# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Town/City Mapping >  (WIP) Arvellon, capital of Eowyl Viceroyalty

## Tom

Hello folks, I'm about to start a big project and I will post here my work. 
Besides the Town of Windfoort, I never depicted a "big" city, and now I wanna try, even if I'm not sure on which style I want to achieve, I think then I'll try a firs approach in Black and white then I'll go for colors. 
Anyway here is the first sketch:


Enjoy!

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## Mouse

That's a great shape (as in an interesting one), and a well planned layout.

Looking forward to seeing the progress  :Very Happy:

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## Tom

Thank you Mouse, here's another sketch with inner layout idea. Also I reworked the shape and walls a bit.

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## Mouse

Good road system.  I like the curved nature of the ones in the Medium Wealth Gnomes area.  Too many cities have nothing but dead straight roads, but this one has a nice mix of straight and curved  :Very Happy:

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## DanielHasenbos

It's nice so far. As Mouse said, I like the road system, it looks very organic and natural. The canals are cool too. I loved your Windfoort map and I can't wait to see this one develop!

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## Tom

I started drawing the west area over the sketches, here's the wip:

p.s. The two donut shaped hills are like a "hill-house" of halfling clans

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## Tom

A little update:


Enjoy!

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## Tom

Slowly proceeding... Now I remember why I never draw city maps by hand  :Razz:

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## Josiah VE

You're going fast!  :Very Happy: 
Those buildings look fabulous. I love the grass too. Can't wait to see colour!

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## Mouse

That's fast all right!

Got any tips on how to draw cities so fast?

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## Tom

Well thank you guys, but I don't think to be so fast.. so far I've spent around 15-20 hours on this map.
Anyway, yesterday I tried to record the screen while I was drawing. Now after several attempts to upload the video on youtube and a fair amount of dirty words, I finally managed to share it!  :Smile: 

Here are about 2 hours compressed in 5 mins, enjoy!

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## - JO -

Excellent video !!!! It's really fascinating to see your process, the hesitations, the redo... inspiring ! (especially when it seems to be so easy, so fast... even if it's not !)
Thanks for sharing !

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## Mouse

That really is spectacular!  Thank you SO much for sharing this.

I was mesmerised  :Very Happy:

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## Falconius

Very cool, watched the whole thing.  It's interesting to see the way people work.

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## Tom

Thank you guys!  :Very Happy:  but I have some trouble with the recording software, I wanted to record again, but I need to find a reliable program..
Anyway, here's an update

### Latest WIP ###

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## Tom

If you liked the time lapse video, take a look at this one, is full of errors and redo  :Smile: 



p.s. I'm sorry for the watermark, if anyone has advice on recording software feel free to let me know!  :Smile:

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## Caenwyr

This is just glorious, Tom - the level of detail alone! Stunning

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## Tom

Thanks Caenwyr! Here's another update, main district is done, three more to go..  :Razz: 

### Latest WIP ###


p.s. soon will come the time lapse video!

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## Tom

Time lapse of the main district, in two parts:

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## Tom



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## J.Edward

Nice work Tom  :Smile: 
It's really coming along well.
Lots of nice building variations.

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## Josiah VE

I'm really loving all these timelapses of yours. It's so interesting to watch how other cartographers work and what their workflow is like, especially an expert like yourself. The map is coming along beautiful, the detail you put into those buildings is outstanding. Great job!

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## Mouse

These are absolutely fantastic!

Thank you so much!  :Very Happy: 

And I love the comments you hand write to explain things  :Razz:

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## Tom

Thank you very much guys! I'm glad you appreciated it  :Smile: 
Now it's time to throw in a little background for anyone who's interested..
Arvellon is a city located in my fictional world of Heimur, on Graenlandir Gray coast.

Ylos is a big Island inhabited by an old race of elves which "landed" on this planets ages ago and has tried to came back home since then. 
At a first glance they look similar to classical fantasy "high elves", but more exotic and "gloomy".
They are masters of magic and technology, and consider all other races as inferior beings.
Centuries ago, Eowyl was a peaceful realm populated by humans and halflings so it was easily conquered by Ylos elves, who subjugated the entire region under their tyranny.
After several dark ages, a human uprising managed to repel the invasion but only for a little while, because the elves returned and almost annhilated the whole population with their dark powers. At the end of this terrible war, Ylos elves introduced the gnome population in the area -  some speculations says that they were created in laboratory by elves, others say gnomes where "imported" from elsewhere, still the truth is unknown - as they proved to be mild creatures, easy to control and obedient to authority.
Eowyl prospered since then, and now Ylos elves rule the country like a protectorate ,giving the name "Viceroyalty of Eowyl". Arvellon is the capital of such realm, divided between elven, gnomes, humans, halflings and other creatures, is an intersting meltin pot wich may reveal as a working example of cohexistence, but it still may hide the roots of a future rebellion..

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## Tom

I've completed the main square, the military preside, and the government/academy district.
The blue district is for elven only, and I'm struggling a bit to depict elven architecture at this scale, I hope that will looks like "elvish" or at least exotic when I will add the colors.

