Lunargenti

[ThomasR]

Hi Folks,

Here comes a city map I drew a while back (almost a year now) for a RPG publication of which I have no news to this day. The client has been non responsive for 6 month now ... It is related to these two maps.

To say that I'm not at ease with city maps would be an understatement. They give me cold sweats as I have no idea where to start. Here, the size of the map did not allow for details so, I had just the layout (more like building filling and roads) to make (which is far worse for me than building details).

I used Torstan's method to draw this one as it is really efficient for small details and yet pretty evocative (I highly recommend his tutorials). Funny thing is, I had two cities to draw with the client giving mockups. And I drew both cities but then, something was bothering me with the second. I scratched my head for a couple of days and finally dove into my inspiration folder to realize I had drawn an almost clone of one of Jonathan Roberts (Torstan) map of Redwall. Mine had inside the mountain buildings and a destroyed outside city but the walls and towers + mountain limit were exactly the same. I contacted my client to ask him about it and also Jonathan (pretty embarrassed by the situation) to tell him I had unwillingly copied one of his maps. Jonathan was really cool about it and just pointed out that the design was copyrighted before asking me to keep him posted and further investigation revealed the client used this map as reference for his campaign but forgot where it came from. I was supposed to redraw the map but the client went dark ... That's why, you only see Lunargenti today (and sorry for the rant).

Enough talk, here's the map, I hope you do not dislike it too much.

Cheers !


© Thomas REY - 2018 - All rights reserved

[Josiah VE]

This looks beautiful Thomas! You've nailed it!
I really want to see more city maps from you now

[jshoer]

I think there are enough of your flourishes in this map to make this your own. That's a really cool and different style for the woods - I don't usually see that architectural top-down view of them from you.

One thing I notice is that some of the districts are really hard to tell apart from each other - the yellow and green colors are very close to each other. Maybe a different color choice or the addition of boundary lines between the districts would have been better.

[DrWho42]

i'm really digging these city maps!

[Badger]

That's a great city map, so I wouldn't worry too much. Man, Torsten hasn't been around for so long I wouldn't remember something like that, good thing you caught that though. When you say the client went dark, you mean he quit sending emails and such? Did you at least get paid for the work you already did I hope? (not that it's any of my business... you don't have to answer that) that just gives me the idea to ask a client up front if they used any type of online material as reference for their maps... You can at least cover your butt that way when they say no and you find out different. But, I digress... That's a great looking map and I love the colors you put with it. I do my forests almost exactly the same at that scale.

Del

[Ilanthar]

Great work, Thomas! Easy to read and efficient!

[Raven9]

Nice work. This is a great style for a city map. very easy to look at.

[Kellerica]

I can completely relate to your feelings about city maps, as they are quite far out of my comfort zone as well... But given all that, i think you did a rather nice work on this one. I'm maybe not completely sold on the style of buildings (which in my opinion is quite modern looking) used together with your trademark parchment edges, but overall I find the look quite solid. I really like the way you did the vegetation, too.

I'm sorry to hear about the hassle with Mr. Roberts and the Redwall map issue, and especially the client suddenly dropping communication. It sucks beyond measure when that happens. I'll echo Del in hoping that you got at least some compensation for the the work done so far.

At the very least, you got a nice city map done for all the trouble, and practicing those certainly can't be a bad thing. I really need to get some done as well, maybe I'll use this as encouragement to do so...

[- JO -]

You see ? Not so difficult !
It's a good looking map and, as sais, very well readable ! You should draw more of those !
It's just sad that the client didnt' take his responsabilities... But I'm glad to see this beautiful map... So it's not a total loss ?

[ThomasR]

This looks beautiful Thomas! You've nailed it!
I really want to see more city maps from you now

Thanks a lot Josiah ! I'm still not at ease with them though. I still owe one to John ...

I think there are enough of your flourishes in this map to make this your own. That's a really cool and different style for the woods - I don't usually see that architectural top-down view of them from you.

One thing I notice is that some of the districts are really hard to tell apart from each other - the yellow and green colors are very close to each other. Maybe a different color choice or the addition of boundary lines between the districts would have been better.

Thanks Joseph I don't do top down often, that's true. About the colors, they were mandatory and I had a hard time making them work ... enough

i'm really digging these city maps!

Thanks DrWho 42

That's a great city map, so I wouldn't worry too much. Man, Torsten hasn't been around for so long I wouldn't remember something like that, good thing you caught that though. When you say the client went dark, you mean he quit sending emails and such? Did you at least get paid for the work you already did I hope? (not that it's any of my business... you don't have to answer that) that just gives me the idea to ask a client up front if they used any type of online material as reference for their maps... You can at least cover your butt that way when they say no and you find out different. But, I digress... That's a great looking map and I love the colors you put with it. I do my forests almost exactly the same at that scale.

Del

Thanks a lot Del ! When I say "went dark", I don't imply I wasn't paid, I got paid what I was owed (I never deliver a map before having all the money I'm owed). There was a revision of the Dwarf city in the works, budget was settled but the client went unresponsive. I tried to contact him by PM on Twitter (he still posts daily there) but I never got any answer. The release of the maps were scheduled too so, I send him an email saying if I did not hear from him in the next month I'd post it on my portfolio, the Guild and social media as it was agreed. No response either. Torstan was awfully kind and cool about the inadverteen plagiarism issue.

Great work, Thomas! Easy to read and efficient!

Merci beaucoup Julien

Nice work. This is a great style for a city map. very easy to look at.

Thanks Raven9, that was teh challenge because of the printsize (A5).

I can completely relate to your feelings about city maps, as they are quite far out of my comfort zone as well... But given all that, i think you did a rather nice work on this one. I'm maybe not completely sold on the style of buildings (which in my opinion is quite modern looking) used together with your trademark parchment edges, but overall I find the look quite solid. I really like the way you did the vegetation, too.

I'm sorry to hear about the hassle with Mr. Roberts and the Redwall map issue, and especially the client suddenly dropping communication. It sucks beyond measure when that happens. I'll echo Del in hoping that you got at least some compensation for the the work done so far.

At the very least, you got a nice city map done for all the trouble, and practicing those certainly can't be a bad thing. I really need to get some done as well, maybe I'll use this as encouragement to do so...

Thanks Kell The style of the building was dictated by the print size. I tried adding details but to have a decent map I would have had to oversize to draw and then downsize to print with quality loss (and work way too hard for the price because that's also an element to take into consideration with hired work, clients get what they pay for).

As stated above, Torstan was really nice on the matter and I was paid in full for the work. My only regret is not being able to show the damn map

Practicing is key but I'd say, what I lack for doing proper city maps is a sense of drive. I'm pretty sure you gotta design and modifiy and trash and restart to get the hang of it ... and I'm lazy. I need to get out of my comfort zone (regional and world maps) and I will but those days I'm so busy that I need breathers, not more constraints. In the meantime, I look at John's and Larb's cities to learn because they're damn good city planners.

You see ? Not so difficult !
It's a good looking map and, as sais, very well readable ! You should draw more of those !
It's just sad that the client didnt' take his responsabilities... But I'm glad to see this beautiful map... So it's not a total loss ?

Not so difficult ?! For you ! You make it look so natural ! For me, it's not the same mayonnaise But you're right, I should draw more of hem. Good news is I'm back at RPGing and DMing so, I'll have to feed my players some plans and city/village/building/dungeon maps so, I'm doomed to diversify my output.

As I said before, the client went dark after teh project ended so, it's more his loss than mine as he paid for a map he cannot publish but it's not that dire for me.

Mais merci pour les encouragements Joel