de Fer Cartography: A Free 17th Century Brush Set for Fantasy Maps

[KMAlexander]

I hope everyone in the Northern hemisphere is having a decent beginning to their summer, and those in the southern hemisphere are staying warm.

I'm back with a new free brush set! And for funsies, I decided to create a sample map based on “The Peninsula of the Palm” from Guy Gavriel Kay’s 1990 fantasy novel Tigana. I think it turned out great. (I’ll probably share it in another thread in Finished Maps as well.)



ANYWAY, the set! de Fer Cartography as its name implies is an extensive cartography brush set based on the first plate of de Fer's Le Cours de Missisipi, ou de St. Louis an early 17th-century map depicting headwaters of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes region. The source map itself isn't as accurate as other maps from the time period, but like his other work de Fer's artistic ability is what shines as he goes into extensive detail creating a unique art piece with signs and symbols that stand apart from others and work exceptionally well for fantasy maps.



As with all my other sets, these are distributed under a CC0 license, which means they’re free to use for personal or commercial work, no attribution required! Let me know what you think!



You can read more about de Der Battlefield and download the set over on my blog.



Detailed example:




Some of the symbols:





de Fer Battlefield in use: