A History of Progress - Na-Du

[MPG]

Hi,
Well after three months in our new house we finally have internet access - fibre, no less! And to celebrate I thought I would continue the History of Progress thread this morning by offering up my first ever city map, in its various stages. This took years to develop, simply because it was drawn by hand in every re-incarnation, and grew larger each time. I will try to keep this in some chronological order.
Na-Du (200 is the original - and plainly I didn't have a clue.... I knew what I wanted but didn't know how to get there; no technical expertise, no YouTube, no forums like this; just me and my glass topped coffer table - which quickly became an A1 sized light box. I admit freely that parts of this were literally copied from old playing aids, but this was never commercial so I got on with it. I learned a great deal and decided to persevere.
Once again I wanted texture and colour, so re-drew with inks on a parchment colour Rowney paper - Na-Du (200 ink.
And that's where it stayed as I went on to draw the towns and villages that served as the 'infrastructure' of the Ancient Lands, all in a similar manner, hoping to improve along the way. In 2011 I had an epiphany - I bought a half decent PC, acquired Photoshop CS5, and inspired to create, I drew Na-Du (2011) - this time all my own work. Once I had practised with CS5, I added the textured background, filled the dwellings to bring them out, did the border and didn't go back to it until 2014. By then the campaign was over, as was the world in which it existed, however, I was on a roll and began developing the city for an idea that was growing in my mind.
So, I drew Ys (2014), with a new central area and slimmed down the slums under the bridge. Then coloured it and left it at that as I started learning AutoCad... and found the redoubtable Fantastic Maps tutorials by Jonathan Roberts, and a whole new chasm of learning gaped open wide before me.

[Falconius]

This is very cool to see. It is always interesting to see a person progress int he same work of art over time. I hope eventually that you find the time to colour it and label it.

[MPG]

Ha! I hope so too...and I’ve been working towards a full colour version, but learning how to has to come first...I’m new at this despite starting over ten years ago. Thanks for looking this over, I really do appreciate the comments so keep them coming.

[kacey]

Very nice MPG, it's really neat to see the progress in stages like this.

[MPG]

Thanks Kacey, more to follow I hope. Thanks for the rep.