These are some drawings of fantasy town maps I did a while ago since I was interested in drawing them for stuff like DnD and my own stories. I found a tutorial online (Drawing a Town Map (for DnD) by WASD20) and did these three drawings based on what I learned from there, each with a slightly bigger town.
For all these drawings I used pencil on A4 paper first then drew over with a variety of fineliner pens ranging from 0.1 to 1.0. Since I write my real name on my paper drawings when I scan the I cover them while adding the watermark (which I’m still getting the hang of)
The first town is more of a small village. I followed the instructions though not copying the design in the tutorial. I wrote the steps from the tutorial on the side so I could refer to them while drawing but they’re written in pencil so it might be hard to read).
This is where I found the technique of drawing paths with thin, uneven and broken lines to be rather effective; especially with drawing dirt roads, it was most helpful with differentiating the buildings with the roads. I even tried differentiating the buildings with whether it has a chimney or not. The fences and rocks were not as clear as I’d hoped, unlike the farmland and pastures. (And I drew the bridge, after, the river…)
This town is a proper town, a bit more of an ambitious goal and using the whole A4 page.
I tried adding a paved road with a small stream running through it and other elements; such as (from left to right) a cliff, a lumber yard, a castle/grand house and watermill. I am happy with the differentiation between the dirt path and paved path. I think this one has slightly better building designs in regards to chimney and roofing styles, and though the fences are getting better there is room for improvement. Drawing the trees and rocks are fine… individually. Still working out how to draw forests at this point.
I wanted to challenge myself and drew a town within walls they would’ve used for defense. I put all (but one) habitable buildings within the walls and put some of the barns and storehouses outside where all the paddocks and crops were. There’s one house in the forest at the top, two windmills near the bottom of the forest, even a garrison with a ditch around it on the very right wall. For the fences, I did just decide to draw a very thick line but tried to differentiate them with different lines to indicate where it was a ploughed field, a sown field, still growing crops or just grass. I am happy with the trees in the forest for this one, it took a while, but I’m happy. It looks a bit more unplanned and wild since not all trees in the forest would be the same size or shape.
My original idea was to redraw them using digital brushes, but I’m still experimenting with that since I haven’t found a brush or style I like.