The lines for the basilica are finally done: the walls, the statues, the furnishings, the floors and all the rest. It was an enormous amount of work, but I think it’s been worthwhile. I might even say the map is looking fairly… is Catholicious a word? I hope so.
Anyway, it’s time to color this thing. It’ll probably take a minute, so I’ll post a few pictures along the way. Well, I’m gonna get started on that. Let me know what you think so far!
It’ll be a few more days, but we’re in the homestretch now. All right, I’d better get back to it.
This is the basilica with the statues and altars and most of the furnishings done. I tried to draw everything as accurately as I could and I’m pretty happy with it so far. There’s only one more thing to draw before I start coloring this, which is the floor. That may take a minute, since the floor here looks like this, but I think it’ll be worth the effort.
Well, this thing isn’t going to draw itself (none of the rest of it did, anyway), so I’d better get started. Let me know what you think so far!
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!
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!
