SANJIESAN LORE / Terrain studies
Turn a fictional hill outline into a readable height study
Nested lines on a fantasy map can suggest height without expressing a coherent landform. USGS describes contours as connections between equal elevations and identifies the contour interval as the height difference between adjacent lines. For a small invented hill, use those relationships to coordinate the map and the scene sketch.
Choose a simple landform and interval
Sketch one hill with a broad side and a steeper side. Choose an illustrative height interval in the project’s stated units and keep it the same through this study. Label enough lines to make the direction of increasing height clear. Do not mix several intervals merely to make the drawing more dramatic. The study can remain rough, but a collaborator should be able to tell which part rises and which part falls.
Draw a section through a scene location
Mark a path across the hill and choose two places where a scene might occur. Draw a rough side section along that path using the labelled heights as a guide. Compare it with the dramatic landscape sketch. If a gentle approach becomes an enormous cliff only in the illustration, decide which design you want and reconcile the two. This is a consistency exercise for fictional terrain, not evidence of a surveyed route.
Keep the map’s marks separate from the land
A character does not encounter a painted contour line on the hillside. Write their experience through slope, footing, view and effort, using only the details relevant to the scene. Keep the contour study in the working reference if the reader map uses another style. The underlying height relationship can survive even when the final artwork replaces technical lines with shading or simplified mountain symbols.