City Protecting a Sacred Spring (hand drawn with ink)

[Sulla]

Preliminary Note: The city itself is only 7 inches long and completely hand drawn

The idea is simple: a sacred water source with generative powers (various entities emerge from the water and must be protected in the sites around the central spring's lake) is the nexus of a city. Not only is the surrounding landscape desert and the water is important to survive, but the generative powers cannot be allowed to enter the hands of others....

Blog entry detailing my process: here

What I'm looking for:

1. suggestions as to how to not obscure the city blocks with the inset lines (the lines going to the circles showing more details).

2. Is the geography clear? (i.e. a basin with a holy spring and a surrounding city. The spring flows in a creek out of the the city in a narrow gully)

3. Any other comments/thoughts?

[Deeds]

I really like the city. The buildings look good, and the detailed zoom in points are interesting. Nice colors too.

I'm afraid I don't have any magic solution to the lines crossing the streets, maybe if it were to be layered in software you could diminish the lines to be less obfuscating, but I think you'd still have lines. What about a reference system, with just a symbol (like a number) next to the map location and matching symbol next to the detail portion? Just an idea, might not fit the style. Only other thing, to me, the two 'horns' of the pond on its left side make me think: (1) that those are either two separate sources for the spring that then feeds the pool, (2) that those are streams following into the pond, or (3) those are the start of streams exiting the pond and don't go anywhere, but that seems odd; not sure if maybe one of those is your intention or not. Anyways, nice work, the 7in scale is amazing.

[Sulla]

Thank you for the kind words!

As for the software comment, unfortunately, I am not really interested in any software assistance (when I eventually write labels they will also be hand drawn etc.). Perhaps I'll experiment with dotted lines next time or a different color (brown or brownish red).

Per the elevation lines, those two "horns" are the actual water flowing from the springs into the pond. I forgot to add spring symbols but I didn't really know what to use to indicate the actual spring.... ideas?