{"id":5989,"date":"2015-05-26T16:23:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T20:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/05\/mapping-an-ember-in-the-ashes\/"},"modified":"2017-11-18T09:31:04","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T14:31:04","slug":"mapping-an-ember-in-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/05\/mapping-an-ember-in-the-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping An Ember in the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jonathan<\/p>\n

The fantasy cartographer Jonathan Roberts has a blog post<\/a>, reprinted at Tor.com<\/a>, that shows some of the steps involved in creating the map for Sabaa Tahir’s novel An Ember in the Ashes<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

I sometimes get asked how to do a fantasy map. I’m the wrong person to ask, because I’m basically a fantasy map critic<\/em>, not a working illustrator. What the people asking me this question want is an instruction manual for the standard fantasy map, and for that, Roberts is their man, because he’s an actual illustrator. He does operate within the dominant fantasy map paradigm I often critique (though with a good deal more colour and texture than the standard line drawing), but he does it very well, and more importantly shares his methods. Roberts’s blog<\/a> is full of interesting material on how he goes about creating fantasy maps: see for example this tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fantasy cartographer Jonathan Roberts has a blog post, reprinted at Tor.com, that shows some of the steps involved in creating the map for Sabaa Tahir’s novel An Ember in the Ashes. I sometimes get… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[87,31],"class_list":["post-5989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-maps-and-literature","tag-fantasy-map-design","tag-fantasy-maps","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1836218,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/01\/kathleen-jennings-shows-us-how-she-draws-a-fantasy-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":5989,"position":0},"title":"Kathleen Jennings Shows Us How She Draws a Fantasy Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 January 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Kathleen Jennings In addition to being an author in her own right, Kathleen Jennings is an illustrator who draws maps for other fantasy novels. For a recent work\u2014The Wild Huntress by Emily Lloyd-Jones\u2014she takes us behind the scenes, going step by step through the process to create the map. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jennings-wild-huntress-sketches.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jennings-wild-huntress-sketches.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jennings-wild-huntress-sketches.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jennings-wild-huntress-sketches.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jennings-wild-huntress-sketches.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/jennings-wild-huntress-sketches.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":208,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/book-riot-on-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":5989,"position":1},"title":"Book Riot on Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"This\u00a0Book Riot piece on fantasy maps from last September touches on a number of subjects I can never get enough information on:\u00a0the editorial decision on whether to include a map, how\u00a0one becomes a fantasy map maker, what information\u00a0from the author does the map maker have to work with, how the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5992,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/07\/robert-lazzaretti-fantasy-mapmaker\/","url_meta":{"origin":5989,"position":2},"title":"Robert Lazzaretti, Fantasy Mapmaker","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 July 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"Lou Anders interviews fantasy mapmaker Robert Lazzaretti, who drew the maps for Anders's Thrones and Bones series (Frostborn, Nightborn). I can never get enough information about the process of making fantasy maps. Previously: Mapping An Ember in the Ashes; How to Make a Fantasy Map.","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1711,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/04\/a-qa-with-fantasy-cartographer-jonathan-roberts\/","url_meta":{"origin":5989,"position":3},"title":"A Q&A with Fantasy Cartographer Jonathan Roberts","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"23 April 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Quartz\u2019s Corinne Purtill has a Q&A with fantasy cartographer Jonathan Roberts, who drew the maps in\u00a0The Lands of Ice and Fire (see my review). Roberts has a lot of interesting things to say about his work, the differences between the\u00a0Game of Thrones TV show and the books, and fantasy map\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1840139,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/fantasy-mapmaking-tools\/","url_meta":{"origin":5989,"position":4},"title":"Fantasy Mapmaking Tools","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 May 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"I\u2019ve been making note of procedural fantasy map generators for a while now. These are tools that generate a map of an imaginary landscape, town or dungeon, mostly (but not necessarily exclusively) for the purposes of role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The latest to come to my attention is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Games"","block_context":{"text":"Games","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5661,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/12\/how-to-make-a-fantasy-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":5989,"position":5},"title":"How to Make a Fantasy Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 December 2013","format":"link","excerpt":"So today Tor.com posted something very much relevant to my interests: a piece by illustrator Isaac Stewart that describes his process for creating a map for a fantasy novel. In this case, The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley, who very helpfully provided a sketch from which Stewart could work. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6004,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5989\/revisions\/6004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}