So, since finishing this city map, I was happy with it but knew I could do better, and wanted to find an opportunity at giving it another try, and learning better techniques.

I'm a great believer in the exercise of attempting to reproduce work that you're a fan of, just to get a feel for the process and have a better understanding of the building blocks. Stephen Fry once typed out one of his favorite novels from start to finish, "just to know what it felt like". This is kind of like that, though probably with more mechanical benefit.

So, with that in mind, I'm taking my map of Westbar and starting over closely following the process used on J.Edward's city map of Haerlech. The WIP thread is full of incredibly informative step-by step images, and while it'll probably take me even longer than the year it took him, I'm going to try it out and see what I learn.

Think of it as Tim's Vermeer, with less filmmaking equipment and more cartography.

Step one: building outlines and roof shapes.

westbar_map_redux.jpg