Since this is supposed to be a Venetian palace, it’s going to be on a canal, but I’m going to make a version that’s on land, too. The thing is, there’s a boathouse on the left side and I’m not sure what to do with that. I mean, I’ll get rid of the boats, obviously, but then it’s an Italian palace with a monster truck garage. Il Palazzo di Truckasaurus Rex. Well, I can probably just call it a carriage house.
All right, time to color this thing.
Whew, okay. This is all seven floors of Oakenhold. I wasn’t initially planning to make it bigger than the original version, but, well… that happened.
First, let me say a quick word about beds. So, elves in D&D settings meditate rather than sleep and don’t need beds (not for sleeping, anyway). But I want this map to work for other races as well, so I’m drawing the beds in a way that they can be called “meditation mats” for elves or “beds” for other races. Hopefully, that works for most people, but I know it doesn’t for everyone, so I’m going to make a version without the beds as well. Just wanted to let everyone know that up front.
This map is a part of the island of Tir Thelandira and I’ve been thinking about the lore of the place as I’ve been drawing all this. The queen of the wild elves is a ranger and a famous huntress who unified the tribes of the island. Not many elven queens can kill, skin and butcher a deer, but Queen Niamh is a little different. She’s fierce, pragmatic and leads from the front. And when the Dhasrans built their colony on her island and began logging her forest, she fired the first arrow in response.
There’s still plenty more to figure out, but I’ll have the basic lore of the island for you when the map is done.
Okay, I’m gonna start coloring this beast. Wish me luck.
This is a desert village with a small oasis and a caravanserai, built into the sides of a sinkhole. The drawing on the top left shows it from the outside and the other two levels are below.
This place is inspired by the cave houses of Cappadocia in Türkiye (I like the new spelling, by the way), which are an idea I’d like to do more with at some point. For example, this is a castle in Cappadocia. I don’t know about you, but I would describe myself as highly into that. God, I have to stop looking at that picture or I’m going to just drop everything and draw a map of it right now.
Okay, one thing at a time. I’m gonna finish my coffee and start coloring this sinkhole. Let me know what you think so far!
I’ll be back for you, insane Turkish rock castle. This I swear.
I meant to post this yesterday, but here’s the art for Murud-Janjira, the island fortress just off the western coast of India.
There’s a temple to the Hindu god Shiva here, but I couldn’t find a picture of the interior, so I had to do a little research to find out what a temple to Shiva would look like. Along the way, I learned a few interesting things:
So apparently, Hinduism is surprisingly metal. I respect that a lot, I really do.
Anyway, I’m gonna get back to coloring the map.
Here’s Akshardham Temple almost fully inked. I’ll be drawing the interior as well, of course.
This is definitely one of the most elaborate maps I’ve ever drawn, if not the most. Between the tile pattern on the central walkway, the gardens and the roof of the temple. this place is full of tiny details.
On a side note, I got a little confused while I was looking for information on this place. There was an Akshardham Temple in Delhi and another one in New Delhi and they looked really similar. As it turns out, they were the same temple. Apparently, New Delhi is in Delhi. I’m not that knowledgeable about Indian geography and I guess I hadn’t considered that possibility. I didn’t even know you could do that. Just put the new one inside the old one. Huh.
Anyway, I’m gonna get back to work. Hope you like it so far!
This is the first floor of the Generalife colored. There’s still a second floor left to draw, but that shouldn’t take more than 3-4 days to get done. I’ll release the whole thing once that’s finished.
Okay, I’m gonna get on that. Let me know what you think so far!
So, the Alhambra is a fortress in Andalusia, Spain with a number of palaces inside its walls. The largest of those palaces is the Generalife, which is what I’ve been drawing a map of. I’ve been to this place and it is absolutely epic.
There’s a staircase called the water stair, which has water flowing down channels in the railings. There are also three fountains in the middle of the staircase, which might seem unusual until you realize that there are fountains everywhere. Like, there are just fountains right next to other fountains. These people were very serious about proper hydration.
There’s also the Sultana’s Garden, the Canal Garden, and the terraced High Gardens. It’s a big map with a lot of detail and it’s going to be a lot of work, but I think it’ll be worth the effort.
After this, I owe you a spelljammer. And then, I’ll be drawing two places in India. First, Akshardham Temple in New Delhi, then the island fortress of Murud-Janjira, which won last month’s Cartographic Congress. Sound good? I hope so. All right, back to work.
This is Charwall, the last map in the Black Loch. The underground canals are on the right. I hope you like it so far! Well, I’m gonna eat something and start coloring.
Here are the drawings for the next map. While I was looking at various clock towers for inspiration, I discovered the Prague Orloj, which is an astronomical clock. It was too cool to not include it in the map, so I drew it in. It’s based on a geocentric model, but I think we can let that go, since it was made in the early 1400s and telescopes were still two centuries away.
Anyway, I’m gonna go color this thing. Hope you like it so far!
Here’s the art for the duergar outpost. It’s built in front of a magma vent, the heat from which is used to melt and cast steel to make duergar screamers. A screamer is a metal construct with a dwarf trapped inside. The dwarf is in constant agony and it channels that pain into screams that can shatter stone.
Anyway, just thought I’d give you a look before I get to work on coloring it.
