# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  December 2015 Annual Challenge: City of Hills

## tainotim

Better late than never. This will be the WIP for my annual challenge project. My intention with this project is to do a illustrative city map, in a similar style to my previous projects  but on a much larger scale. 

With this project I want to have this feeling of a sprawling cityscape, with a abundance of small details to explore, and yet I also want to maintain that feeling of "castle-dominance" that I had in my Bran Castle map earlier this year. And if anyone have some ideas what to include in this map, feel free to come with suggestions as I go along. It's always appreciated  :Smile: 

Now, I won't keep going. This is what I have so far. Just some outlining on the "main" castle (regrettably my scanner fail at scanning graphite so you can't see my sketch).


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## Corilliant

Yes! I love your sense of perspective when it comes to mapping.
Hey, perhaps you could incorporate some of the wilder sides of the fantasy world. Play around with physics, or make some amazing structure that would be impossible to build in our world.

What will be the main feature of this castle? Have you picked a time period of sorts yet?

(Really looking forward to seeing where this goes...I love your maps  :Razz: )

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## ChickPea

Have to echo Corilliant. I really like the style of maps you create too, and am really looking forward to watching this one.

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## Abu Lafia

Oh boy, sorry i can't resist if one of my favourite cartographers here is inviting publicly for suggestions!  :Wink:  

What i would love to see in a big city are some bigger wooden structures, like cranes, waterwheels etc., since till now i haven't seen anything like this in one of your fantastic city maps.
Another idea (not too easy i guess, but hey, it's only a suggestion...) would be, to depict the city during a siege. There would be so many different spots to discover and with some siege towers/engines also some wooden stuff, and fire ofc  :Smile:  . It would be interesting to see, as your cities look normally very peaceful. Not that i don't like that, but it would bring some dynamic into the map i guess...  :Wink:  
Really looking forward to this project of yours!
Cheers,
AL

PS: Damn, i was so hyped, i forgot to say that the castle looks damn excellent so far!

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## Ilanthar

Great! I'm sure I'm gonna love this one  :Smile: . Concerning suggestions, I wish I had more to offer than the excellent ones already proposed.

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## tainotim

Whaow! Big thanks for all the support and kind words. Can't express my appreciation enough. And even bigger thanks for all the great suggestions, keep them coming, they are very inspirational.

Corilliant: I haven't really decided upon a "time period". Don't think I will, apart from Medieval/early modern inspiration. Having no time boundaries allows for a more creative, fantasy flare. Oh wait, did I just restrict myself to a time?  :Wink: 
Some more fantasy-elements would be great! Perhaps a floating Island somewhere with some building on it; add another level to the drawing. Though, I don't want to make the "fantasy" to obvious  :Smile: 

Abu Lafia: more wood, that's a great idea. Guess it's something I have avoided in the past, because I find it so difficult to draw. But hay, they call it a challenge for a reason! I really like your suggestions and will see what I can do. Perhaps some buildings under construction?  Not so keen towards the siege idea on this big scale, but perhaps something I could try for a smaller city/castle map  :Smile: 
(Also, thank you for the very kind words  and congratulations on the silver compass!)

Illanthar and ChickPea: Thank you for the support  :Smile: 

Now, a small update while I'm posting. Some details on the castle. Opposed to my usual "draw all outlines  detail  shadow" approach, I will try to outline and detail continuously for a more enjoyable WIP. Will be a lot of baby-steps on this one. Now, no time to write, have to draw!  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## snodsy

I agree with Abu Lafia, but add a couple more o'boys! Will be following this one every step, love your work.  Couple Ideas; Coliseum or other sporting event (jousting arena?), Monastary, Aquaduct or maybe a place like "Petra" building built into the mountain. I'm sure you'll come up with plenty. Looking forward to it.

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## tainotim

Thank you Snodsy. Those are some great suggestion. A monastery is must, and a aqueduct would be neat. The Petra inspiration would be cool, but I think it will be hard to fit on this one.

Another update. It's expanding!

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## J.Edward

This is coming along nicely.  :Smile:

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## Diamond

This is looking great so far.  It'd be interesting to give you a huge canvas, like 8 feet by 10 and have you fill the whole thing up with some huge Gormenghast castle or city.  Now THAT would be a challenge.   :Very Happy: 




> Another idea (not too easy i guess, but hey, it's only a suggestion...) would be, to depict the city during a siege. There would be so many different spots to discover and with some siege towers/engines also some wooden stuff, and fire ofc  .


This.

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## tainotim

Big thanks Diamond and J.Ed. 

That would be tons of fun Diamond. Fun ... and horrible, imagine the time it would take  :Wink: 

Originally I intended to make a huge industrial city map, with lots of factories, trains, ships, chimneys – you name it!  However, I realized that the style I practiced all year does not convert well to late 19th century. But next year! 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## tainotim

Another step forward! Been away for a couple of days, so haven't had time. But something!

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## ChickPea

That castle is so full of charm. I want to go there. Could you write a book to accompany the map too?  :Very Happy: 

Seriously, it's looking fantastic and it's a privilege to watch it come together.

