Panoramic city wip/commission/advice

[a.coldyham]

I have a great idea in my head (don't we all) for a map, laid out like a wall painting, of a siege which happened in my campaign world.
The last city of a great Drow civilization, already huge and swollen by refugees fleeing the combined human armies, is under siege.
The scene has a hilltop in the foreground, general's viewpoint sort of thing, with a bunch of arcanists. On the plains in front of the city armies clash, amongst flashes of magic. The city can be regular, but with a large number of religious buildings, focused around a huge cathedral in the centre.
The particularly unusual thing is a planar tear in the sky above the city, opened by the arcanists. One problem. A stray arrow hit the main guy, and magicians on both sides stop everything to focus on closing the rift above the oblivious armies below. In the end, they close it, but only after a large chunk of matter fell through, destroying the city. Only one building stood firm. The cathedral in the centre, sucking the life-force of the many souls bound to it within, remained, a shattered silhouette against the sunrise, the last survivor of such a fateful night.
I think I would like to do both views from the same place, one as the arrow hits, one as his body is shrouded and carried off, with the sea flooding the crater, washing around the cathedral.
I am aware city maps are some of the most difficult, even from conventional angles, but I don't want to lose the vision I have.

tl;dr, perspective city under siege with rift above, hill in foreground. Probably too much flavor text.

[a.coldyham]

Edit : my current tools are a win8 touchscreen and gimp.

[J.Edward]

Hey AC. Are you asking about a commission or wanting some advice? I couldn't tell exactly what you were after.
If you are needing any help on city stuff or perspective, I can offer whatever help I can.
It sounds like it would be quite an epic thing to produce.

[a.coldyham]

Basically I have no idea where to start. I'd probably try to find images off Google of bits and trace them in the right places. I'll see how it goes and get back to you

[Chashio]

Actually, I have a pinterest board that might help a bit; not all of them are perpective views but many are. http://www.pinterest.com/kaitlinemgr...-towns-cities/

Also, a specific map comes to mind that might be good inspiration if you can find it.... it's called Plan of the Siege of Namur, it's a Baroque 1695 plan of a military siege. It's in full, fabulous color in the book Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations, but I did find a small black and white at this link: https://www.google.com/search?q=dutc...ml%3B550%3B464 ... and here it is in color: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-8694...-beek-and.html

Also, an artist I saw something on recently... did some apocalyptic type scenes, which sounds kinda similar to what you're aiming at... google "John Martin paintings". Might find an interesting color scheme or general value composition that has a similar feel to your vision. It sounds like a cool project! Good luck with it

[a.coldyham]

uploadfromtaptalk1427835976796.pnguploadfromtaptalk1427836013666.pngOK, so it turns out I can't do this. Two idea pictures below:

[Chashio]

Anything like this? You'd want to make it more map-like, of course, but perhaps it'll help with visualization.

siege rift.jpg

[a.coldyham]

Anything like this? You'd want to make it more map-like, of course, but perhaps it'll help with visualization.

siege rift.jpg

Frankly, wow. That's pretty much as much as I could have hoped for. Unless I magically receive cartographic powers (bitten by a radioactive map or something) I'll take your sketch and be done

[a.coldyham]

Also if anyone wonders where this is, since I'm using Ramah's Vaniya map for my campaigns, the crater left behind is Maloglash, shown here in the red circle:
uploadfromtaptalk1427899703039.png

[a.coldyham]

This would be a great thread to resurrect for 'map a disaster' but I still haven't been approached by any radioactive maps, and AS level exams got in the way of learning conventionally

Sent from my SM-G357FZ using Tapatalk