Here’s what I’ve drawn so far:
Two more down! I’ll be working on the “poor” island in the lower right next. So far, this feels like fairly good progress to me.
All right, back to work!
City Megaproject Update 2: The Small Market, Temple and Fishing Docks
Here are the drawings of the first three islands of the river delta city megaproject (which I really need to come up with a proper name for). These are three of the smaller islands, but they seemed like a good place to start. I’ll be drawing the trade harbor next.
Most of the islands will only have a single level, but a few will have multiple floors, like the palace, the forts, the wealthy district, the manor and a few others. This should help to make the map a bit easier to use. I’ll probably still draw a roof level for the whole map, though.
Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work. Let me know what you think so far! And if you’ve got any ideas on a name for this city, I’d love to hear them.
City Battlemap Megaproject: Here’s where we are three days in (Work-in-Progress)
As you can see, I completely redesigned the layout from the original sketch. I had a few problems with it, but by far the biggest was the fact that it was crap. I like this one much better and I hope you do too.
The second picture is the sketch of the island layout with a basic description of what’s on what’s on each island. These are pretty broad strokes, but I’m going to start figuring out the details next. I’ll decide what the various buildings will be, make a few edits to accommodate some things, then start drawing all this at a 5′ (1.5m) grid scale. I’ll draw one island at a time rather than all at once and I’ll post each one when it’s finished. When all the linework is done, I’ll scan everything and start coloring.
The layout above isn’t carved in stone yet, so if you have any thoughts about the map or what might make it better, by all means let me know. Or if you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask!
The Dragon’s Lair in Devil’s Chimney
This is the volcanic lair of a red dragon and its minions. Since this isn’t a particularly safe place to live for anything that isn’t immune to fire, those minions are probably something like:
- Fire giants
- Efreet
- Salamanders
- Firenewts
I could also see this being the home of any of the above without the dragon, since these races would all probably be big fans of volcanofront property.
As promised, I’ll be starting on the river delta city megaproject next. From my experience in drawing very large maps, I’ve learned that planning a project in detail saves time in the long run, so I’m going to start off by laying out the whole city in advance. I’ll plan out the islands, what’s on each, where the bridges, roads and buildings are, etc. Once I’ve got that sketched out, I’ll get started on drawing everything piece-by-piece, putting it all together and getting it colored.
I expect this to take around 2 months, but it could be a bit more or less. I’ll keep you updated with regular work-in-progress posts along the way so you can see how it’s coming and so I can get your feedback as I go. Well, it’s time to stop talking about it and start sketching this thing out. I’ll be back with some sketches once I’ve got a layout I like. Until then!