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## tainotim

Thank you ChickPea . I would if I could, so much thoughts and scenes filling my head when I draw these city maps, but I am such a slow writer ...

Another small update. This will add up to a nice GIF when I'm finished. 

This weekend I'm going to start drawing on the next "big" thing in the map, a huge monastery. I've been stacking up some reference images to draw inspiration from, however, if anyone wants to add something to the stack, feel free to pitch in!  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## snodsy

Cool additions! Like the fountain and do I see a guillotine? Looks like there some partial wooden structures. Look forward to the Monastery, looks awesome!!

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## Abu Lafia

Great to see the city grow tainotim, it's a real pleasure to see this coming together so lovely! I'm happy you took the challenge to add some "wooden stuff"  :Smile:  The fantastic details (cranes, docks, ladders, etc.) adding a lot to the atmosphere already. Not to forget (i think it wasn't mentioned before): I absolutely love the ivy(?) on the castle walls/roofs and the other buildings! It makes the whole city so lively. 
Can't wait to see the so far only sketched tower-like building with the balcony and ladders inked...  :Smile:

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## Ilanthar

It's gonna be great! And since we can see the river making its way, I've a suggestion : a good old bridge with houses/mills on it, or maybe just a small covered one (as the Whispers's bridge in Venice). That would be awesome.

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## tainotim

Thanks for the feedback friends! Makes me all warm inside. Much details, like the ivy, will be more clear when it's colored I think. Also, that's a great suggestion Ilanthar that I will definitely try to incorporate somehow  :Smile: 

I drew the monastery, however, not sure I like it all that much. Gothic stuff is difficult on the small scale, and it feels slightly "unbalanced" to the rest of the map. Hopefully will feel more in-place later on. 

Now, realizing I have less than a month left – I have no time to write! 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## tainotim

Tonights update. Not much more, just some buildings, but something!  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## Abu Lafia

I can somehow see what you mean with the gothic monastery compared to the rest of the buildings, but man, what a fantstic work you've done there, really outstanding!

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## Barek333

Tainotim you are just amazing, your town maps, droool, they just keep getting better and better. This will be such a beauty, cant wait to see it finished.

Cheers,
Barek

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## tainotim

Big thanks friends. Time is really slipping away, and haven't had time to do much on this. To be able to finish this in time, I sketched most of the city out during the weekend, and will fill it out during this week so I can start coloring. Will be close to the deadline to finish this, but should work out  :Smile:  

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## J.Edward

It's looking great T.  :Very Happy: 
Keep it up. This is going to be incredible.

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## Domino44

This looks so amazing so far!

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## Ilanthar

Everything's great! And of course, I love the bridges  :Razz: !

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## tainotim

Big thanks everyone! Your kind words are very warming  :Smile: 

To speed up the processes I will have to go do detailing when the whole thing is outlined. Here is another update! 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## tainotim

Another update! A big leap from the last post, completely forgot to scan it. The city as a whole has taken shape, and I've done the first "layer" of detailing (the dreaded window-process is finally over). Tomorrow I intend to finish the BW draft with the remaining detail, and add surrounding villages etc, and shadow. Hopefully I will manage to do all that so I can focus on coloring during the last days of the challenge, and if time permits, draw a fancy frame  :Smile: 

Feedback is much appreciated, and while I'm at it, any last detail suggestion or ideas are very welcome  :Smile: 

ps/ please ignore the blurry streak in the center,  it's from the quick scan.

Cheers,
Tainotim 

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## ChickPea

This is fantastic. I'm running out of adjectives to describe how great it is!!  :Very Happy:  I love what you're doing here and I'm really enjoying watching the city grow.

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## Ilanthar

Great work! Are you doing a key or label it directly?

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## tainotim

Thanks Ilanthar and Chickpea, the support helped me get through the last part of the inking process. Behind on my schedule  so I guess I have my weekend booked for the coloring. Anyhow, here goes nothing, this is what came out in the end. 

Concerning labeling, I'm not certain how I will do it, or the title for that matter. This part is always a struggle for me on these kinds of maps. My initial idea is to make some kind of scroll and have in it the bottom left or right corner (inside the frame, so it would cover the buildings there). Any suggestions concerning this are more than welcome  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim

Ps/first one to find the camel-giraffe will have their very own mansion. Happy hunting! 

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## J.Edward

This is just getting better T.  :Very Happy: 
Anddddd....... I found the camel. It took quite a while to find though.  :Wink: 
I cropped where she was and was going to post that, but decided I didn't want to spoil it for others to find 'her'.

edit - here's a quick thing... 
If you give a bit more on the bottom it gives you some room to play around with title and stuff.
The other bits are just for fun.  :Smile:

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## Ilanthar

Haha, I think I also found the camel. And John's suggestion looks very good!

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## a.coldyham

I couldn't find a camel, but amusingly on the zoom levels tapatalk allows, the trees look like people standing around. Nice job anyway  :Smile:  

Sent from my SM-G357FZ using Tapatalk

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## Bogie

Found it, headed for the southeast gate.  ??

