Westbridge: The East Stops Here

[Coreyartus]

My second town map, riffing off of the wonderful tutorials found here on Cartographer's Guild. This particular map is for my home campaign, fleshing out a village in a pre-written published campaign book (Princes of the Apocalypse) that didn't have a map of the town included.

This particular town has no bridge, in spite of the name. There is no river. It is a "gateway to the west", and features prominently on a trade route that extends to the east from this locale. The town is a small farming hub (thus the disproportionate ratio of businesses to residences, and 4 temples/churches). The pre-written material doesn't describe Westbridge much (it mentions an inn and an orchard) so I was able to embellish with a giant cliff with a watch post, a mystic henge, and a variety of businesses. I imagine the town itself doesn't have a lot of people that actually live there, but there are a lot of regional folk that come to it to do their business. The biggest responsibility of what I imagine is a very small patrol of guards is probably checking on the town water wells every night.

My own personal challenge was to create a lot of hand-drawn elements, and I really dove into the cliff's shadows and highlights. I also tried to develop textures a lot more for this project outside of the Layer Styles tools with hand drawn brush strokes instead, especially on the roads and grass between buildings in the town. I tried to invest in details--a few hitching posts, a clothesline, and some water troughs and community wells. I even put in some lemons and apples on the orchard trees (if you can even see them...) I tried developing a key and numbering each building as well.

My biggest challenge on this project was managing the size of the file... Ha! But I'm learning. Every project expands my understanding of cartography and Photoshop by leaps and bounds.

[JonPin]

Very nice! I can see you put a lot of effort into it. I would do something to make the buildings pop more. Desaturate the green elements like trees and fields, and color all the roofs in reds. Red is a color contrast to green and it should pop more.

[ChickPea]

I think this is beautiful and you've done a fantastic job.

[Jayharchitect]

Excellent map Coreyartus. I chuckled when you said "My biggest challenge on this project was managing the size of the file" Haha. That's why I've been doing stuff in illustrator recently.

[Ilanthar]

Excellent map with an attention for details! I especially like how you did the cliff, trees and crops.

[Coreyartus]

Thank-you all very very much! I appreciate all the kind words!

@JonPin--I actually have a version where I played with the levels of the image, making everything a bit less "gray", but I only realized it was a bit dark after I stepped away and looked at it with fresh eyes. Meh. Too late now. I posted a brighter version on my DeviantArt page (here), and that's something I will pay closer attention to in the future.

@Jayharchitect--Illustrator. <cue descending chord--"Dum! Dum! Dummmmm!"> I am completely daunted by that program, and I don't know why. I actually think it's a mental block. Haha!! It is on my list to dive into and explore. I know there are ways to do what I've done a lot easier if I can just learn that program and use it in tandem. I even have it as part of CC--right now it's a big orange box on my dock taunting and mocking me with its giant "Ai" stare... As it is, I learned about Photoshop .psb files this time around, and the final file ended up being about 2.5gbs because of all my layers and such... I have a big learning curve. LOL! Maybe I'll try it for my next project, but it's like picking up a new instrument... Shifting from woodwind to brass or something... I'm still trying to read music!! LOL!

[arsheesh]

Very nice work on this. I don't generally like blending textures with hand-illustrated pieces, but this looks rather nice.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh