Lincolnshire Fantasy World Map creator Chris Birse quit his job at Aldi to make Lord Of The Rings style maps of real places
A digital artist who creates Lord Of The Rings-style maps of real places has turned his attention to Lincolnshire.
Chris Birse, 36, has painstakingly recreated the county with special attention to myths and legends to give it that Tolkien feel.
It’s a far cry from the life Chris, a dad of one, envisaged for himself after he left uni and moved through the ranks at Aldi.
“I was destined for a life of stacking shelves,” said Chris. “I never thought this would work.”
Now creating his fantasy maps is his full-time job with versions of his artwork being dispatched around the world.
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But he fell into his new role by chance.
About four years ago Chris, who by then was a manager at Aldi, decided to unleash his creativity by writing a fantasy novel. As he progressed through the plot he realised he needed a map to help him keep order of the complicated world he had created.
He turned to Photoshop where he made his map.
Chris said: “I was happy with the process. From there on it’s taken a life of its own.”
Encouraged by his wife and fellow Lord Of The Rings Fan, Fiona, he decided to make a map of Teesside in a similar style and bouyed by the response went on to make larger maps covering England, Scotland and Wales.
Chris said: “The novel got put to one side. I thought that shelf stacking was going to be my life and I’m very pleased with the change it’s taken. I like all the weird folklore.”
He started to sell the maps as a side hustle and then decided to move into county maps – he has about eight left to do with Lincolnshire now ticked off.
Each county map can take about a month to create. Initially, Chris works creating the basic shapes, cities, hills and the coast; then he asks people who live in the area to help make it true to local legend, asking on internet forums, message boards and Facebook groups for advice. People across Lincolnshire responded in their droves.
Chris said: “I can go to Google but I won’t get the quirky details. That relies on local knowledge and here people have really come through.”
His Facebook post about the Lincolnshire version of his fantasy map has garnered more than 1500 comments.
From that he takes a further fortnight to delve through the information and add those landmarks and myths. It’s a time consuming role but it’s paid off for Chris and his family.
About two years after he started creating – and selling – his maps, he left his retail job because the reaction to his work was so good. It coincided with Chris and Fiona preparing for their first baby too.
“I thought it would only be appealing to the geeky crowd, the Lord Of The Rings fans but it’s not,” Chris added. “People are buying it for elderly grandparents, people who have moved away. There’s a really broad spectrum of buyers.”
He sells the maps via his Etsy shop Fantasy World Maps in three sizes A3, A2 and A1 with prices starting from £18. He has made more than 7,500 sales and has a seller rating of 4.8 stars.
Chris looks after his 15-month-old daughter Robyn during the day, and turns his attention to map creation during naps and when she’s asleep at night.
With only a handful of counties left to do, Chris is now starting to think about what could come next – a fantasy atlas perhaps. Or maybe the novel which started it all will be dusted off and completed. He had written some 100,000 words before his map hiatus.
He’s already made maps for neighbouring counties of Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
