WIP - Walf's Gate - Acania

[The_Buce]

Walf's Gate (a Work In Progress)

Following on from the country map I've made on my Samsung Note 10.1 tablet - The Island of Acania and the Coast of Murtail - I've been working on a town map of the small crossroads town between the capitol city of Mur Lennek and the port at the edge of Lofruf's Bay.

I started this at about the same time as the country map but have actually been drawing it on my Samsung Note 3 phone (it's a phablet, really ). I've not gotten as far along with it because I've been working on the larger Acania map, but I'm going to get back on it now. I'm using a technique that - to be frank - I'm making up as I go along! I've never really done anything like this before so any creative criticism is most welcome!

I've gotten to the point, now, where I'm starting to add little details to the buildings, but I've not even begun to paint it yet.

Part 1 - Layout

First, a little background...

I imagined that there used to be a single road from the port to the city and that a toll-house lay across the road with a heavy gate so that travelers would have to pay to use the well-maintained road up to the city (natural features would, I assumed, have prevented people from going around the toll-house (which would have had a palisade wall running out from either side for some couple of hundred yards) so they'd need to pay and use the gate).
Over time, I thought, the buildings would build up around the gate, before and behind. Eventually, houses would spread along the line of the wall and - when the roads came in to connect Froluff to the West and the mountain pass to the East - a new toll-house was built like a vestibule on the front of the city wall and the little palisade and toll-house in Walf's Gate became obsolete.
The toll-house became an inn and the village grew into a small town.
Eventually, farmers began setting up around Walf's Gate and other sorts of business began there.
Now, the town is happily prosperous as trade continues to bring wealth into Walf's Gate.

I started with a basic layout - I knew that I wanted the roads to form a cross and that there should be a square of some sort in the middle. Then, I dropped in some commercial areas, then residential areas surrounding them. There are a very few suburban houses ringing the town, then, on the outskirts, the farms begin.

[The_Buce]

Part 2 - Buildings

Going on from the basic layout, I began to add buildings. I've tried to keep the central buildings much larger, as though the town rises up into a peak in the centre. I'm thinking about 16-17c style buildings in the middle, with lesser buildings going out until we get to the slightly larger suburban houses that are owned by much richer persons. There are a few little huddles of buildings, creating small neighborhoods within the town. I've not followed the roads very strictly, and a religious building of some sort lies in a field, on a hill, to the north-west of the square.

Because I didn't say anything about it in the previous post - I'm using a Samsung Note 3 phone with the attached stylus and the Autodesk Sketchbook software that came with it. Everything is done by hand.

[The_Buce]

Part 3 - Roofs

After I'd got the buildings laid out to my satisfaction, I started adding rooftops.
I'd used a slightly thicker brush than usual to outline the buildings, then I switched to a thin brush to do the roofs. I've strayed a little from the 16-17c look I was hoping to achieve with the buildings - they all look a bit too modern, now! Hopefully, I can try and recapture the look I was after with the roof details!

[The_Buce]

Part 4 - Roads

Once I'd sorted the roofs, I wanted to go back and put in the roads. I outlined the roads with thin, wiggly lines, then went back in and tried to apply a little detail to make the different road surfaces start to come through.
I've used longer lines on the thinner tracks (which, I assumed, would be a little rougher - possibly even un-paved in some places) and dotted marks on the wider roads (either denoting some sort of gravel-like layer on top or, even, a cobbled feel). I didn't want to put too much detail into it as I will try to differentiate the roads further when I go on to colouring the map.
You might have noticed that I've finally removed the background. I actually did that before I started the lay the 'proper' roads down. Instead of just following my original lines, I used the buildings to tell me where the roads should go. There are actually slightly fewer roads in this version, as I felt that there were just too many in the original idea. The farm tracks are also a lot less numerous.

[Domino44]

I think it looks really cool so far and I like your step by step process, it's very nice to see the way your building this map.

[Scoopz]

Yea, really cool map. Especially since it's been hand drawn on a phone. Nice job mate.