Maps that illustrate fantastic worlds or lean more towards the artistic side than the solely factual side have always fascinated me, and I hoped that I would gain some tips and tricks for working on my own fictional maps.

This book mainly focuses on city/street maps and maps of actual places–not on creating your own fictional worlds via maps–which wasn’t what I was expecting. Each of the four author/illustrators use a different media approach–pencil and watercolor, Illustrator and Photoshop, and ink–to illustrate artistic renditions of cities, natural areas, childhood neighborhoods, and fact maps. It was fun to see how each illustrator detailed their process, from initial idea of what to map and what major landmarks to include, to the final project, all of which were art gallery worthy pieces!

While I’m not really a fan of these types of maps that focus more on the hip places and culture of a city by using big illustrations of landmarks rather than on the actual navigation, seeing how other artists work is still an inspiration. I didn’t gain any tips that I could find myself applying to my own mapmaking at this point, but it was still an enlightening look at the process in general.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. Four well-known artists provide suggestions on drawing tools, professional tips and step-to-step guides on how they create hand-drawn and digital maps. The page design and provided finished artworks are unbelievably gorgeous, and I know even if there aren't any tutorials, I would still add it to my collection. I love the part of creating visual details for every single location, personalizing an illustrated map makes a trip even more meaningful and memorable. Imagine creating a map for every trip to a new country and put them on your bedroom wall --- as you look at the maps you created, not only do they remind you of the trips you had, but also you're visually looking at your journey all over the wall!
With this book in hand, I will start creating my own after I finish my next trip, and I won't hesitate to grab a copy when this book hit the shelves.
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Overall: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Appealing: 5/5
Content: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5
Page Design: 5/5
Will I buy it? YES.

This book highlights four well known map-making artists. Learn about their techniques using different media, including pen and ink, watercolor, mixed media and digital tools. The maps are beautiful and unique, and while I love all things cartography, I was looking for a bit more about map-making in general, and perhaps more than work from 4 artists. I think an artist or graphic designer currently working with maps would appreciate this book very much.

Thank you Netgalley and Quarto-Walter Foster Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Easy to follow and well illustrated.

A lot of good tips to making a fun and informative map while still being easy to follow and not so detailed that it becomes complicated.

I learned so much about the art of map making. Such gorgeous pictures and illustrations. I learned a lot about art.

This book surprised me in many ways. It has information on hand-drawn/illustrated maps and on digitally made maps. There are how-tos and a lot of information on which materials to use. What really grabbed my attention - and made me sharpen my pencils - were the wonderful pictures of artistic maps. I wanted to try it out myself. I might add some maps to my future travel diaries.

I'm considering making this book a coffee table book, just because of the pictures.

Very informative and easy to follow. I love this book and how helpful it is.

A lovely book that shows you how to create interactive maps. The tutorials are very helpful with colourful illustrations.

Inspirational and creative. This books shows you how to create smart and interactive maps. The tutorials are helpful with easy illustrated instructions and interesting sources.

The Art of Map Illustration is a colourful, interesting read. However, it was not entirely what I'd expected. It focused strongly on cities and real places, whereas I had anticipated at least one chapter looking at creating fantasy maps and works of pure imagination. That said, for those interested in modern cartography that incorporates cartoon-style imagery, this is a useful text, particularly since it outlines techniques for both traditional and digital map making. It is a vibrant, nicely presented book. I only wish it had been a little broader in its scope. As such, I would give it 3.5 stars. This is probably not a book that will interest fantasy writers wishing to create maps for their worlds, but it will be pertinent for people such as travel bloggers, who may like to include quirky maps in their posts to illustrate their trips, or journal enthusiasts, who include artwork in their BuJo to commemorate a trip.