City of Val Nevan

[Blaidd Drwg]

Posting this here because Vorropohaiah said I should

Val-Nevan2.jpg

Val Nevan is a city in the conworld I started when I was still running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign (which is long-dead). It is the capital of the Kingdom of Ainemmais, which is in turn one of the kingdoms that make up the greater kingdom of Muyremere. While my D&D-playing days are over, I'm still busy fleshing out that kingdom and drawing the maps is the part I enjoy best. I could write some history, but I fear it would bore everyone to death the way it did my players.

I got most of my inspiration for this map from four things:

1. the town of Valkenburg in the south of the Netherlands. See the sandcastle impression of the monster that may have once dominated the town,
2. Hochburg Emmendingen in the Black Forest, Germany,
3. the city of Freiburg (Black Forest, as well),
4. an old map of Brugge (or Bruges if you will) and
5. quite a few maps and tutorials I've seen here and on the Guild's DA-page.

As an aside, I suggest you visit these places if you have the opportunity. They are made of awesome

Some pics I looked at A LOT: 1 429727_10150677823189161_647653198_n.jpg 2 474419_10150707525124161_1484997340_o.jpg 4 Brugge.jpg

I had been wanting to do a isometric-y map for a long time, but never felt I'd be able to pull it off. I'd tried a few times using a grid and photohop, but it never looked decent. Then I went back to old-fashioned pen and paper and things started to come together. Thankfully, it turned out to be more of a matter of patience than real drawing skills. Technically, I screwed up quite a lot (accidentally using slightly different projections, mistaking the relative size of buildings, smudging), but because all the houses are so small and there are so many of them, they don't seem to stand out too much if you look at the map as a whole. Just don't zoom in on the houses on the street near the east gate and notice how they all appear to be falling over in one direction or other

It was drawn on A3 paper with pencils and my trusted micron pens, then scanned and coloured in Photoshop. The details like the writing and the coats of arms were done digitally, but to preserve the hand-made look, I printed them out, traced them, and scanned them again. I used a stock image for the aged-paper background, but I have absolutely no idea where I got it, so I can't credit the person responsible. If someone here recognises it, please let me know.

I don't have anything else to tell. It's been tremendous fun to do, your support and advice were awesome, and I'm glad it's done. Thanks for watching



Original thread here.

[arsheesh]

One of the best maps I've seen here. Period.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Freodin]

What else is there to say but what arsheesh said? Period.

[jbgibson]

What's beyond A-mazing ... twomazings or three-mazings? This is threemazing at least :-).

[Katto]

Fantastic! Repped & Rated! Hope to see it as a next Featured Map

[Blaidd Drwg]

Thanks folks. It's really (what's that word ...) satisfying (?) that people like it so much.

[vorropohaiah]

now that i can rate this... (again, great job)

nice to see the influences too. I'm dying to try my hand at an intricate top-down star-fort map, like the one you linked to.

[TheRedEpic]

I agree with arsheesh, this is a fantastic map that is a symbol of what we all would like to achieve Deceptively simple, its very elegant in its execution. This could be a map made by a cartographer from the high middle ages Bravo!

[daemaree]

It's such a beautiful map... I had to tear myself away from looking at it. You put such an insane amount of detail into it. Well done.

[Larb]

I think I already said how awesome this map is on the other forum. It is a very fine piece of art and hugely inspiring.