Month: November 2025

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St. Peter’s Basilica (Work-in-Progress)

Here’s where I’m at with the basilica. The structure of the building is done and I’ve started working on the details. I’ve got the pipe organs and altars drawn into two of the chapels and the main altar is done as well, which you can see up close in the second picture. It has statues of four popes holding up a giant chair and looks like this in real life.

This place is pretty enormous and the first image is around 160×100 tiles or so. That, combined with the fact that I’m trying to give this place as much detail as possible, means that it’s going to take a minute. There are a LOT of statues in this place and I want to draw in all the major ones.

So, I hope you like how it’s coming so far and I hope you’ll find this thing worth the time spent on it. Either way, let me know what you think!

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Cladwater Lift Lock: The Ramparts

Here’s the upper level of Cladwater Lift Lock, as promised. And for patrons, I made a night version as well.

With that done, I’ll be getting back to the Vatican City megaproject, where I’ll be drawing St. Peter’s Basilica. Because the place is gargantuan and the floor is extremely elaborate, I’m not sure how long it’ll take, but I’ll post some work-in-progress pics along the way to show you how it’s going.

The basilica is an incredible work of art and I’m going to try to capture as much of that as I can in the map. But, ultimately, there’s only so much I can do. I’m going to show you two photos. Okay? This is Notre Dame in Paris. A world-famous masterpiece of architecture, no question. And this is St. Peter’s Basilica. I mean, like… that’s just bananas. My point is that I’ll do what I can, but I can only do so much in the face of that.

All right, I’m going in. Wish me luck.

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Cladwater Lift Lock

So the idea for this map is that it’s an outpost with a lock that lets riverboats cross a waterfall. If you’ve never seen one, boat elevators are a real thing. Here’s a Canadian one. And here’s Scotland’s super deluxe fancy one. I’m not sure if there are any that go over waterfalls, but it seems possible.

These things don’t go too far back in history, but Germany had one in 1789, so you should be able to get away with it in a fantasy setting. If you need an excuse, the phrase “dwarven engineering” has been letting DMs get away with putting sci-fi stuff in the middle ages for years. There’s a little pro tip for you.

As you may have noticed, this place does have stairs and there is an upper level to draw. It’s nothing fancy, just some ramparts, but I’ll draw that next. It should only take a day, two at most. After that, we’re back to Vatican City, where I’ll be getting started on St. Peter’s Basilica and its perfectly reasonable floor.

All right, I’ll be back with that soon! If you’ve got any questions or thoughts about the map, let me know.

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Vatican City – St. Peter’s Square

So the first part of the Vatican City megaproject is done. Well, kind of. One of the tricky things about drawing the Vatican is that there are parts of it I haven’t drawn yet in the background. In the top left is the Apostolic Palace and, at the bottom left, there’s a church called Santa Maria della Pieta. That stuff on the right is Italy. So I’ll have to remake this map with all the other stuff included once it’s done.

Also, St. Peter’s Square is huge. Like, this is actually one of the biggest maps I’ve ever made. That’s 199×160 tiles right there. You can fit multiple football fields inside it (either kind). The pope has a pretty big front yard.

The next part of the Vatican I’m going to draw will probably be St. Peter’s Basilica, the entrance to which is on the left. And I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little apprehensive about that. Because, you see, the floor of the basilica looks like this. Am I going to draw all that? Yes. Is it going to look really cool? Probably. Am I looking forward to it? No, I really am not. I’ll be honest with you: I’m a little scared. But it’s gotta be done and I’m going to do it regardless.

But first, I’ll be drawing last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: a dwarven fort built around a waterfall. There’ll be a lock for boats, a waterwheel or two, stuff like that. And after that, we’re back to the Vatican. Sound good? I hope so.

Anyway, if you’ve got any thoughts or questions, let me know!