View of the City of Estandir (an engraving style exploration)

[Tiana]

I don't prefer the color in the city, but I prefer it on the bridge/castle. I wonder if there's a best of both worlds, for example one where you just apply the contrast between the sky and bridge or just have the rooftops colored, or something. It's a good illustration. Not really a map but it's nice.

Yes, I too feel that about worldbuilding. I have been working on the Almaera setting since, oh gosh, probably 2006 is when the first pieces began to come together--certainly earlier than when I joined the Guild, as I initially posted a map of Almaera, and not even my first map of Almaera (which I do not have, and I never posted) or second (which I will NEVER post... though I think I could find it if I dug through my files). In my mind, the world is a place I can walk through, see the landscapes, touch, smell, hold, run my fingers slowly over the waving sea of grain while remembering it hard enough...

But to get it here, I have to do hard work. Real hard work. And then no one else even knows the setting, and likely they don't even know it exists let alone what it is I'm evoking. But at least with map-making I can get an overview of what I can so easily see and describe in fiction and tangibly hold it in some form in this winnowing place before everything we think and imagine is naught but dust. In the wind. Or tears. In the rain.

Anyway, I love the drawing, be a great business card.

[MistyBeee]

When I first saw it, I thought it was an actual historical engraving.

It's remarkably faithful to the references you found your inspiration in, and a pleasant glimpse of this realm you imagined.

A stunning piece of art, as usual.

Thanks a lot, Marc ! Pushing authenticity as far as possible even with digital support is a challenge in itself. I'm glad I'm finally seeing the finish line

You've written exactly what I feel about worldbuilding . ANd that's the main reason why I'm doing maps and more recently illustrations.

And you're doing this so well, with the Mars Atlas ! ^^

I don't prefer the color in the city, but I prefer it on the bridge/castle. I wonder if there's a best of both worlds, for example one where you just apply the contrast between the sky and bridge or just have the rooftops colored, or something. It's a good illustration. Not really a map but it's nice.

Thanks Tiana.
Even if I consider myself, from the common definition, "a map without a compass/a scale is a schema and not a map", I still believe this kind of view belongs to the maps culture. Maps were artistic and prestigious objects before the science changed everything. Ancient map makers from Middle Age and Renaissance depicted lands and mostly cities to enhance their specificities rather than depicting some kind of physical/measurable reality. It's where everything started, so it worth to be studied, to understand better what we can do, as a new generation of "artistic" map makers

[Tiana]

I didn't say anything about the lack of compass or scale, I'm sure I have several maps without those features. Explore whatever angle of whatever art you want. Obviously you think it's a map, I don't. I'm not trying to stop you. You can draw literally whatever you can imagine. You can say, "it's inspired by proto-maps" and I believe you. You can say, "And because of that history it's definitely a map"... and I don't have to buy that. It's 2020, it's a drawing of a city inspired by early maps, appreciated by mappers, but not a functional map of this city. That doesn't mean you can't be inspired by that period of work, obviously you are, go ahead and draw whatever you want, but by my standards in this century, it provides me no information other than what the city looks like from one specific angle, and not even a reference that would help me orient it in the world for my approach.

I suspect you went in going, "I want to draw a side view picture of Estandir." Maybe you also thought, "And I am inspired by this and that." And then you decided, "And I want to share it with the Guild." And that is all the justification you need, relax. No one's complaining.

It'd be a nice bookmark or souvenir even if it doesn't help me know where the merchants are versus the castle versus the wizard's school.

[ItemPouch]

I'm a big fan of this style of display. I'm thinking of putting something like this in my world map in little circles in place of icons for major cities and important locations. It's nice to get a little taste of the visual aspects of a place you otherwise would have to imagine.