Black&white big city

[feanaaro]

Progress has slowed somewhat. I am also start to get bored with the monochrome idea, perhaps would be better with some colouring?

Also, I decided to go on with naming the city areas for professions, to immediately emphasize the peculiar corporative (like in medieval guilds, not modern business) kind of government that this city has.

Finally, the real problem is that I have no idea of how to do fields and vegetation consistently with this style (this too could perhaps be easier if I yielded to colours)

Eryemire.png

edit: messed up with the attachment, now corrected.

[Gidde]

Check this out; it's not quite the same style but it's pretty close. Might give you an idea of how to do the fields and vegetation

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...700_london.jpg

[Lukc]

Nice find Gidde! I like how the map is going, but with this simple style ... I don't know, the fonts seem a bit blocky and chunky to me, while the city is so gentle and elegant and V-shaped ... (god, I'm awful. But I really mean it about fonteys)

[feanaaro]

Which font, or kind of font, would you advice me to use?
I am not especially attached to this font, it's just what I used for other maps of the same world, I think it was an advice from this forum too, but perhaps it just worked better with other styles. I still need something ancient-y/fantasy, so probably I could not go with something similar to the classical Enlightenment-y font used in the map linked by Gidde.

[Gidde]

Yeah, I would go with something more calligraphic than the one you currently have. Try just browsing dafont.com or another font site in the Calligraphy section.

[feanaaro]

Do you think this font might be more adequate?

Eryemire.png

[Gidde]

Yes! Much more appropriate

[Lukc]

Yeah, I think a font like this suits it better as well ... fonts are a hassle, I admit, it's always a bit of trial-and-error to find one that both fits the map and the mood you're after.

[Valtharius]

Excellent city layout. Your city streets have a nice flow to them. How are you picturing the architecture of the buildings? Thatched roof, clay roof, mud plaster siding or wood? Italian-, Spanish-, German-, French- or English-style? Packed dirt roads, flagstone or cobblestone? Are there any natural waterways through the city? I love what you've done! Can't wait to see the finished product. I can't give rep. It says I need to spread it around first.

~Val

[feanaaro]

Thanks for your appreciation (much needed since I'm growing tired with finishing the map!).
Even though perhaps this style does not convey that, the city technological level is comparable to that of our antiquity (there is magic in the world, but in most case it is not so common as to influence general technology). As far as I know, houses are mostly relatively small buildings of 2-3 floors, poorer buildings are generally stone on ground floor and wood upwards, although the scruffy and smaller ones might be merely wood. Often the ground floor is commercial-production, while the higher floors are for living quarters. Also often the "backyard" space are used for productive activities, especially of course in manufacture areas.
In the well-to-do areas, buildings are usually bricks with white, light yellow or ocher plaster. The houses of the rich are split into one-two story "domus-like" (with inner garden, not many of those pictured in the maps posted so far), favored by the old nobility, and taller 5-6 story buildings used especially by prominent merchants' families, which keep together the living quarters and the business offices. The climate is mild and snow is infrequent, therefore roofs should generally be flat, clay or wood depending on the building construction. Roads should be flagstone, better for heavy commercial traffic I think.
The city lies at the mouth of the greatest river of the world (see here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/at...7&d=1317287666 at the time called Eryasse, I am still undecided on the name) and there are not other waterways. While the city proper is still to be finished, the geography is what you see, just the waters of the river mouth and flat terrain.