The City of Aes (Commission)

[Diamond]

Straight into my inspiration folder. This is what I visualize in my mind when I try and create a city map and sadly fail. Great, great work. I especially love the cliff behind the palace with the huge watchtower/fortifications.

[Greg]

This is fantastic Greg! The layout for the town is well done. You've also managed to create realistic buildings through subtle variations and groupings. Nice linework and colors as well. All around great work.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Thanks, Arsheesh! The buildings certainly took the looooongest part of this so I'm pleased they paid off! I definitely took inspiration from John, Mike Schley, Voolf and others around the Guild for their style.

This is a beautiful map, but it should be read carefully: the city is complex, with many levels, with the channels, the different districts and terrain ... But I think you really succeed in drawing all these elements ... so, the map is full of details, full of discoveries, which are so many calls to adventure! Well done for all this work (and this level of detail!) What patience!

Thanks, Jo, I'm really pleased you think so! I tried to keep the city structure in my head the whole way through, but that's easier said than done, as when I was working close-up on the buildings it's so easy to get into a drunken trance with it all.

Great work Greg! Those tiny buildings lok fantastic and the whole city just makes sense to me. The brown tones look beautiful as well and add a certain charm to the map. I think my favorite part is the city center with the busy streets and canals (:

Thanks, Dan, I'd never attempted to design a city quite like this before, so I'm pleased it makes sense!

The map is wonderful Greg, It reminds me of Ramah Palmer's style which is high praise ! The only thing that bothers le is the border. It's great but my mind keeps telling me the ribbons should go under and come back up. You made a moebius ribbon-y border (to my eye) which is quite the feat I really love how the details on the roofs are legible. May I ask what was your working resolution on this ?

Thanks Thomas! There's no denying RP's work was an inspiration on this, particularly in terms of the brown sepia (which the client explicitly referenced), but as I mentioned above, I think plenty of other Guilder's provided their inspiration too!

Haha, as for the ribbons, yeah, when I drew those as a distraction from all the houses, I originally meant for the over-under kinda look, but it ended up somewhere inbetween, but I thought I'd keep it anyway.

Working resolution was 3508x4962, and mostly at 200% zoom for the houses.

Straight into my inspiration folder. This is what I visualize in my mind when I try and create a city map and sadly fail. Great, great work. I especially love the cliff behind the palace with the huge watchtower/fortifications.

Thanks Diamond! Every time I chipped away at the houses, it felt like I was getting nowhere, and it only felt like anything was actually coming together towards the end, particularly once I'd added in the shadows. I always find the same thing with drawing forests in other maps, they look absolutely crap until they're completely detailed and the rest of the map is done.