This map style has been updated. Check this post for samples.
Here are a couple maps made to resemble the epic collaboration of JRR (oops, turns out it was Christopher) Tolkien and Pauline Baynes. I would consume every little pen stroke as a kid, poring over the insert maps of Middle Earth in my sister’s LOTR set (which mysteriously now live on my shelf)…
The two killer features of this hand-drawn cartographic style are the strongly linear mountain chains and the densely clustered discrete forests.
Getting a forest effect like this, with a clean edge and row of trunks, in a digital environment is tricky, and it puzzled me for a while. I felt like butter scraped over too much toast. But I figured out how to replicate that effect and was off to the races. Here are a couple maps without any paper or ink…
If you are interested in trying out making digital Middle Earths, here is an ArcGIS Pro style file with all the doodads you’ll need. If you don’t run that, then here is a zip file with all of the textures and graphics that you can use to symbolize your layers.
Here is a look at how the forest symbol was layered to get the right look…
And the placement of the mountain graphics for a fill pattern…
If you are interested in a bigger version with more details and more landcover types, here is a Tolkien-esque map of the Americas. I hope you give the style a try, or download the textures and build your own maps from scratch. This map style has a built-in following of enthusiastic folks who were enchanted by maps from a young age. There’s no reason that enchantment has to stop at the back cover.
Happy Mapping! John
Adventures In Mapping 
Very much interested!
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I love maps!!!Thank you for creating this amazing blog.
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i would certainly be interested! 🙂
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So yes! Both can’t wait for the style files and also would prefer to get my teaching finished for the year first…
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You, sir, are the Devil.
Or genius; I can’t decide yet.
Thank you, great work!
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Any QGIS port… ?
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You can use the images I link to to build your own map/style in your system of choice.
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Do you have a license for these? Are they public domain? Or cc by? https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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You can just use them.
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What font are you using for the writing?
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Aniron by Pete Klassen.
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there’s still a noticeable pattern of repetition in the forests and mountains which defies the purpose imho. might be interesting to aim for something like an algorithm that actually draws this stuff like a human would, with all the doubts along the way 😉
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Options to use this in ArcGIS Online?
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I made it in Pro, but it wouldn’t be hard to tile up for AGO.
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This blog is amazing! Both the content and the minimal design.
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It’s “poring” not “pouring”.
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Holy crap, I never knew that! thanks.
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Hi there,
I submitted this post to Hacker News, and lots of people loved reading it! There were a few people that might go off and make an Open Street Map tileserver with these wonderful graphics.
Anyway link if you’re interested -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17963159
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Yes thanks Patrick! To export these as basemap tiles would be super simple.
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You just went from John Nelson the Grey, to John Nelson the White. Thanks for all the amazing blog posts. Your work is inspiring.
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Ha! Thanks Aaron. I didn’t even have to smite a Balrog’s ruin on a mountain to get there.
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How do you get the orange titles to appear since they are designated as “areas”
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they are area labels.
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John would it in anyway be possible to use these map textures (trees, mountains, etc.) in Photoshop as I don’t have ArcGIS.
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Hi Gilon! Well they are collections of graphics I’ve drawn and ArcGIS sprinkles them into the appropriate areas. Here are some beautiful brush resources I’ve found via The Cartographers’ Guild that you might find helpful. https://www.deviantart.com/starraven/art/Sketchy-Cartography-Brushes-198264358
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I think I’m confused about how you made these maps. Did you essentially make the ArcGIS equivalent of Photoshop brushes or is there some sort of translation that ArcGIS Pro is doing to place the representations of rivers, mountains, etc for you?
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It’s a combination of both of these I suppose. Specifically, I am using an ArcGIS Pro “style”. A style is a collection of symbol resources that you can apply to your data. Here are a collection of styles I’ve made: https://www.esriurl.com/nelsonstyles
Regarding how Pro knows were to draw the specific landcover graphics, the underlying vector data is a set of polygons delineating global landform types. I’ve just created a thematic map linking the landform type attribute to the style fill that it best matches.
Hope this helps!
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I think I got it. Just having trouble getting ArcGIS to apply the style to the map. Maybe I need to download those other maps you were using in your Americas? I’m quite new to all of this.
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In Pro’s symbology window (if you’ve added the style to the project) there is a Gallery tab. Choose that to see the Felt style and apply them to your features.
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How do I run this program? It asked me what to use, and I tried all of the options (like Word, InternetExplorer, Paint, and more) but none of which worked.
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This is a style file resource for ArcGIS Pro, a mapping tool.
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You are a hero to me for posting and sharing your assets!
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