City - Hand-drawn: Sokurah

[Kolyana]

Sokurah
Population count - 24,000

Copyright 2012 -
Fallen Empires, J. Carpio.
Tales From the Fallen Empire: Sword and Sorcery Setting by James Carpio — Kickstarter

"The city should look like a scarab" was part of the description for this one, so I'm running with it =D It's very unusual and fantasy-like, which is a wonderful mix-a-roo.

Sokurah.jpg

[Clercon]

Lovely as always. I really like the shape of the city. I can see that the city walls are drawn differently in the map, depending on where they are. Sometimes they are a line and sometimes they are more dotted. Are they representing different quality's of the wall?

[Kolyana]

Lovely as always. I really like the shape of the city. I can see that the city walls are drawn differently in the map, depending on where they are. Sometimes they are a line and sometimes they are more dotted. Are they representing different quality's of the wall?

Thanks Clercon.

Here I've started experimenting with a few different things on my maps. One is the 'fill' on the surrounding landscape, another the removal of dot shadowing (and shadowing using light colors instead), and then there are the walls. This will almost certainly evolve in style and application, but I am shooting for castellated (or not), height, thickness, quality, and use.

[Juce734]

I really like that map. Very good and detailed. How much time does it take to hand draw a map like that?

[Kolyana]

I really like that map. Very good and detailed. How much time does it take to hand draw a map like that?

Thanks Juce734. This one was probably about 16hrs over two days.

[Lukc]

A truly beautiful map, indeed! And 16 hours sounds about right. You did this with software, by hand referring to the manual use of a graphics tablet, correct?

[Kolyana]

A truly beautiful map, indeed! And 16 hours sounds about right. You did this with software, by hand referring to the manual use of a graphics tablet, correct?

Indeed. Cintiq 24" HD Touch and Wacom pen, purposefully adhering to my same technique and look when I use paper & pen. (if thee is a better classification btw, I'd love to adopt it ... =D)

[torstan]

Very pretty. The line work is exceptional - as always. The one thing that jars is the pixelated outside edge of the arena. I'm not sure just what happened to that?

I'm very jealous of the 24" cintiq! I'd love to see one of these coloured...

Lovely work again. Have some more rep!

[Kolyana]

Very pretty. The line work is exceptional - as always. The one thing that jars is the pixelated outside edge of the arena. I'm not sure just what happened to that?

I'm very jealous of the 24" cintiq! I'd love to see one of these coloured...

Lovely work again. Have some more rep!

Thanks Torstan, you are too kind! I also appreciate the feedback and I'll take a look at that. I suspect a high zoom level an alternate drawing technique may be to blame and I've noticed it in other maps when I have drawn the same way. I am sure I can do something about that.

I *DO* have one map colored (I got the Cintiq for that purpose!), but thus far I have not had permission to post - and I do like to adhere to client wishes (!) As soon as I get the nod, I will be more than happy to share ... and I'm really keen to!

[Waynan7]

I just registered and am more a fan than an actual cartographer, though I have done a couple of hand drawn regional maps, etc. I have been going through some of the albums and these hand drawn cities of yours, Kolyana, are astounding. The massive detail, the incredible patience and the steady-handed skill are wonderful. I've seen several of your pieces, but this one is truly unique. Something for a "Conan" type RPG where everything is "spactacular" a la Cecil B. DeMille. Bravo!