Grainstreet, a small village map.

[Daia Maps]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while cause I've been learning to draw all over again. I finally got a drawing tablet and I've been doing some training. I mean to make a career out of drawing maps so I ask for all tips and critiques you guys have on this map. I already know some things I don't like, for example I have to find a better way to draw the forests, and I'm not happy with the way the text and the borders blend into the image.

But in general I'm quite content with my progress.

I also wanna make sure you all know the artists that influenced me: Daniel Maps, Map Effects and Mike Schley.

Grainstreet-Compressed.jpg

[XCali]

Hehe, besides the inner forest, I feel your text is perfectly fine. I've seen text that dominate the map, taking away from the actual artwork, so this works well.
Same with the border, borders can sometimes dominate an image. But yours does what it needs to.

The individual trees are good, though the inner forest can maybe be tweaked to better represent it.

One possible nitpick I'd make, there is an argument that for this small of a village there might be too many crop farms. But it is debatable.

Still all in all, a good (evening) map.

[Daia Maps]

Thank you so much for the feedback!

I'm glad you liked the text and boarders. They have been growing on me a little.

As for your nitpick, I'm happy you said it cause I love to make believable places so if something feels off, I want to know, so thank you again!

[Turambar]

Beautiful village map! I would actually have to disagree on the farms, as I think the field to population ratio needed to support medieval era towns is higher than you might think. Especially since crop yields were much lower then than in modern times.

[Daia Maps]

That's what I thought too. From what I know most peasants farm as their main role, so I figured most houses would have a farm.
What I'm looking into improving is the layout of these farms, so far I'm just winging it, but I recently remembered the Three Field system they had in Feudal Europe and I'm gonna try to incorporate that more in my maps.

[XCali]

Beautiful village map! I would actually have to disagree on the farms, as I think the field to population ratio needed to support medieval era towns is higher than you might think. Especially since crop yields were much lower then than in modern times.

The part that I am really grappling with, that almost each house small or large has a crops area almost or larger than ten times the size of their actual house? It doesn't seem realistic, taking into account motivation, the poor, labor force/or lack thereof. Different professions, even some as hunters and gatherers. Definitely still debatable.

[Larb]

It takes a not insignificant acreage to feed a household. It will vary a bit by soil quality, farming techniques, and what crops they are growing. And then you need to factor in the other things such as crop rotation/leaving fields fallow. And plots for other things (because you're not just eating a single crop). You can find tons of data for all of this online and it can be fun to read about it. So if anything, those fields are too small lol.

As for the map, it's good, I really like it.

[Daia Maps]

I'm glad you liked!

Maybe bigger, somewhat communal fields will make more sense. I'm thinking some homes will have a small "backyard" for their own small crops or perhaps a chicken coop or another animal pen, some houses will have no field to represent the different crafting roles, and in further areas of the village there will bigger field that follow the three field system.

I'm thinking something like this image I found in Agriculture in the Middle Ages on wiki.
1280px-Three_Field_System.svg.png

[Larb]

When I draw village maps, I usually do them with just the bigger fields being hinted at or out of view. It's not really something you need to worry too much about, in my opinion.