# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Town/City Mapping >  Lost City of Zy'Ku

## XCali

Hi everyone,  :Very Happy: 

I was doodling around, mostly to flesh out a dnd continent map with more interesting places. (Yesh! I finally had a chance to play a game for the first time!)
Anyway, the doodle became a place and place became an idea for a map.  :Smile: 

*So, pencil to paper!!!!*



The idea behind it so far is, it is in a place where somehow, the city got forgotten by the world, sands shifted, the people disappeared and it ebbed out of memory. Why did that happen? That is where this story begins. Huehuehue!

(Just btw, I truly have an easier time drawing random things and roundish buildings. Square ones are my bane of existence so far.)

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## XCali

Fast forward several hours...
...
Ooooh! This is fun!  :Very Happy: 

The river was a bit tricky to get right so far, as the light is coming from the left, I had to think of highlights to get the ridge right. The buildings came out nicely, so I be happy.  :Razz: 




EDIT: For the life of me, I can't think of what type of smaller features to add to the buildings. I started with it, but it didn't look good, so it got erased.

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## XCali

Hi!

I started with adding a lot of substance to it digitally(GIMP) and though a bit dark, I did like the theme of it.  :Smile: 



After that, I overlayed (can use multiply instead) it on a layer, and below it placed a base, somewhat desaturated, brown on the entire layer. From there I picked blues that fitted the theme and coloured the ocean and river. Then, I took a blue somewhat brighter and painted in the wave crests a bit. 


I think it is getting to a finished state, any suggestions to polish it is as always very welcome.  :Wink: 

### Latest WIP ###



EDIT: Also, do you all think the compass is okay where it is?

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## Jean-Abdel

The compass is a bit weird besause it sort of points upward, and the buildings must be huge if the water body near them is an ocean. I initially thought it was just a big river and the rivers only small streams, I don't really know what to think of it. However, the linework, shadows and colors fit well.

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## XCali

> The compass is a bit weird besause it sort of points upward, and the buildings must be huge if the water body near them is an ocean. I initially thought it was just a big river and the rivers only small streams, I don't really know what to think of it. However, the linework, shadows and colors fit well.


Thanks  :Wink: 

I must admit, I've been running your post through my mind for a while and still don't fully understand it.
The coastline shown here covers only a tiny fraction of the sea. 
2nd is, the compass points up because it points North. I'm quite confused to your meaning.  :Question:

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## Jean-Abdel

For the compass, what I mean is that it really looks like it's a knife put vertically on the ground, so maybe you should add the other axis. After looking a bit longer at your ocean, it's not so weird so.. why not. Your buildings are very packed and it looks like it was a huge city with towers etc, is that the case?

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## Tenia

I understand what Jean-Abdel means, although I didn't feel the same way: For me the sword is well placed on the ground, a matter of personal perception surely. What bothers me a little is the difference in style between the compass and the rest. Maybe try to do it in 3d more in the style of the map? A good place for it would be the bottom right corner?
btw, I love the overall painterly style! You used GMIC GIMP filters here, didn't you ?

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## XCali

> For the compass, what I mean is that it really looks like it's a knife put vertically on the ground, so maybe you should add the other axis. After looking a bit longer at your ocean, it's not so weird so.. why not. Your buildings are very packed and it looks like it was a huge city with towers etc, is that the case?


The compass can be changed. I will see if I do.
And yeah, it is kind of a big city. Though, I wouldn't say very packed. Looking at a lot of real world cities with their extremely compacted styles, I would actually say there is a lot of space here.  :Razz: 




> I understand what Jean-Abdel means, although I didn't feel the same way: For me the sword is well placed on the ground, a matter of personal perception surely. What bothers me a little is the difference in style between the compass and the rest. Maybe try to do it in 3d more in the style of the map? A good place for it would be the bottom right corner?
> btw, I love the overall painterly style! You used GMIC GIMP filters here, didn't you ?


Hi Tenia.  :Smile:  
Now that I consider the compass, I see what you mean. I took the sword drawing straight up without messing too much with it.

Thank you!  :Very Happy:  I like the style too. And yes it is me taking my pencil drawing and laying the GMIC filters on thick.  :Razz:  I was glad it came out this way, it saves a LOAD of time if I want to make a quick decent DnD map without spending months on it. The difficult thing here is getting the pencil drawing right for it to work. 
For this one it was Dream Smoothing times 2, overlay/multiply(either is fine) onto the original pencil drawing to keep that grainy feeling of the pencil with the smoothed out lines of the filters. New from visible, hide the old layers, and put this one on multiply or overlay, and put a colour layer below it. 
With that in mind, I did spend some time adding highlights.
So basically you are left with two layers, that you use. Hope that gives an idea of the process.  :Wink: 

Have a nice day!  :Very Happy: 



EDIT:
### Latest WIP ###


I couldn't use the same techniques on the sword compass without losing a lot of detail. So I played around, and ended up with this one.

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