Rask

[Cambragol]

This is my first post, and my first map. I have fiddled and fooled around with maps in photoshop, and with pen, ink and brush, but this is the first map that I have fully committed to.

It was created first in pencil, then traced with ink, then finished in watercolour. Then it was scanned, assembled (as it was done on a sheet of A3 paper), and text was added. I finished with a tiny bit of photoshop for this posting.

The style is an attempt to replicate the style of Pete Fenlon. A bit of the 'best of' his style, plus a little postulation of what tweaks he would have made to his city style in a 'desert' setting.

The city is roughly based off a map found in the MERP module, Greater Harad. The city has a complete back story and every number on the map is part of a 'gazetteer' for the city within a game module.

RASK

Attachment 87838

[Falconius]

Looks great. Though I don't think green was a good choice for residence's, especially as you included trees on the map. Makes it all look like plots of land.

[Katto]

I always enjoyed the maps in the old MERP modules and you hit it quite good.
One little thing and it might be just me, but those round thingies (domes?) combined with the house shapes reminds me of LEGO bricks, especially the blue buildings in the north and south of the city.

[jshoer]

Reminds me of some 1910s-era maps of Boston my wife has been looking at for a project of hers. Great use of stippling and color - though I agree with Falconius, maybe green should have been reserved for parks and open spaces, because it already kind of has that association.

Excellent first post/map!

[Cambragol]

Thanks for the kind comments and feedback. I've always worked in total isolation, so it is nice to hear other's thoughts.

Regarding the color of the residences: As I was attempting to imitate Pete Fenlon's style exactly, (or extend it slightly) I had to go with green. All his city modules in Merp use green for residences. If I had gone my own way I probably would have used brown or something more evocative of a desert setting.

To be fair to the Fenlon maps though, they are not really trying to depict a city accurately or visually. They are conveying a truck load of information regarding the buildings and the layout. Colors indicate building function. The precise colors used for each/any function may have been chosen aesthetically or randomly.

I am not sure whether I captured the right shade of green though. A little more 'blue-green' might have been better, and could have distinguished between the green of the trees...

[Ilgoth]

Well done!

At first my reaction was "now what's wrong with the colors" but it turned into "this is pretty damn cool" quite fast. I like the idea of using color for the legend info.

[ChickPea]

This is really nice work. I think you've used colour particularly well. Maps with a large amount of differently coloured areas can be great for dispensing information, but sometimes all that colour gets in the way of artistry. Your palette and use of shading sidesteps this and I love how it turned out. It's clear, informative and very pretty too. I see what others are saying about the green areas, and it's a valid point, but if you're following a style, then fair enough!

Have some rep for a fantastic first map!

[Wingshaw]

Congratulations on your first map; it's a real beauty!

As others have mentioned the colour scheme, so will I: I think the colours can be slightly confusing, at times, mainly, I think, because there are so many different uses/functions. I think in future a simpler legend style might be better.

Regarding the layout of the city, I can only say bravo! I tend to be a fairly harsh critic of fantasy city maps, probably because I have spent most of my adult life studying and designing cities, in one form or another. In my opinion Rask is a very believable city: the layout, the building design, the scale--it is all quite believable for historic city forms.

Have some rep

THW

[Cambragol]

Thank you for the comments ChickPea and TheHoarseWhisperer.

I like the colours myself, even though I didn't completely choose them, but rather followed a style. I have always been partial to that style, so I have to be a little pleased with the results. The original is a little more vivid, as I did a final colour match with an existing Fenlon map that drained the colours a bit. That is what we are seeing here.

The buildings might be believable because a couple of them are drawn directly from real buildings, or inspired by them. I did a lot of research on architecture along the silk-road, and in particular in Bukhara, before designing any of the buildings. A couple of them are (or were) actual buildings in ancient Bukhara. Hence (maybe) the realistic feel?

I felt that using or following historic building forms for a desert city was fair, as many of the buildings in Merp modules were taken/inspired/derived directly from western/European forms.

I'm glad the result was believable for some, as that was definitely a goal.

[jpstod]

love the old school style of mapping. and I love that it is not overly large