Graven (first map)

[kestrelgrey]

Finally finished this. Took about a year to get all the parts together, finalize the shape of the island, and draw out all of the buildings. Most are hand "drawn" using the lasso tool in Photoshop, then filled. Others were created by filling in a large shape and erasing out the streets. A handful (which I really need to go in and clean up) were "built" with a square brush using a narrow scatter field. Those don't look so good. The map itself is rather big - I worked it at 20"x20", so I could put in labels on a lot of buildings and streets (I still have to label streets - not sure how best to do that yet). No terrain is marked on this map - I felt there were too many buildings to really show terrain without compromising the building details. There are canals in the southwest where the land is pretty flat; the northeast area is more hilly and there are cliffs (think Cinque Terre in Italy) along the northeast side of the lake. I realize I haven't added in the river(s) leading into/out of the lake; I'm still making sure I like the terrain before I decide final placement. Plenty of buildings arc over canals and rivers, so drawing in river(s) under/through buildings isn't an issue. Anyway, here's the map. There are some labels; I think I'll change most of the building labels into numbers to better indicate which building I'm actually labeling, and then I'll put a key somewhere. That might get long though. There is a scale in the upper left corner; I left off the grid for now, but I can put it back on if that would help. Also, I've included a map of the train system I'm working on, which is totally up for drastic changes. There's some minor method to that madness, but not enough to make me completely happy. I may completely overhaul it at some point, but I'd love some feedback. I have no idea how to map train lines, bus lines, or other transportation routes.