Southport_Personal chalange_first attempt at a stacked/layerd/vertical settlement

[Misjay Maps]

This is a 2-in-1 map challenge for me
1 - make a new map based on a 10 year old sketch (probably the 1st fantasy map I every attempted)
2 - add an area of vertical /deep/layers city

I keep finding myself gazing at illustrations of fantasy cities that are mostly vertical .... piled up cliffs, or around tall centeral biuildings, up a steep hill, built onto the side of some ancient giant stricture.. you know the ones...
and then I find myself wondering how the heck to draw that on a top-down map...
So this is my 1st attempt.

this is where it started - the original sketch:
52A448CC-B40F-4EAA-816C-7875CDD18E64.jpeg

For this one I decided to start in Procreate on the iPad because I have been playing around with a method of painting/drawing cliffs in layers of colour first, using a lumpy brush I made, then use that as a 'trace' for the ink...
I tend to 'ink' and colour in tandem sometimes one first, sometimes the other first.

you can see the cliff colour layers here - the Bottom Left corner has not been 'inked' yet. (and the water has not been totally coloured in around the rocks yet).
the red dots are possible future locations of watch towers - have decided on a lot of watch towers without the wall inbetween - but lots of rocky ground instead.

Southport_WIP1.jpg

you can see that already it is changing from the original sketch - I swear that maps have a mind of their own sometimes and I am just the instrument of their emergence...

[Misjay Maps]

next up is start in on the vertical/layered city part.. which is going to go in that semi-isolated space bottom left...
I wanted this to feel like it was initially planed out and designed with a lot of space and beauty and then over the years became more and more built onto and crowded.

first - more sketching to figure out a general layout - there are several ideas mixed in here all at once:
Southport_WIP2.jpg

that was all the sketching I did... from there I went straight to inking - for this part I mostly inked first then added color after. I started with the aqueduct colour, then added ink for the 9 larger symmetrical buildings. then added in the rest around them, letting it grow all higgelty pigglty and crowded.
After flat-colouring the buildings (darker colours for the lower levels) and adding some highlighting this is where it is at:
Southport_WIP3.jpg

Am not entirely sure how to go about shading it to give it the depth needed. ... So I am probably going to go on and add buildings and trees etc to the rest of the map and come back to shading at the end when it is all done...

[Misjay Maps]

another’s afternoons work
Couldn’t resist colouring the water and adding some underwater rock outcrop extensions
… also re-painted the stacked city roofs so that the light/top to dark/bottom gradient/depth is more obvious because yesterday’s effort came out too flat feeling.
now I am worried that it is too dark down there… and will be more so once the big overall shadows go on top….

also added shading to the ALL the rocks to make the cliff less flat feeling.


6BD28058-6AB5-4606-9B2F-EFAA1488A4BF.jpeg

[Rubikia]

Really beautiful colouring for the water Looks amazing. I don't think that it looks too dark with the stacked roofs, the depth works well and the bottom is still visible enough. I think the shadows you plan on adding will compliment it and make it work really well Great stuff

[Misjay Maps]

Really beautiful colouring for the water Looks amazing. I don't think that it looks too dark with the stacked roofs, the depth works well and the bottom is still visible enough. I think the shadows you plan on adding will compliment it and make it work really well Great stuff

thanks Rubikia … that gives me the confidence to keep going in the direction I have been :-)

[Misjay Maps]

I just remembered that I was doing this wip post for Southport... and it is finished already. .. oops.

so, I found a few more WIP screenshots ... the next stage was the keep and walled town :
I sketched out a road system and walls and then started adding ink..
Attachment 131892 Attachment 131893
and then colour...
Attachment 131894
and then moved onto the farming land and village in the canyon ...
Attachment 131895

[Misjay Maps]

and then... in a bit of a flurry, all the farm fields and extra buildings arrived up top
... the roads in this are not finished and the final big shadows and colour grade is not done.
IMG_1014.jpg

[Misjay Maps]

Finished full-colour version (the red/bue versions behind were a bit of fun - energy/mage barriers linking all the coastal towers ;-)

Southport preview - Day.jpg

and the finished 'parchment'/poster version:
It turned out a lot better than I was expecting :-)

Southport_Free Map_1454x2000px.jpg