Cinzienne (large, late-medieval city)

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Hello cartographers! I'm starting this WIP thread because this will be my first city map, and I'd like some feedback along the way.

Cinzienne is a mid-to-large late medieval city, close to bursting its seams (and its walls). It was first founded as a trading post, as it sits at the confluence of two rivers, one bringing copper and iron from a mountainous valley to the northwest, the other connecting the city with the northern region of the country (Cinza) and other powerful countries across a mostly rural stretch of plains. (See my Finished Map thread for Cinzienne's location in geographical context: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29951) The city has about 60,000 living inside and just outside the walls, and covers an area about 1.5x1.5 miles.

As for the map, I want to improve my general digital artistry, so I plan to hand-draw and shade all of the buildings, and create hand-painted hills and other geographical features.

Here's my crummy sketch (it looks better in person than it does scanned, I promise) I've been working on over the last week or so. Let me know what you think. I'll be starting the construction of the map soon!

[J.Edward]

Hey GWN. Hard to see clearly but it looks like you may have a good start there.
Will watch and see how this progresses.

[Sharpsmile]

Hello GWN,

It was pretty hard to see on my monitor, but I can see it pretty clearly on my iPad. So far it looks like your having fun sketching the layout, gotta love hand drawn maps. It's going to be such a satisfying project, looking forward to seeing your style emerge. Does the city wall extend over the river?

~ Sharpie

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Sharpsmile, it's currently the plan to have the fortification extend over the river. However, one of the reasons why I made this WIP is that I have a pretty rudimentary undesrtanding of medieval cities, so I'm interested in hearing what everyone has to say. So, for example, is that something that actually happened anywhere?

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Here's what I've come up with so far. I've been working on the physical geography first. The hills are under construction here, and a few more will be added. The black shapes are a placeholders for water features. Let me know what you think.

[Larb]

I can't think of any examples of cities with walls built over large rivers. Your river seems narrower when compared to your pencil drawing. Hard to comment on it until you've done a bit more though.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

They should be the same size. I digitized over the sketch so they should be pretty much the same. And thanks for the insight on the walls!

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Done a little more work on the hills, including a different style of texturing on the slopes. Not sure I'm in love with it, so I'd be interested to hear opinions. Also did some river coloring.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

The work goes on. Here I've made color adjustments and increased variation in the background texture. Also done a bit of work on the border. The next step will be starting the building footprints.

[GreatWhiteNorth]

I've started on the building footprints here, using Adobe Illustrator. The bright colors are of course general placeholders. They be given texture and a lot of individual work in Photoshop. The really bright and obnoxious colors will be some special buildings.