Storybook World Map
A full-bleed storybook world you can actually travel through — every route joining two named places, and three sizes of thing so the eye lands before it wanders. Five fields.
We made two examples: a storybook world of islands around a giant book, and a whale carrying a harbour town. In both, all four routes reach where they are going, and on the whale the quay at the bottom, with seals hauling a crate, is where you step into the picture. Both come out more painterly than the flat style described.
Every route joins two named places: stepping stones, rope bridges and waterfalls arrive at a door, a cottage or a pool instead of trailing off into the clouds. Three sizes guide the eye: the biggest thing dwarfs the islands, and the islands dwarf the characters. There is a clear way in at the front. The finish tends to come out more painterly than the flat storybook look the skill asks for.
Generated for this library
Input
World a library that flies
Dominant an enormous open book with a castle of shelves
growing out of its pages, filling the middle
Places a teacup cottage, joined to the book by a rope
bridge · a lamp-lit reading tower, joined by a
stone stair · an orchard island, joined to the
tower by a waterfall the boats ride down · a
book-cart yard at the front, joined by stepping
stones
Small life owls carrying books · cloud faces reading ·
snails asleep on leaves · rabbits loading a cart
Palette cotton pink, sky blue, lilac, leaf green, cream
Returned 1 illustration · 3:2 · full bleed, warm storybook
routes four, and all four arrive - the bridge lands on
the cottage porch, the stair meets the tower door
scale the book far larger than any island; the islands
far larger than any creature
entry the cart yard at the front bottom, where the
stepping stones begin
depth front, middle and far apart in colour as well as
size - the far islands paler and cooler
life eleven creatures, each mid-action, none repeated
twice in the same poseYou fill in 5 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The world
- 2The one dominant thing, and where it sits
- 3The places, and what joins each to the next
- 4The small life, and what it is doing
- 5The palette
Storybook World Map
What this makes
A full-bleed storybook world you can actually travel through — every route joining two named places, and three sizes of thing so the eye lands before it wanders. Five fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the five FIELDS lines. In the places field, always say what joins each place to the next — that phrasing is the whole method.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the world.
- Trace every path with a finger before shipping. Any that runs out into cloud or grass is decoration wearing the shape of a route.
What you swap
- The world
- a library that flies
- The one dominant thing, and where it sits
- an enormous open book with a castle of shelves growing out of its pages, filling the middle of the frame
- The places, and what joins each to the next
- a teacup cottage, joined to the book by a rope bridge · a lamp-lit reading tower, joined to the book by a stone stair · an orchard island, joined to the tower by a waterfall the boats ride down · a book-cart yard at the front, joined to the book by a path of stepping stones
- The small life, and what it is doing
- owls carrying books · cloud faces reading · snails asleep on leaves · rabbits loading a cart
- The palette
- cotton pink, sky blue, lilac, leaf green, warm cream, gold
Before it runs
- Places with names, not just things. 'A tower' floats; 'the lamp-lit reading tower, reached by the stone stair' belongs somewhere.
- One thing genuinely bigger than the rest. A world of equals is a pattern, and a pattern has no way in.
- Small life with verbs. Creatures that are merely present become texture; creatures doing something make people look.
When to reach for it
Children's covers, festival keys, game and app worlds, anything meant to be pored over. Templates in this style ask for a world you can explore and return a lovely even mat of charm — stepping stones that stop in mid-air, staircases going nowhere, and everything the same size, so there is no way in and no way round.
What changes
- One dense full-bleed world in warm storybook colour, packed edge to edge.
- Every path, bridge, stair and stream joining two places you named — nothing trailing off into the background.
- Three sizes of thing: one dominant subject, a few supporting places, many small inhabitants.
- A route the eye can follow from the front of the picture to the back, so it reads as travel rather than as decoration.
- Small life doing specific things, which is what makes a busy picture worth stopping on.
Pairs with
- Black Ink Event PosterA black-ink event poster on white — a scribbled scene, a fat brush headline, asides in the margins — with the tool count fixed so it reads as one hand. Six fields.
- Giant Hand Tiny People PosterA flat-cartoon poster where one enormous hand is the stage and tiny figures live in the palm — with the hand's anatomy and the size ratio both stated, because both go wrong quietly. Six fields.
- Neon Night Scene IllustrationA neon-lit night scene on near-black, where every light source is named with what it lights — so the colour lands on surfaces instead of floating as bright shapes. Five fields.