Ethran: Urrowan Palace

[Mouse]

I've decided to leave Merelan City till last, and map Urrowan Palace before I go back to finish it.

This is just an idea right now - thinking 'on paper' (except its a screen, but you know what I mean ).

Its a perspective piece - 2, or possibly 3 point perspective, so it may end up looking quite warped, since the closest ground will be pretty much top down... I think. Haven't quite made my mind up about it yet.

That volcano in the background is bigger than Olympus Mons.

The reason the picture is so small is exactly because there isn't all that much to look at just yet

Urrowan Palace 02.JPG

[Josiah VE]

Interesting start, looking forward to see how it unfolds.

[Greg]

Definitely an intriguing start there! Looks and feels so atmospheric already.

Looking forwards to where you take it, Mouse! Also, I really like the title.

[Mouse]

Thanks Guys

Well, I did a little red map, so I guess the next logical progression after a bit of light relief with the Arramatapo letter-map, is a little purple map

Urrowan is situated right on the fringe of the dark eye of Ethran, where the world is shielded from the light of day by permanent eclipse.

This is an extract of the main Ethran map (the first map I ever drew), showing the relative position of Merelan City (MC), and the line of sight being represented by this new Urrowan Palace map - looking into the darkness towards the mother of all volcanoes - Arthag.

reference map.JPG

I very nearly finished a three storey building plan of Merelan Observatory once. That's in Merelan City, and is the home of one of my two protagonists, Eonat, who is part Blucran, part Merle. The other protagonist (Astra) lives in the ruins of Urrowan Palace, along with the rest of her exiled shape-shifting race - the Zorrani.

Though they are but children, between them they will save all they can of the medieval people of Ethran from the rapidly approaching doom of their world. I guess that's why I called the first book of the series "Children of Ethran".

The name "Urrowan" is one of the better names that suddenly spilled out of my mind when I was in one of my naming moods. Glad you like it GLS

[Mouse]

I never usually bother with grids, and having taken an entire day just to work out how to draw this one, I don't think I will ever bother with one again.

Urrowan Palace 03.JPG

[Mouse]

All out of broadband till Friday night - just dropped by really quick to leave a very small update.

Urrowan Palace 07.JPG

Sorry - can't stay!

[J.Edward]

This is looking very nice Mouse.
Loads of atmosphere and mood.
You are doing some splendid stuff.

[Mouse]

Aw thanks J

[ThomasR]

Mouse, you really go an eye (no pun intended) for this kind of perspective. That's beautiful !

[Mouse]

Thanks Thomrey!

The perspective awareness is something I was taught at art school (many years ago). In maps like Gymnopus P I can just 'see' it without having to worry about drawing a grid, but where the perspective is a little unusual (in this case almost a section of fish eye perspective) I can still get it quite horribly wrong without at least a faint grid to glance at

This is the master grid I inserted to the file as a bitmap. I traced the bit I wanted, then deleted the bitmap itself, leaving just the line I had drawn

Spherical perspective4.png

Its very home-made and not terribly good, but its something to work with