The standard procedure was to begin by colouring in the boundary lines, a different colour being applied on either side of the line. Sometimes each division is coloured in a pale wash. Estates, parks and woods are coloured green, seas and rivers in blue, hills in brown or occasionally in green, and the cities and towns in red. The extra decoration is coloured as naturally as possible, animals, humans, shipping and all the things that appear in the cartouches. Sea monsters are usually green, their large mouths coloured in red, but this was entirely left to the imagination of the colourist.
Mistakes can easily occur.
One particular map of the County of Cheshire, famous for its cheeses, shows whole cheeses in the cartouche looking like huge millstones, coloured in unappetising magenta and blue. Cornwall London, 1579. The armorial shields, of course, had to be coloured correctly, and this was done by following two simple codes, either by a guiding letter or by a system of engraving the background of the shield. The traditional names for each colour are derived from mediaeval French. The system worked very well, an easy guide for the professional colourist who knew the code, but not all colourists were professionals and sometimes the armorials are incorrectly coloured.