The "painting" effect is very very cool.
This is a continuation of this thread.
This is the capitol city of Kingdom of Akron depicted on the region map on that thread.
This is the first city map I've ever done (digitally, that is). I've spent nearly 35 hours doing this - most of the time spent finding the ways with which I would do the trees, fields, houses etc. Everything is done from scratch in Photoshop. Now that I've built myself an arsenal of buildings and found ways how to do the fields and woods, the next city map should be much more easier.
Design principles for the city itself:
* think 800 AD European environment
* the city has not been a capitol city for long, the main castle by the river was formerly a castle of the region's count and now serves as the king's seat
* to accommodate additional demands of the city's new status, a keep was built recently to house soldiers and horses of the cavalry
* the country is not known for it's architecture, simple and functional structures are favored instead
* the city has not been planned in any way and there is still yet no authority to supervise or decide how the city expands
* population is around 5000 or so - this is a big population center and the biggest city of the whole country
* the riverbanks are somewhat underdeveloped for a reason - there are yearly floods that have been hard on buildings on river banks
* the city is not a religious center - there are no cathedrals or big monumental religious buildings
* city has attracted some nobility who have built their mansions here
I'm looking for feedback on whether I should desature the colors, should I include descriptive texts etc.
Last edited by 12rounds; 06-07-2012 at 02:50 PM.
The "painting" effect is very very cool.
I don't think it needs desaturating myself as I imagine it might make it look a little washed out. They're not highly saturated colours anyway.
I do really like this map though and I love the style you have developed. I particularly like how your crop fields have turned out. I suppose you could add street names maybe.
By the way, what did you use to make the cobbled/flagstone road? It looks really nice.
This city is truly awesome!You can really see the amount of work you put into creating it.
I also like the "painting" effect. Since you asked, I think that some descriptive texts might be nice, it would make easier for the viewer to imagine what the city is like. The map looks already great without them, though. As to the colors I like the color palette you chose, the only thing that seems to stand out a bit to me, are the fields. To my eyes they look a little to bright. I'm not an expert though, I'm only saying what I feelAgain - wonderful map
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Thanks for the comments Feanaaro, Larb and Lyandra.
It's actually a seamless stone wall texture which I turned into a pattern and use it on a specific layer style (pattern overlay of a style in Photoshop). I then used a textured brush called "Ink Wash" to gently create the roads with a very low flow so that I could evaporate it's edges. On a masked multiply layer on top of that I applied a brown grunge brush to break the consistency of the uniform texture a bit.
Nice job on the city 12rounds, looks great!
Cheers,
-Arsheesh