Cinzienne (large, late-medieval city)

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Hello cartographers! I'm starting this WIP thread because this will be my first city map, and I'd like some feedback along the way.

Cinzienne is a mid-to-large late medieval city, close to bursting its seams (and its walls). It was first founded as a trading post, as it sits at the confluence of two rivers, one bringing copper and iron from a mountainous valley to the northwest, the other connecting the city with the northern region of the country (Cinza) and other powerful countries across a mostly rural stretch of plains. (See my Finished Map thread for Cinzienne's location in geographical context: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29951) The city has about 60,000 living inside and just outside the walls, and covers an area about 1.5x1.5 miles.

As for the map, I want to improve my general digital artistry, so I plan to hand-draw and shade all of the buildings, and create hand-painted hills and other geographical features.

Here's my crummy sketch (it looks better in person than it does scanned, I promise) I've been working on over the last week or so. Let me know what you think. I'll be starting the construction of the map soon!

Cinzienne Sketch.jpg

[J.Edward]

Hey GWN. Hard to see clearly but it looks like you may have a good start there.
Will watch and see how this progresses.

[Sharpsmile]

Hello GWN,

It was pretty hard to see on my monitor, but I can see it pretty clearly on my iPad. So far it looks like your having fun sketching the layout, gotta love hand drawn maps. It's going to be such a satisfying project, looking forward to seeing your style emerge. Does the city wall extend over the river?

~ Sharpie

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Sharpsmile, it's currently the plan to have the fortification extend over the river. However, one of the reasons why I made this WIP is that I have a pretty rudimentary undesrtanding of medieval cities, so I'm interested in hearing what everyone has to say. So, for example, is that something that actually happened anywhere?

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Here's what I've come up with so far. I've been working on the physical geography first. The hills are under construction here, and a few more will be added. The black shapes are a placeholders for water features. Let me know what you think.

Cinzienne .jpg

Hills Example 1.jpg

[Larb]

I can't think of any examples of cities with walls built over large rivers. Your river seems narrower when compared to your pencil drawing. Hard to comment on it until you've done a bit more though.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

They should be the same size. I digitized over the sketch so they should be pretty much the same. And thanks for the insight on the walls!

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Done a little more work on the hills, including a different style of texturing on the slopes. Not sure I'm in love with it, so I'd be interested to hear opinions. Also did some river coloring.

Hills Example 2.jpg

Cinzienne 2.jpg

[GreatWhiteNorth]

The work goes on. Here I've made color adjustments and increased variation in the background texture. Also done a bit of work on the border. The next step will be starting the building footprints.

Border.jpg

Cinzienne 3.jpg

[GreatWhiteNorth]

I've started on the building footprints here, using Adobe Illustrator. The bright colors are of course general placeholders. They be given texture and a lot of individual work in Photoshop. The really bright and obnoxious colors will be some special buildings.

Cinzienne 4.jpg

Building Focus 1.jpg