Blaeu: A Free 17th Century Cartography Brush Set for Fantasy Maps

[KMAlexander]

Hey, hey, heyyyyyy, I’m back!

Today I am releasing Blaeu, my seventh free cartography brush set for Photoshop (and GIMP) based on the engravings of Joan Blaeu taken from “Terræ Sanctæ” one of the maps included in the Klencke Atlas—one of the biggest books in the world! (Worth Googling.) As with all my brushes these are free to use for personal or commercial work so have at ‘em!

Hopefully, someone finds these inspiring! Let me know what you think. I'd love to see what you make with them, and please feel free to share this anywhere appropriate.

You can read more about the set and download it over on my blog.

Detailed example:
featuredblaeu.png

Some of the symbols:
blaeusampler.png

Blaeu in use:
instagramblaeu.png

[Rwhyte]

This is awesome! I really like the shadows cast over the ground. Nice work on all of these. Looking forward to exploring all the elements.

[KMAlexander]

Thanks! I like those shadows as well and worked hard to preserve them.

This is one of my favorite sets so far. I like how Blaeu was clearly working within a system, but each sign has a different look and feel. If you look at the cities, they follow a pattern, but the towers and buildings are all different on each. It's great.

A big reason why I include a whole bunch of the same signs is to allow modern map creators to produce a map that doesn't look machine made. Avoiding repetition is a huge part of that.

[markem]

I just went and downloaded these. They look wonderful! So wonderful that I bought one of your books! :-)

[KMAlexander]

Thanks, markem! Can't wait to see what you make with them.
I actually just finished up the first draft of my latest manuscript, which in turn freed up a little time, so I am hard at work on my next set.

Also, thank you for picking up a book. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.