Oliver Saunders — Cotswolds, England
A life spent
drawing other worlds
Oliver grew up in West Sussex, in the kind of quiet English countryside that gives you plenty of time to sit and draw. From an early age he was more interested in the edges of maps than the centres — inventing landscapes, sketching creatures, and building places in his imagination that didn't exist anywhere else.
He took art seriously through his A-levels, developing the technical foundations in drawing, composition, and colour that still underpin everything he creates. After studying fine art in Brighton, he spent years refining his craft across illustration, painting, and concept design before committing to it full-time.
He now works entirely self-employed from his studio in the Cotswolds — a corner of England that suits the work well. His specialism is hand-crafted fantasy maps: pieces that take months of research, thumbnail sketches, and detailed painting to complete. Each one is drawn by hand, either with traditional media or digital painting, and printed locally with an independent printer.
In an age of AI-generated imagery and design software, Oliver is committed to keeping everything he makes slow, deliberate, and entirely his own. His maps are the product of months of imagination — not minutes of prompting.
— O. Saunders