April 2020 Challenge: Trading Town of Winterrise

[morganPotPie]

So my hometown is a small little trading town (or started of as so). It was known as a shipping point, as well as having a food cannery and a coal port.

It feels like I am going to go a classic fantasy town here, someplace you would come across on your adventures in another time
I took and outlined the border from googlemaps, and have started getting a 'jist' of the layout.

### Latest WIP ###
winterRise.jpg

[morganPotPie]

So this map has started to turn into something I had not exactly envisioned, but when the map starts to create itself why try and fight it?

Still needs a lot of work, most colors/textures are place holders. Although, i think i will keep the simplicity of the buildings rather similar to as it is now

Brown squares are residence
blue squares are admin/public (town hall, library, fire station, etc.)
green squares are entertainment (gambling hall, theater, etc.)
dark green are outdoor parks, cemetery, etc
red squares are shops

This is the first sort of map of this kind I am making (big city, not just a small village) - any advice/critique is welcome


### Latest WIP ###
winterRise_r0.jpg

[morganPotPie]

a little bit more work on this map. I am doing most of the layout work in Illustrator, then using Photoshop to add the textures and whatnot.
Its my first time using Illustrator for a map(and Illustrator in general, for a big project atleast), i'm finally starting to get not-so-frustrated when using it but I can tell it does have some advantages over Photoshop for some things.
I'm not sure how to do the labels exactly yet, but i'm sure something will develop eventually.
Any critique is welcomed

### Latest WIP ###
winterRise_r1.jpg

[Bindusara]

the city is nice, but the left of the map is very empty
What are the big brown things? Fields?

[morganPotPie]

thanks - Yes I agree - the left land is going to be more farm based, so hopefully it should fill in a bit once i fields are 'tilled' so to speak
This leads to the second question - and yes, those big brown squares in the city walls are fields. I'm a bit iffy on how they look right now(I'm not quite sure you can tell they are fields?), or if they should even be in the walls
hopefully I can get something better/more representative, probably why I've left all that empty space for now, very unsure- Thank you for pointing that out, I know what to work on next!

[SkryNRiv]

Well, the fields were good for me, but they're usually not uniform. Land is divided between several people—some may have more, some may have less—and you want to use it for different kinds of crops, so the parcels will be different sizes, shapes and colours. Also, if you return to the fields, make sure the ditches are a little bit tighter, because at that scale they look almost as wide as the streets.

Keep on the good work!

[Bindusara]

For me the fields color is not good : i tought it was a kind of land of mud at first.
I agree with SkryNRiv : with the scale used, you can have different kind of fields. And the ditches should be more visible.

[morganPotPie]

Thanks a lot for the advice! You've given me some good possibilities to think on! also, super appreciate the ditch size advice, the thought hadn't crossed my mind to be honest hahaha

[morganPotPie]

Thank you! Getting some more done after work after, hopefully i can take your advice and make something a bit better of these fields!

[morganPotPie]

Putting some more work into the fields and outside of the town
I've tried to add some detail to the inside farms, such as adding different colors to represent different crops, but it just ends up looking a bit confusing...so i might just leave as tilled dirt rows, ready for the crops to go in

The outside farms are huge, I plan on messing around a bit more to get these to a good scale and add in some farm houses as well
I'm not sure if the forests should be inside the walls, but i think i will leave them for those city Druids and Rangers who roam the town from time to time

Thank you for the advice thus far, I will gladly welcome any further critiques on this

### Latest WIP ###
winterRise_r3.jpg