December 2018 Challenge: Budapest Christmas Market

[aeshnidae]

I'm a first generation American and 100% Hungarian ethnically, so I've been visiting Budapest my entire life (starting at age 2) to see family. Because we're often there in the late fall/early winter, we try to time our visit with the Christmas markets (even though we're Jewish). There are a number of them in Budapest but my favorite is the one in Vörösmarty tér (square). It's a huge square so the market feels more like a small, bustling village. It's best at night, when it's chilly but there's warmth from the cooking coals and fires (and now patio heaters), and tons of delicious food smells mingle in the air, and you can buy kürtoskalács, "chimney cakes" - dough wrapped around thick wooden rollers and cooked over hot coals, then rolled in cinnamon sugar, or chocolate and walnuts. My god, they are delicious. And if you get too cold you can pop into Café Gerbeaud for their amazing hot chocolate or coffee drinks and pastries. Plus all the trees have holiday lights and there's music and two stages for folk dancing and such, and you can buy all manner of Hungarian folk art.

So that inspired my map for this challenge. I have the basic layout for the market, but first I wanted to work on the borders, which are from traditional folk art. So far, so good, although I'm torn on reducing the size of the borders. I don't want them to overwhelm the market map but they're part of the Christmas market feel. I'm hoping I can make the market itself look like a cozy village.

### Latest WIP ###
Xmas Market v1 (sm).jpg

[ChickPea]

Welcome to the challenge, Aeshnidae. Thanks for joining in.

This is a great idea for a map, and you've got a nice Christmassy feel so far. Not certain about the size of the borders. I think they look OK just now, but I think you'd need to decide once you filled in a few more details, in case they start to draw attention away from the other areas.

Looking forward to seeing this one develop.

[Tonquani]

Yay, not feeling so lonely any more!

Welcome to the challenge Aeshnidae, great start. Loving the border, and the hand-drawn lines look so much better!

[aeshnidae]

Welcome to the challenge, Aeshnidae. Thanks for joining in.

This is a great idea for a map, and you've got a nice Christmassy feel so far. Not certain about the size of the borders. I think they look OK just now, but I think you'd need to decide once you filled in a few more details, in case they start to draw attention away from the other areas.

Looking forward to seeing this one develop.

Thanks, ChickPea! Fingers crossed for no additional work emergencies so I can finish this.

Yay, not feeling so lonely any more!

Welcome to the challenge Aeshnidae, great start. Loving the border, and the hand-drawn lines look so much better!

Thanks, Tonquani, I'm happy I could join you! I have to re-draw the lines that surround what will be the statue in the very middle - looking at them close-up, I can see they're all scraggly. Not sure why I am so challenged when it comes to drawing decent lines using my Wacom tablet!

[MistyBeee]

Such a lovely idea ! And I'm already 100% convinced with your border : perfect spirit here !

[aeshnidae]

Added some roof detail and color, plus some bricks and cobblestones.

### Latest WIP ###
Xmas Market v3 (sm).jpg

[Tonquani]

This is really starting to look very good. I love the cobblestone texture - I presume you are going for a slightly run-down look with the missing cobbles? I was slightly worried that the stalls were all going to look identical but now that you have put some texture into them there's now a good bit of variation. Can't wait to see it finished!

[aeshnidae]

This is really starting to look very good. I love the cobblestone texture - I presume you are going for a slightly run-down look with the missing cobbles? I was slightly worried that the stalls were all going to look identical but now that you have put some texture into them there's now a good bit of variation. Can't wait to see it finished!

Thank you! Yes, I'm going for worn-down on the cobblestones and bricks - it's actually quite nicely maintained IRL but it's obviously quite old! Also that's fairly close to real-world color on the stones and bricks, and I thought the brick color was just too much as a full background. I'm still thinking about how best to deal with ground color - leave as is, add snow, add some vague color, or something else entirely?

I'm glad the market stalls are looking okay. They're all supposed to look pretty much the same, but I didn't want it to look starkly identical. I got to work on this some more while watching (American) football. Added festive trees and cleaned up a bit.

### Latest WIP ###
Xmas Market v5 (sm).jpg

[ChickPea]

It's looking good. I love the colourful nature of it. So Christmassy!

[bkh1914]

Ummm...
You've got bricks for paving in some areas.
What is the rest of the paving?
Cobblestone? Pavement (concrete/blacktop/macadam/asphalt)?
The bricks by themselves stick out like a sore thumb.
Maybe they do in real life.
But I think it would look a lot better if there was a texture / pattern on the rest of the ground.

Otherwise it's coming along nicely.