City of Geiros

[tilt]

So I've been on a hiatus away from the guild and mapping and just returned to a fun challenge - making a book cover. I couldn't pass that up and in making my challenge entry ( https://cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=37497 ) I not only got the urge to actually write the book - but it also got me started on wanted to do the city of Geiros as mentioned in the title of the book. So last night I made a quick sketch of the general area of the city. I will be positioned where two rivers meet the ocean on the south side of the continent, and this will be the largest city I've mapped, both in number of houses but also in the size of the map which will be A2 in size.

First up - the sketch of the area/map. As always, feel free to comment and come with advice and suggestions - not there is much to comment on yet of course

geiros-01.jpg

[ChickPea]

Looks like you're off to a good start, and it's great that the challenge has inspired you to do this.

Looking forward to your next update.

[tilt]

Well, I've had this thought of an organic grown city for a long time - so this this seemed like a great opportunity to do it

I'm trying to decide the scale of the map.. I've made 3 small farm houses. The small one will have very little detail so not much to play with - the bigger ones get more options to do detail work on, but that also leaves the river smaller - thus less of a river more of a stream... so I'm leaning towards the small cottage even with the less details available. The map is already 7000 px across, so I don't really feel like going up in resolution. Feel free to give your input

geiros-02.jpg

[Greg]

Great progress already Tilt! Like ChickPea said, it's nice how the challenge inspired you to hit the ground running with this!

[Caenwyr]

Looking great tilt! I usually do my cities in roughly the same way: I start at the seed of the city and work my way outwards, and then I gradually erase some old city blocks in the center and replace them with larger monuments and squares as the city grows. This way you end up with those lovely weird corners and strange building clusters that really lend your city the character it needs

[tilt]

Thanks, feel free to give input on scale... I'm leaning towards the middle one now I think - so I get a tad more detail but still room to play ... and thinking about widening the river before I can't move it any longer, so that bigger boats can sail it.

[Mouse]

Hey! Look at you go!

You'll soon be outstripping the rest of us put together

Looking forward to the rest of the WIP

[tilt]

@mouse - well, its nice to be back to mapping again - I had mapstineces *lol* ... when I started here ....7 years ago I was on all the time, but my amount of spare time has lessened with a long commute and a steady job instead of being self-employed (which gave me too much spare time *hehe*). But I'm in a great mapping mood these days, so it takes up my sparetime other than working on my first board game and writing those novels LOL

[Mouse]

Oh dear! You mean I have a disease!

Is it infectious?

Would one of the major symptoms be the incessant urge to draw wiggly coastlines until you get one that's just perfect?

[tilt]

yep... and to see textures and landmasses where nobody else sees them