The Lionburgh - fortress guarding the ancient city of Ostwyc

[Caenwyr]

Hi all!

So a while back I created a map for the city of Ostwyc. It was a veritable monster of a map, and took me months to complete. I didn't mind, it was a fun experience, and since it was a personal project, I could take all the time I wanted to explore side tracks and loose myself in them.

One of these side tracks that didn't make the cut was an ISO view of the fortress straddling the city wall: the Lionburgh. At the time I was quite pleased with it, and it was mostly lack of map real estate that made me decide to leave it off. Now I'm glad I didn't use it. Man was that a crude bit of mapping!



Since I'm currently between maps for a certain commission (and since that particular fortress/palace kept popping up in my mind), I decided to take another go at it. So here it goes.

This is a section of the original map, conveniently warped for ISO-ification:


On which I then started drawing the different levels. Getting them all aligned was the biggest challenge, but this way I can be confident that the ISO castle and the one on the map are indeed identical.

This is what I have for the moment:


I'm now asking myself if I should do all the houses around it as well. Well, actually I feel like I should, but I errr... don' wanna. Lots of pain-in-the-ass tedious linework that will just be overlooked... Or will it? What is your opinion?

[Gidde]

I really love the fortress, but the town is a bit blurred and the fortress isn't, which is making it seem unnatural. If you either did do the buildings iso, or blurred the fortress to match the rest of the town a bit better, it might help? Sorry, I'm much better at identifying issues than solving them lol.

[Caenwyr]

Oh no, that last image is just to show what goes where! It's a blown up version of a section of my original map to guide my hand. Sure it's blurry, but it won't be in the final version.

I guess what I was asking is this: does that image (with the blank background) work as it is, or should I draw in all of the houses (in the locations of that last image) too?

Basically I think it'd be better WITH the houses (if nothing else, it'd give me the opportunity to draw that cool temple near the upper border, and those pastures south of the wall), but it's gonna be such a long tedious job, so I kinda hope you guys go,
"nah man, leave them off!"

[rdanhenry]

Well, it is a matter of what you are trying to show: is it the fortress or is it the fortress and its immediate surroundings? Either is a valid choice, but the intent pretty much dictates what you should do, so that is the level at which you need to decide.

[DanielHasenbos]

Firstly, the fortress looks great! I believe you shared that older drawing of he fortress and my first thought was that it was a bit mediocre compared to the rest of the map. This illustration definitely isn’t.

No I get that you don’t want to draw all the buildings, but the blank version also doesn’t really work. I think there’s two things you can do.

You could add a key and maybe some other drawings around the fortress. Perhaps a floor plan or some cartouche like pieces with text about the fortress. This way the map (I call it a map but it’s more an illustration I guess ) won’t feel so empty.

Otherwise I guess you indeed have to draw all the houses. It will be tedious but I believe the result will be amazing!

That’s my two cents! Hope it helps!

[Wingshaw]

Firstly, the fortress looks great! I believe you shared that older drawing of he fortress and my first thought was that it was a bit mediocre compared to the rest of the map. This illustration definitely isn’t.

No I get that you don’t want to draw all the buildings, but the blank version also doesn’t really work. I think there’s two things you can do.

You could add a key and maybe some other drawings around the fortress. Perhaps a floor plan or some cartouche like pieces with text about the fortress. This way the map (I call it a map but it’s more an illustration I guess ) won’t feel so empty.

Otherwise I guess you indeed have to draw all the houses. It will be tedious but I believe the result will be amazing!

That’s my two cents! Hope it helps!

Or a third option, you could start drawing the buildings/locations closest to the castle and allow them to fade into nothingness as you get further from the castle walls. That way you can show the buildings as context, put the castle to scale, and still have complete control of how much extra work you give yourself.

Wingshaw

[- JO -]

Very nice fortress ! Lots of good ideas !

[Caenwyr]

Thanks guys! It's all valuable input. I slept on it (well, I waked on it while trying to get our little one to sleep ) and decided I would do a sort of hybrid of all of the above. I started this map with the idea of doing a bunch of cut-outs on it, and I'll definitely experiment with that for a bit, but I'll also add a simplified floor plan (focused largely on the defensive structures), a few cartouches and of course a legend. And in the area that remains, I'll go ahead and draw in the houses around the fortress just to give the viewers a sense of its enormous scale.

Also, I decided to rotate the frame, so now it's in portrait mode. I started drawing in the first series of houses, and this is where I'm right now:

[Caenwyr]

Update!

Houses in the bottom part of the map ;-)



I'm now wondering if that colouring isn't distracting from the main subject: the fortress! Maybe I should tone down the colour, or leave it out entirely?

What do you guys think?

[Adfor]

I think it looks splendid as it stands now! You have such a brilliant way about your city designs, fantastic work so far!