What's in a World

I like to draw my worlds flat. Not sure why, other than that it simplifies things considerably.

North is always to the top of the page. World are always surrounded by oceans. I guess that's how I came up with the idea of The Great Sea. Water separates the worlds.

Worlds have mountains. Got to have mountains. The mountains create rivers which wind about and often fill basins to make lakes. Thick forests surround most lakes. Swampy regions, too. I like grassy plains and hot, arid land.

I like to draw worlds. I've drawn dozens upon dozens of them. Some (most) never do become associated with a story. Some do. Sometimes I have a story and create a world to put it in. Sometimes I have a world and create a story to go with it.

My favorite map was my original map for Swords of Fire. It's long gone now. Accidentally tossed in the garbage. Pity. I created it on a very large pieces of paper.

When I first left home I had no furniture beyond a small bumper pool table. One day, my mother showed up with some moving guys in tow. She had bought me a kitchen table, a recliner chair, and a box spring and mattress for a double bed. Which I did not have. The mattress was wrapped in brown paper, about twice the thickness of a grocery bag. That brown paper became my first map. It was really cool. Gone now.

I think what I may do some day is purchase a canvass. You can get them at art shops. Stephen used to make his own. He had got so he could put one together very quickly.

Anyway, I am going to buy a canvass and some paint. Probably acrylic. Oils are cool, but they're harder to clean. Then I'm going to paint me a world map. Mountains. Forests. Rivers. Arid places. All color coded. I like color coding.