Rivers

How to draw rivers: 

Well, that's a hard one to answer. Some professionals prefer the method of drawing rivers like thin lakes, but I truly dislike that practice and will discuss it only a little. Until then, let's study the nature of rivers. 

Rivers are: 
• Long. They can travel quite a ways in their lifetime.
• Thin. This is why I do not agree with Shelly Shapiro's river method.
• Winding. Rivers twist and turn in an unpredictable way. (Not truly unpredictable, but to the layman a mystery.)
• Connected to other water. The only exception to this is the mountain run-off rivers that meander into the middle of a lowland and stop.
• Uniform. Rivers never criss-cross each other.
• Surrounded by life. If a river is in a fertile soil, and there is no drought or plague of flora, there should be plants surrounding it.

  How rivers form 

Rivers form from rain, floods, tsunami's, etc. The strata in which the river forms determines how the river will look and act. Here is a list of the most common strata and their effect: 

• Rocky - The river will not twist so much, and will be narrow and quick.
• Sandy - The river will be shallow and wide, and will turn frequently.
• Muddy - Look for a slow, twisting river that is shallow at the edges and deep in the channel.
• Gravel - The river will flow swiftly and shallowly, and at the turns look for deep holes in the floor of the river. There will be gravel bars at the larger turns.

Rivers eat away the land around them at an unpredictable pace. Some rivers grow into huge behemoths very quickly, and then fade when their source disappears. Other, smaller rivers continually flow at a predictable pace, and therefore develope no flood plain. See the above list of strata and try to determine which strata support which types of rivers. 

Rivers flow down. I cannot emphasize this any more. It is important! Any map which has a river flowing out of the mountains, into a valley, and then up out of the valley and back into the mountains is a joke. One consideration I must accept as a possibility (in a fantasy world, of course) is that the river is enchanted to flow uphill. There are, however, no end to these types of rivers in fantasy novels, and I would warn against using them. 

Rivers flow into the sea, not out of it. This is, suprisingly, a very common misconception. They really do look like they find their source at the sea. But that is wrong. Very few (zero) rivers flow out of the sea, that I know of. I could be wrong. Just make sure that you understand how rivers connect to form ever larger rivers, which eventually flow to the sea or die out. 

Research and development 

It's back to the books, and this time with an eye on rivers. With your newfound eye for style, seek out the types of rivers that you like. They should agree with the above guidelines, but if they don't... hey, it's your map, right? I recommend tracing the rivers (!) to get feel for them. Normally I would advise you to practice free form, but rivers are an exception to that, due to their difficulty. A few books that I find useful are all of the Belgariad and Mallorean books (© David Eddings), the Tolkien trilogy and supplements, and any other book with maps of a certain style that you like. I included the Belgariad and Mallorean series' because they give you a good dose of Shelly Shapiro's lake-rivers. They have a certain style all their own... 

Practise the styles you enjoy until you see your own style developing, then go with it. Wait until you see your style's flaws, and improve on it. In this way you can learn to draw acceptable rivers. 

Hints and tips 

• Rivers are like trees, with branches and a trunk.
• Rivers do not wiggle back and forth like a snake. They twist with the land, and have large, central turns that contain the smaller, precise twists.
• Rivers get larger when another "branch" joins in. Remember, the river now has that much extra water to carry.
• When rivers branch off, the ground near the partition tends to be waterlogged. What an opportune place for a swamp to grow!