Dragon Age map artist collects 250 hand-painted worlds in book
The maps behind Dragon Age, Warcraft and Diablo started as watercolour on paper.
Francesca Baerald painted them by hand, and now she is gathering more than 250 of them in one place.
The result is Unbound - The Cartography Art Book by Francesca Baerald, an oversized volume printed at A3 size. That format is about twice the area of a standard magazine page. It leaves room for coastlines, mountain ranges, city plans and tiny hand-lettered labels to be seen as painted.
The book is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, a website where supporters pledge money in advance to fund creative work. The campaign had raised more than four times its GBP 20,000 goal with weeks still to run, according to Eurogamer. Backers choose an edition now, and copies are produced after the campaign closes.
The collection draws on video games, tabletop role-playing games played with dice, paper and conversation, board games and graphic novels. It includes maps for Dragon Age, Warcraft, Octopath Traveler, Diablo and Dungeons & Dragons. Her wider credits include Diablo IV, Magic: The Gathering and Game of Thrones, according to her Kickstarter page. The book is planned to be available in English worldwide.
Baerald describes herself as a Traditional Artist and Cartographer. She works almost exclusively in a physical way, painting in watercolour rather than drawing with digital software. Each map is built in layers of wash and line, from landmass shapes to forests, streets and lettering.
Three editions are on offer. The Standard Edition costs EUR 150 and the Premium Edition costs EUR 250. The Limited Edition costs EUR 2,000 and is hand-bound in Italy at Bottega dei Gozzi using historic binding techniques. The top tier is aimed at collectors of fine books as much as game fans.
The book is described as 99 percent finished. Copies are not expected to ship until next summer, which allows time for printing, binding and fulfilment of a book this large.
Recent personal pieces include a map of Llyhn the Eternal and a city view inspired by Ancient Roman architecture. They sit alongside commissioned game worlds in the book, showing how Baerald builds fictional places from real historical references.
What makes this stand out is the shift in scale. In a game, a map flashes past between quests. On paper at A3, the same image can be studied slowly. Brush texture, colour bleeds and small ink details stay visible.
