Instead of lightening the shadows too much try making them brown...that's what I do in desert-like area.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Next WIP:
Remade all houses, tried to make the submerging docks and the water a bit more realistic, added some rocks in the upper corners (not really satisfied with them, though :/ ), made the shadows of walls and houses less solid and added some labels. The map key + scale will be done later.
What do you think?
demera06.jpg
Fantastische Kartographie - illustrations & maps by Schattenherz | DeviantArt | Drachenblut - german RPG board & world
Wow, the new houses make it look totally different. The first version called to mind the shanty towns in developing countries, while the new version looks a lot more like what I'd expect of a walled city.
They could actually be "before" and "after" if you wanted I reckon, if pretty much the whole city had been rebuilt at some point.
I am a geology nerd.
That's looking very nice!
I'd say you should put farmland upstream of the city, and across the river, too. If you're patterning after the Nile floodplain, it's extremely fertile land, and every inch that can be cultivated is going to be worked (unless the civilization has discovered rotating crops, at any rate). You might even put in some silty islands—if you look at satellite views of Cairo, you can see a few of those with evidence that they're being farmed. There should also be some infrastructure near the farms to make moving the food efficient. I'd expect to see lots of structures stretching up and down the river: houses, tool sheds, silos, and the like. These will be fairly temporary shelters since it's expected that they'll frequently be destroyed by the floods.
Bryan Ray, visual effects artist
http://www.bryanray.name
Thank you
Great idea, cantab, I will think about that.
You're right, Midgardsomr. Though Demera's economy depends on salt rather than on agriculture, the relatively narrow space for fields would be used extensively. The one thing I'm thinking about is making the river much broader...
Fantastische Kartographie - illustrations & maps by Schattenherz | DeviantArt | Drachenblut - german RPG board & world
Yes, that looks nicer with the buildings more aligned. One little detail... The 1 and 7 labels are pretty 'aligned' with the buildings as well, which sort of gives the impression that they're part of the map (small arenas or some such, no real biggie). Maybe positioning them more on top of the buildings would help. Ooh. If you wanted to show an open gate or two you could carve out a bit of the shadow to show the sunlight coming through the doorway. Love the coloring, by the way!
Last edited by Chashio; 07-26-2011 at 05:04 PM.
As to the upstream/downstream thing...towns send their refuse downstream soooo not good for drinking water but good for crops.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
This is looking quite good! The new houses are much more visible than in the former WIP. Great job so far.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
I tried to implement your suggestions, so maybe last WIP:
Moved labels 1 & 7 (and changed their color, so the don't look like buildings), added fields and sheds (...), some more houses, the river is broader and the map has now key & scale. I'm quite happy with it
demera07.jpg
Fantastische Kartographie - illustrations & maps by Schattenherz | DeviantArt | Drachenblut - german RPG board & world
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