Port City

[Seleucus I]

A map of the city of Clearport from my previous world map (linked in my signature). This was my first attempt mapping a city; I made it this past week for my d&d group because my players are supposed to visit the city during our next session. I may return to it and edit a few minor things, but its more or less done at this point.

Done in Photoshop from a skeleton I drew by hand. I used one of Ravell's pencil textures from this post for the shading inside buildings, etc. everything else is my own work.

-Seleucus

Clearport.jpg

[feanaaro]

The style is impressively beautiful. Part of the street layout, however, exhibit the dreaded BRAAAIIIINS effect.

[arsheesh]

I dig it! Lovely work.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[ravells]

Brilliant work and I'm so glad the texture was helpful!

[Ilanthar]

Fine job, especially for a first city map.

[Lingon]

That looks great, the grey and turquoise fit together really nicely! I also like the very long aspect, it's not very common I see what Feanaaro means about the brains effect though, I think you have a bit too many dead ends in (what I guess is) the older parts of the city. Some more narrow alleys to cut those large irregular buildings into smaller sections would make it look more realistic, I think. Also, the train tracks look like they curve too sharply – trains need really big curve radii. But, nitpicks! It looks awesome anyway

[Seleucus I]

I ended up with a little free time today so I decided to go back to the source and fix a couple of things that were bugging me. I felt the border was a bit too thick, and once Feanaaro pointed out the brains effect, I couldn't unsee it. I doubt I got rid of all of the brains, but I think I took care of the worst areas.

@Lingon: The reason I don't have a whole lot of tiny alleys is two-fold. The most mundane explanation is I was short on time already (I needed the map complete by this weekend and didn't really get a good start until last Monday) and there was no time to add a whole bunch more tiny streets. More importantly, though, not showing alleyways made sense from the cartographic design I intended: my fictional cartographer was trying to make a map that would be relevant for many years to come, and since small alleys might appear or disappear organically as buildings are torn down or constructed, they were not included. Instead, only the most permanent roads were put on the map. I don't have an explanation for the sharp railway curve, though - I may need to go back in the future and fix that!

I've uploaded the new (and probably really final) version of the map below and in the original post. My thanks to everyone who commented and gave me feedback; it is much appreciated.

Clearport.jpg

-Seleucus