Back Stair Street [Revisited]

[J.Edward]

Breathtaking. That is the word that comes to mind.

You, Sir, are an inspiration.
I would like to ask a question or two. How long did the process of this take(apart from the break) Also, how did you keep your perspective so precise?

Thank you very much XCali
So here's a bit of the story to this....
for a long while i had tried to do this scene in perspective [back around 2007-2009].
And I just kept having so much trouble with it. It never would seem to look right.
I even tried to model it in sketchup but that didn't go well either.

So I pretty much gave up on it for a long while.
I tried again in 2014 or so and didn't get much further.
I was really frustrated by it, especially as I was having trouble with some other building renderings.
Some time in 2015 I had a few epiphanies about drawing/life and managed to mostly get passed those hurdles.
I quickly sketched out the layout of this image but it was running off the page.
So i knew i was going to have to redraw it.

Thus it sat for another 2 years or so.
When I picked it up to do the redraw a few weeks back, it was a good ways sketched out.
I did some more fleshing out, added a second piece of paper taped to the top, and kept going.
Then I scanned that in. fixed a few dirty marks and the line where the two pages joined, printed it back out lighter on an 11x17 page...
and then proceeded to redraw the whole thing over top of a light, faint printed version.

I used a tracing board to redraw a new version of the top down map from an older top down map I had done.
The top down map took maybe 2-3 hours I think.
The bit of further fleshing out before I scanned it in was maybe 1-2 days off and on.
The redraw of the light printout map was maybe 3 days or so.

I have no special technique for keeping perspectives correct.
I am just used to drawing them so I guess they come out ok.
I don't actually use perspective lines much. They just clutter a page.
But, I do try to make sure my initial sketch has good proper perspective.

[Wingshaw]

This looks amazing, John. Another beautiful picture by a master artist

Wingshaw
(formerly known as TheHoarseWhisperer or THW)

[snodsy]

Thanks for the expanded explanation, it good to hear even "rock-stars" struggle with things too

[Falconius]

This is so excellent. I always really like your architectural stuff.

[Ilanthar]

John, you just "revive" my motivation for trying again and harder to do some illustrated views of some of my city maps !
This is just so cool and fantastic!

[J.Edward]

This looks amazing, John. Another beautiful picture by a master artist

Wingshaw
(formerly known as TheHoarseWhisperer or THW)

Thanks Wingshaw
That is going to take some getting used to.
You've been THW for so long.

Thanks for the expanded explanation, it good to hear even "rock-stars" struggle with things too

Thanks Snodsy
Yep. I have troubles with things too. And more often than you might think.

This is so excellent. I always really like your architectural stuff.

Thanks Falconius
I don't show them here very often, as they are not map related, unfortunately.
But, I do try to do some every so often, when I can.

John, you just "revive" my motivation for trying again and harder to do some illustrated views of some of my city maps !
This is just so cool and fantastic!

Hehe, YES And I'm sure they will great.
There is nothing quite like getting down to street level with your own creations, Ilanthar, as I'm sure you know.
It is one of the things I really really enjoy about maps and building worlds and all - that point where you have worked down to a single place... a street or a room in a building.

[Diamond]

Yep, I'm with Falconius. Seeing these non-map pieces just reinforces what a great artist you are.

Also, I'm having a lot of fun imagining what the inside of that common room looks like - I see the ends of some wood beams sticking out of the wall, so I'm picturing some gorgeous exposed beam ceilings, maybe hung with mementos left by adventurers past...

[J.Edward]

Yep, I'm with Falconius. Seeing these non-map pieces just reinforces what a great artist you are.

Also, I'm having a lot of fun imagining what the inside of that common room looks like - I see the ends of some wood beams sticking out of the wall, so I'm picturing some gorgeous exposed beam ceilings, maybe hung with mementos left by adventurers past...

Thank you Diamond
Hehe, well, in a decade or so I should get around to do all the floorplans.
My track record with timelines on this particular region is not that stellar.
I have city map stuff developed part way for several places but it never seems to get further.
I should make a wip thread and force myself to get more done.

[Creativetides]

Beautiful, great job

[FrancescaBaerald]

Very beautiful!
As I said on DeviantArt this map sends me back to Alsace