Generating your initial land formations is a quick and painless process, leaving you more time to get into the details - whether that's printing it out with pen and paper, or uploading your map into a separate tool like World Anvil! If you're looking for basic ideas to help you shape your world, then consider using donjon's free fantasy world generator as your muse. donjon Worldbuilding Generators Screengrab: The beauty of this Wonderdraft is that, no matter how many crazy combinations of landscapes you throw at it, it maintains your map's style, allowing you to fearlessly customize to your heart's content. Of course, if you don't like what the software generates for you, you can also use the 'paint' tool and mold the landscape to suit your needs. It can generate countless elements to add to your map if you wish, from rivers and roads to mountains and cities. Wonderdraft's maps are particularly praised for their detailed, beautiful, and indeed Tolkienesque art style, as well as their customizability. Wonderdraft's fantasy map-making software occupies a happy middle ground in size, specializing in creating continental and regional maps. This next entry is one of the pricier pieces of software on this list but it's also one of the best-reviewed. Wonderdraft Wonderdraft fantasy map created by Reddit user Scaphitid-Ammonite So give this fantasy city generator a try and let your imagination run wild in whatever forms you desire.ĥ. After all, no matter where you are, you may notice that the cities near you still retain a lot of their historical layout. Though there are fewer options to manipulate the city maps themselves, chances are you can find a city map that fits your needs or inspires your writing in just the right way.Īnd don't let the generator's name fool you: the cities you generate can fit more than just a medieval landscape. This software can create as many cities as you like, with customizable names (including street names), points of interest, and colors. In that case, you'll love the Medieval Fantasy City Generator by Watabou. Watabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator Screengrab: īut a world marked by dozens of complex divisions isn't for everyone - perhaps your story is set in a single large city or moves between a couple of different cities. If you need a map for a particularly socially and politically driven (or divided) world, then Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator is undoubtedly the one for you! 3. Numerous options allow you to label continents, countries, cities, regions, and even different religions, each of which can divide or unite the map. Of course, if you don't like something in your randomly generated map, Azgaar provides a tool to paint new terrain. This approach is intuitive because the majority of users already have a rough idea of what their world will look like (e.g., 'a big island' or 'hot with lots of mountains'), with the idea to fill in the details later. Azgaar currently provides twelve different rough templates to start your map, ranging from 'Pangea' to 'Volcano'. Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator Screengrab: Īzgaar's Fantasy Map Generator has long been the go-to for fantasy writers and Dungeons and Dragons players alike, with good reason. Not looking to hire a professional? Don't worry - there are plenty of great, cost-free alternatives to choose from below! 2. I used the 'digital sketch and paint' brush to draw my sketch, but really any hard brush will do.Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book. We're going to use the other layer we just created (above the white fill) to draw our line art on. Drop the opacity until you can see your thumbnail concept and make out the shapes. Fill the one above your scaled thumbnail and fill it with white. If you want to see how this would look temporarily, or just check your work, for flaws, you can click the 'flip horizontal' button in the navigator window. To permanently flip your canvas, click the 'edit' tab then mouse down to 'Rotate/Invert canvas', select 'flip horizontal'. Looking at what I had, I decided to flip the canvas so that the viewer's eye might start by looking at the figure with the torch, then flow 'up' the stream and rest at the horizon. I didn't put a lot of thought into the concept sketch or how the viewer's eye might travel across the image. One thing to keep in mind is the 'flow' of your composition.

Drawing fantasy landscape