# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Pen and Paper / Traditional Methods >  Hollace, Isometric city map

## wminish

Hi Everyone

An Isometric style map has been something that I have been wanting to try for a while now. I had a little bit of a go at it for my last map "The Fallen Lands" but only for settlement markers on a region map. This time I'm going to have a go at a full city map in isometric and I've decided to do a map of the city of Hollace from a DnD campaign I ran a while ago (Hollace is one of the southern cities on my "Tulence area map").

Below is my original map of Hollace, this was one of my very early maps and is certainly earlier than any map I have previously shown on the forums. I was pretty happy with it at the time but I've come a long way since then so I thought it would be a good subject for a redo.



Below is the current progress on my new map, just the border has been inked in at this stage but I've pencilled in all the detail (although only some of it is visible on the scan).

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## jshoer

That looks like a great starting point, and an excellent border. I'm looking forward to seeing the map take shape.

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## wminish

> That looks like a great starting point, and an excellent border. I'm looking forward to seeing the map take shape.


Thanks josher, I am very pleased with how the border came out on this one. I redrew the faces of each of the figures at the top multiple times before they came out looking the way I wanted.

Here is the latest update, I've started inking in the body of the map. It's definitely very slow going though, to get to this point was several hours work since the last scan.

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## Adfor

> It's definitely very slow going though, to get to this point was several hours work since the last scan.


I feel your pain, mine follow the same trend.

A big second on the border though, excellent work. The caricatures are unique, giving off a hard gothic vibe, almost like gargoyles.

I'd love to see something a bit toned down color saturation wise for this one. Not that your previous color choices are egregious, mind you.

One tiny critique, if you will. The small draw bridge over the river looks geometrically odd, though finding words for exactly how remains elusive, something with the posts. I honestly think the bridge sits too high compared to everything else on the rivers edge as well, but some confirmation on that from others would be helpful, my brain is mush after 30 hours between two jobs in 3 days. Bedtime.

IR

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## wminish

> I feel your pain, mine follow the same trend.
> 
> A big second on the border though, excellent work. The caricatures are unique, giving off a hard gothic vibe, almost like gargoyles.
> 
> I'd love to see something a bit toned down color saturation wise for this one. Not that your previous color choices are egregious, mind you.
> 
> One tiny critique, if you will. The small draw bridge over the river looks geometrically odd, though finding words for exactly how remains elusive, something with the posts. I honestly think the bridge sits too high compared to everything else on the rivers edge as well, but some confirmation on that from others would be helpful, my brain is mush after 30 hours between two jobs in 3 days. Bedtime.
> 
> IR


Hi Adfor, thanks for the kind words about the caricatures, I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.

I think I can see what you are saying about the bridge on the previous progress image. Hopefully, it will look a lot more grounded in the scene and to scale once I add in more of the detail around it, it is kind of floating in space at the moment especially at one end.

In terms of the colour palette, were there certain colours that I usually use that you thought were a bit oversaturated or is it just that I generally use quite saturated colours. I will need to resupply with some colouring pencils for this one as my trusty medium green that I generally use for the ground colour is pretty much spent after my last map. I am kind of limited in the palette I use by the range of pencils I have available, I've tried some blending in the past but in general this only really works in small areas. 



In general though, the feedback on colour is quite helpful. I probably do tend to go for a very saturated look as, since I'm mildly red/green colour blind, this looks much better to my eye. 

Anyway, here is the latest update. I put in a few more hours work with the inking in, mainly in the city itself.

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## jshoer

That's coming along really well. I like the fountain.

I don't have any issue with the bridge; it does give me a sense that the river banks are pretty steep. I think you're right in that it will look better when there's more ink on the eastern bank to ground it - so long as the banks don't suddenly become more shallow!

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## wminish

Here is the latest update. Most of the city is now done and I go another large chunk of the countryside done as well, I imagine it will only be another day to finish the inking in process.

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## wminish

Here is the completed black and white image, the colouring is now well underway as well so I'll post the finished product when that is done.

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## jshoer

It's looking great.

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## Adfor

It turned out splendid. Though I gotta say, there's a portion of the wall on south that's missing its 3rd dimension.  Sorry, I'm crazy perfectionist about that stuff.  :Razz: 

IR

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## wminish

> It turned out splendid. Though I gotta say, there's a portion of the wall on south that's missing its 3rd dimension.  Sorry, I'm crazy perfectionist about that stuff. 
> 
> IR


Hi Adfor. That was actually intentional, as the wall is pretty much wholly front on to the viewpoint in that section I thought the crenelations would probably block the view of the walkway at along its length. I could have gone the other way though and put a second line very close behind the first, although I was concerned that it would have been so close behind that I might have struggled to keep them from touching.

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## XploringMap

Beautiful work

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## Arimel

It may just be me but I think there is some shading missing on the southeast gate tower. Small nitpick though. This looks fabulous!

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## wminish

> It may just be me but I think there is some shading missing on the southeast gate tower. Small nitpick though. This looks fabulous!


Thanks Arimel, I noticed that as I was going back through and doing the colouring so I've now touched it up. 

Here is what I think is the finished product with the colouring completed. Although I think I will wait a few days before posting to finished maps just to make sure I haven't missed anything.

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