### Latest WIP ###

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## ThomasR

Good to se more Heimur action  :Smile:  And the city is wonderful. Thanks a lot for showing your process  :Wink:

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## Ilanthar

Well, there's a lot to discover in this city! I really like the diversity, it's like many cities made one.
I'm definitely looking forward to see it finished!

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## Tom

I just wanted to say that I messed up badly... I accidentally saved the .psd file flattened, now I want to smash everything  :Frown:  
I lost so much work and resources that I don't know how to move on.. I guess that this project will be delayed until I figure out, sorry

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## Mouse

Oh no!  Do you not have an earlier version you can salvage?

I know you don't want to hear this right now, but I've lost maps too, and I've carried on and remade them from the ground up, most notably Merelan City.  Oddly enough I've always found they look better the second time around.  It's like you learn so much without being aware of it, and you avoid all the tiny mistakes the second time.

Please don't smash anything!

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## ChickPea

> I just wanted to say that I messed up badly... I accidentally saved the .psd file flattened, now I want to smash everything  
> I lost so much work and resources that I don't know how to move on.. I guess that this project will be delayed until I figure out, sorry


Oh man, so sorry to hear that. I can understand your feelings of frustration and rage!  :Evil:

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## Mouse

You have so much talent, and your maps are so beautiful.  Please don't give up!

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## Voolf

If the flatten file is black lines with white background and blue sea, its still salvageable to me. Of course it depends on you work and technique, what layers are important to you etc. Is it really beyond any fix ?

Edit. Also i dont have newest version of PS so i cant check, dosent it have a function to make a backup of file every time you overwrite save? Krita does that by default which is super life saver. Every time i save it makes autobackup from the latest file.

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## Falconius

Wow that totally blows.  I'd say don't move on, just go do another project for a while (if you have that option) and then come back to this with fresh eyes and a calmer attitude.  I've smashed a few projects midway through out of frustration when I was young and I always regretted it later.

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## Tom

> Oh no!  Do you not have an earlier version you can salvage?
> 
> I know you don't want to hear this right now, but I've lost maps too, and I've carried on and remade them from the ground up, most notably Merelan City.  Oddly enough I've always found they look better the second time around.  It's like you learn so much without being aware of it, and you avoid all the tiny mistakes the second time.
> 
> Please don't smash anything!


"Luckily" I have an earlier version, about 20 work-hours earlier.. I show you the difference


Other than the lineart (which I will try to cut and paste from the flattened) I lost also the color tests and layers, and other hidden layers with resources..

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## Tom

> If the flatten file is black lines with white background and blue sea, its still salvageable to me. Of course it depends on you work and technique, what layers are important to you etc. Is it really beyond any fix ?
> 
> Edit. Also i dont have newest version of PS so i cant check, dosent it have a function to make a backup of file every time you overwrite save? Krita does that by default which is super life saver. Every time i save it makes autobackup from the latest file.


Yes, the linework is salvageable I think (even if the ones on azure background will be tricky) the main problem are in fact the hidden layers I worked on the last week.
About the backup: I'm using Photoshop cc, but I'm not aware of that, I will investigate, Thanks!

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## Josiah VE

Oh no! That is so awful!
I remember I lost my progress on my first commission, but I ended up finding a copy file in the end.
I hope you can find a backup file!!

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## ChickPea

Does photoshop not save fairly extensive history for each PSD? If you look into history, is there any way to revert back to before you flattened it? I've heard of people salvaging work from History before, but obviously it won't work all the time.

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## jizerai

> I just wanted to say that I messed up badly... I accidentally saved the .psd file flattened, now I want to smash everything  
> I lost so much work and resources that I don't know how to move on.. I guess that this project will be delayed until I figure out, sorry


I feel for you!  :Frown:  Had an "accident" myself yesterday. I do hope you'll get back on it, as it's an amazing map!

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## DanielHasenbos

That's very sad to hear Tom! I hope it doesn't get you down and you finish the map. It's really a splendid piece!

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## Tom

Here I am again, I finally fixed the "flattened issue" and moved on!  :Very Happy: 
This is the current wip, the main lineart is done, I started coloring and testing some textures, still huge work to do, but hope you enjoy!

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## XCali

Good progress.  :Smile:  And one that also worked on a city, I know your pain. This stuff takes time. Hehe.  :Razz:  Anyway, good job and keep it up.

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## Falconius

That map is looking really good.  Is there a reason for the vast colour differences in the roofs?

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## Tom

Thanks! yes actually: brown are for low wealth population (wooden top) red for medium wealth (clay-pottery) blue and purple for the magic and nobles population, made mostly by elves (still clay but with pigments) also I will make some golden roofs

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## Tom

With the speed of a sloth with severed arms, I'm proceeding toward the finish of this map (not at all, because I decided to make a mirror map just for labeling places, so another couple years..  :Laughing: )
HUGE update

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## Adfor

Bud, this is simply incredible. The level of detail, and thought for the composure of the city is very impressive.

IR

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## Arimel

This is amazing and will go straight to my inspiration document! I like how the different districts are depicted (at least in part) by the different colors of rooves. Beyond that there are far too many things I like to start naming them one by one! (I love the little wakes behind the boats). The border will need to be really grand though to not let the rest of the map down! No pressure there!

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