOR everyone. Let me expand. Not everyone is going to be interested in it. Some people's eyes glaze right over when I tell them what I do. I can think of several people in my real life who have no interest in drawing a map, ever, and it's enough that they remember that I do and direct people to me if they run into someone who needs them. Your experience of being non-artistic and turning out to really enjoy the process is your story. I'm glad you found out you love making maps. Your art has inspired me many times in the past and I certainly wouldn't call you artistically challenged anymore, just perhaps artistically focused?

So while I respect your experience, I hold my point. Statistically speaking, the visitors to this site are probably more interested in making maps than most. I imagine almost everyone who comes here either loves maps or wants to learn to make maps.

I believe artistic skills aren't necessary to make a map though, and that anyone who has an interest in map-making could with reasonable time and patience, make a map. The simplest of maps I'm handed to work from might be no more than a few circles with labels and maybe some distance written between them on a line. Certainly no art was needed to decide there would be a castle beside a river 60 km from an active volcano, which has logged most of the nearby oak forest but thickens up as it approaches a lagoon infested by fae and a legendary sea monster. Some imagination, however, was needed. I made it up right now and I could map it. Some other bro's out there right now, though, watching MMA and drinking a lager and he knows all of the baseball scores and hitters and whatever, and he figures anyone could get into craft beer and baseball and the idea of making up a fake world to play games in has never crossed his mind outside of "eh, that's nerd stuff".

I feel like the hobby is taking off in popularity alongside the roleplaying game revival. I get that this is definitely bringing new people in. By no means do I want those people discouraged. I only mean to acknowledge that this is a niche hobby not performed by many other humans.

Having an interest in worldbuilding and map-making puts people in a very interesting creative slot where they consider the impact of what they draw in a socioeconomic perspective too. I know a lot more people who are just artists, who don't actually know how they'd handle all of the data maps require. I've had artist friends ask questions like, "But how do you put all of the text on and make it look good?" or say things like, "I don't think I could handle drawing all of those trees".

And meanwhile they're doing like... vector chibis with a couple dozen different animated poses or something and I'm like, "I don't know how you do THAT and make it look good". So similarly, while I'm artistic and could theoretically learn to do great vector anime sprites for video games... it's just not for me. It's not an art form I feel any desire to explore, and that's fine.

[Redrobes]

A thing I always did when I got stuck is to look at what people would do if placed down at a certain spot. If your dealing with large areas then start to focus smaller and smaller then you will find somewhere that you might want a port or trading post. Maybe a canyon has a passable point or a narrowing on a river. Put a village there. Then maybe count a days wagon ride away and start putting stopping posts there too. Think about whether the location is secure or maybe it needs a fort. Perhaps there is a shortage of a supply - a well, or maybe some services that are cruicial like black smiths, farriers. Can land be farmed and if good soil and secure location then put down farms and ranches. Where there is a need for people to visit a place then rail roads need to go in. From a people perspective, the economics of a place usually sets out most towns and cities. Only when a city is wiped out and destroyed and they rebuild it, or they are setting out with a strong government to start a big place from scratch do you get square blocks and straight roads. Most adapt to the situation.

From a fantasy point of view you have to throw in magic and monstrous creatures. Its a given that castles where magic and dragons exist would look nothing like the ones we had in our medieval times despite it always being the case in most books. Most villages follow natural boundaries or spread out along roads and roads are only there because of a necessity for people to get from one place to another via them. Hilltops garner forts because of the natural defence and lakes provide fish, wildfowl and other food.

On the smaller scale continental maps some people start with tectonics and work out where you might get mountains and then work out weather based on rainfall from the climates dictated from them. Once you have rainfall you can take a good stab at getting the rivers and plasible lakes and then you have enough terrain to start thinking where people, animals and monsters would natually locate themselves and then you have hunting, moving, fishing, agriculture, villages, towns, cities etc.

So either start big and work out land areas and mountains, rainfall etc, or go small and work out from a village and the economics of a place and join up the dots. But I would say that starting in the middle is the hardest to do and not to be advised.

[waldronate]

As Redrobes points out, there are lots of ways to go about this sort of thing. However, the higher level view is to start by answering the question "why do I need a map" (what does it add to your storytelling? Is it a requirement from a publisher? Is it to provide a consistent framework for future storytelling? To establish consistency of travel times?) Those high-level answers will help you with the amount of detail and real-worldness that your map will need. For a lot of folks, a very simple sketchy map will meet all of their storytelling requirements and it's only if they need to share the map that they might move on to fancier visuals. A map showing that this country is over here and this one touches it inappropriately here, while this other one laughs at them both from over a large ocean and yet another wants to sell its discount cotton products into their overly-protectionist woolen goods market and that far-northern seller of salted fish is hoping for them both to go to war so that it can opportunistically raid some of their vassal states would be a useful storytelling aid. Putting pretty pictures of sheep on that map doesn't add much, but adding a couple of strategic mountain ranges whose passes are closed to train traffic in winter might well be very useful for planning on how and where to get a pack of diggers to put in a tunnel.