Chris Birse and his fantasy map of Lothian. (Chris Birse via SWNS)
By Elizabeth Hunter
A dad has created fantasy maps of every region in England — after leaving his supermarket job to make art full-time.
Chris Birse, 38, made his first map seven years ago, while working in an Aldi supermarket and writing his own fantasy novel on the side.
Inspired by "Lord of the Rings," Chris began creating a map for his own fantasy universe — but quickly became curious about what his own town would look like in the style.
He created a map of his local Teesside, using local myths and legends to mark tourist hotspots and hidden gem locations.
A fantasy map of Lothian created by Chris. (Chris Birse via SWNS)
Chris soon began covering various regions of the UK, from the Isle of Wight to Edinburgh, gaining popularity online — and after opening up an online shop to sell the maps, he was able to quit his job and become a full-time artist.
Father-of-one Chris said: "I needed a map to go at the front of the book, and rather than commissioning someone to do it for me, I thought I'd give it a go myself.
"That went well, so I thought for a bit of fun, I would do one of my home region of Teesside, again in this classic fantasy style.
"I posted that online, and it got a really positive response — and it's spiraled from there.
"I've been doing the various English counties first, and I've just branched out into Scotland, with Edinburgh and Lothian being my first proper Scottish one."
Chris spends between five and six weeks making each map, using Photoshop to create detailed outlines of the counties.
A fantasy map of Nottinghamshire. (Chris Birse via SWNS)
He researches each area to find myths and legends which inspire icons on the map, and makes posts in regional Facebook groups for locals to make their own suggestions.
"I do the basic outline of the county first," he said.
"I get the coastlines in, and the mountains and hills, then a lot of the main settlements.
"At that point, I post the work-in-progress in various local town and village groups and invite people to contribute their ideas — preferably bits that me as an outsider wouldn't necessarily know about.
"A lot of that hidden history is word of mouth, local legends, and I love to get things like that depicted on a map because it's keeping that history alive as well.
"I do like it to be as accurate as possible. Even though it is fantasy, I still like it to have some historical significance."
A fantasy map of Isle of Wight. (Chris Birse via SWNS)
Chris's most recent creation was a map of Edinburgh and Lothian, which features Selkies and references to the legend of the Saltire.
"This one took six weeks, being a capital city with so much history in the area," he said.
"I had around 1,500 comments across Facebook and Reddit to go through.
"That took as much time as the actual drawing process, going through everybody's feedback and researching all these places."
Chris's project to map the entire country will continue, as he plans to finish the UK this year — before moving onto other countries.
"The next one will be the Glasgow region, and then probably the Borders," he said.
"Then I'll work my way up to the Highlands and Islands — and once that's done, I'll move on and start doing Europe or America."
A fantasy map of Bristol. (Chris Birse via SWNS)
Despite the time involved in his fantasy maps, Chris loves making them — and described the opportunity to leave his retail job to become an artist as "life-changing."
He said: "At that point, I'd been in retail all my life.
"I thought that's where my life was going to be — this has been life-changing.
"It's meant that I get to work from home and raise my little girl and enjoy those moments with her as well.
"I couldn't be more thankful for that opportunity."