My (belated) castle

[Ascension]

I started this 2 days before Thanksgiving so that means I only did one night's worth of work before the challenge ended So I worked on it this weekend and, at least, finished the first floor (but not the outer towers). I'm going to keep on working on it (the other floors) until I burn out. I feel pretty good so burnout doesn't seem too imminent and work finally slowed down to the point of allowing me free time once again...oh, and I got bored with Civ 5, too. Mainly, though, I think it's the weather...I hate hot weather. Anyway have a gander at it and pay no attention to some of the text that seems to floating around outside the edges - those are reminders for me to put those places in on other levels.

[Jaxilon]

Wow, almost makes me go cross eyed looking at those benches. So many details in there, this is really nice. Looks a lot like a blueprint too.

[VincentAlliath]

That is just LOVELY. I must say that the main hall (with all the pews and the catwalk/ambulatory) is definitely my favourite part. You can get a good feel for the architecture of the place with that great hall.

[tilt]

that looks fantastic - what are you using, Illustrator?

[ravells]

Beautiful work, BigA! Is it based on a real life design?

[rdanhenry]

Very impressive. Looks more like a cathedral than a castle, though.

[Ascension]

Tilt - Photoshop CS
Ravs - not that I know of, just started with a 600 x 400 rectangle (a rough approximation of the golden rectangle) and went from there plopping down squares, circles, and rectangles. I do have some basic knowledge of cathedrals and churches being a Catholic and a stained glass artist so some of that may have some subconscious effect in basic layout.
RDH - it's a combo castle for a place where religion rules instead of monarchs. The west wings house the military, clergy in the east, the center is more like a theatre because it's for entertaining - preaching is more of a performance and the crossing and narthex have balconies for separating the rich from the poor so it's more about being seen rubbing elbows. So I'm combining three things into one: castle, cathedral, and theatre because every world needs some sort of evil, manipulating, propagandist religion. Religion as government, military, and entertainment (call me jaded) tells you that this place looks shiny and good on the outside but the inside is black and corrupt like anything else...these things will be in the private areas and sub-basements (no self-respecting and self-righteous patriarch is going to openly admit that he has dungeons and he doesn't have torture devices he has "methods of obtaining the truth" sort of like the Spanish Inquisition - which no one expects).

[Rythal]

Love it! looks great. the only thing that has me confused are the spiral stairs. by the shape of the walls id guess it would be a tower, but the way you have the light it looks like the stairs are descending (not that some of them wouldnt, but its confusing, y'know?). or are you showing the top of the stairs, and the darker spots are the ground levels?

[Ascension]

You should see those stairs without the gradient, yow...looks like a square bicycle tire. I looked at some real architects drawings and that's how they did them - just lines without a gradient - and I had no idea if they went up or down or what so I added the gradient to at least suggest some kind of depth. If you look closely you'll see that the lightest part of the gradient is where the door is thus suggesting that they ALL go down. They go up and down but I can't seem to portray Up as convincingly as I can Down. Maybe I'll try something else, shrug.

[loongtim]

Looking great! Can't wait to see the rest.