Great map, also saw it on FB.

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## Abu Lafia

<--- stunned! 

...found the camel too  :Very Happy:  How did the poor guy ended up in this latitudes?

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## tainotim

Big thanks everyone! J. was the glorious winner, but I'm certain there is a home for everyone somewhere in this map  :Wink: 

That suggestion looks amazing John, thanks!  Might be slightly beyond my artistic skill, but, I will definitely draw inspiration from it (if time permits). However, it leaves me with the problem of labeling. Perhaps I could squeeze in the label "table" somehow next to the title.

Now concerning the Camel-Giraffe, that is a long story involving a vile experiment and a mutated horse, but I would want to get into all that  :Razz: 



Here is a update as I lay out the basic colors. 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## Domino44

Wow Tainotim! This looks amazing and I really like your color choices so far. I love how you have plants growing on some of the buildings, it adds a lot of character to this!

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## ChickPea

*drools*

This is absolutely beautiful!

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## tainotim

Thank you Domino and ChickPea. I'm happy you like it  :Smile: 

Just a small update with a question. I'm very indecisive concerning the paper texture. Should I go with the blend in the first picture(a darker version), or should I go with the lighter one in this post? Any thoughts?  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## tainotim

Another update. Might look similar to the previous one, however, it's hours and hours of work between, coloring flags and tents and camel-giraffes  and ... and ... Not to mention highlighting and shadowing. Taking a food break, so I figured I might as well share it  :Smile: 

What remains is working on the grass, the water, ground shadows and then labeling(Labeling will probably be tomorrows aim). On the last stretch here!

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## ChickPea

This is simply stunning, Tainotim! I love it. Do you think you'll be finished by 1st Dec? (I had thought this challenge ran until the end of December. Didn't realise it finished early next week!)

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## J.Edward

This looks great T.  :Smile:

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## tainotim

Update(Feels like I'm spamming):

Thanks friends! Yea, I definitely will ChickPea  :Smile: 

Here is the final version without labels (unless anyone have any suggestions etc). I made it slightly darker, not sure if I will keep it like this or not.  And I'm rather unhappy with how the grass came out, however, I think it's a slight improvement from my last attempts(Venora/Chasion)  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim

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## J.Edward

What do you think is wrong with the grass? It looks fine to me.
Was there a look you wanted but didn't get?

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## tainotim

Yea, something like that. Thought, I can't really pinpoint what it is. Just feels meh. Like it clashes against the colorful city. It's hard to explain. Might be a case of "staring to long at the same thing, and the largest part becomes the most annoying", or might be that the area beyond the castle feels so flat and empty

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## Bogie

Well I completely blew finding the camel-giraffe, way off!!   :Frown:     On the other hand, I think the grass looks fine.  Great work, It's REP time!

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## J.Edward

Maybe that grass area beyond the castle could use some little illustration?
Maybe a scroll with the coat of arms of the Lord of the Castle?
Or, what came to my mind, and of course would be a ton of work... a nice grove of trees and rocks...
It would look nice but would add a lot of work.

But you are right I think, we are our own worst critics and staring for a long time at our own work leads to mixed feelings.
I think most all would agree that it looks great as it is.  :Very Happy:

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## tainotim

Final update: 

Big thanks Bogie and J.! Those are some great suggestions John. Especially the coat of arms! However, my creative energy is rock bottom right now. Might tinker-away some more on this during the evening (Won't have any time tomorrow), and update this post with whatever comes or, or just a max-res version.  But for now I leave it with a simpler labeling and table (inspired by Ilanthars huge maps). Even though it's not so flashy, I think it works. Would love to get a some kind of shield or coats of arms in there, but I'm oh so tired.

Now, huge thanks everyone who helped me/showed appreciation during the process. This has been the largest and most tedious map I have ever done, but I learned so much and it feels like a good summary of what I have practices and strived to learn during the year concerning coloring, line-work and detailing. The end of a series of maps that started with Heartvale, then Chasion, Venora and last this. Also, big thanks to everyone that helped me with those maps, and the Guild for being such a great forum! And finally a last thanks to J. Edward for being incredible helpful on more occasion then I can count, and not just to me but I know to many other guild members  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Tainotim  

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## J.Edward

I love that you broke the text down into districts.
I think it looks very nice, clean and readable. I really like it.
Some numbers in the city are harder to find but it makes you search through the map a bit, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  :Wink: 
I think it is wonderful just as it is. A true work of art T.  :Very Happy: 
I'm enjoying all the maps that you're making.

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## Abu Lafia

Indeed, a masterful represantative work of this style of yours tainotim! Not sure what you made different to the former maps, but it seems to have more "depth" to it that makes it very appealing. I think the relatively simple key is perfect, as it lets the city itself shine even more. So many lovely details for hours to drool. I really like the diverse architectural types of castle buildings in it. The building on the right of the southern gate for example reminds me a bit of a japanese style castle, and it fits very nicely into this rather middle european city. Just an outstanding piece, and my clear favourite so far! The rep can not really show how much i love this, but have it nonetheless!  :Smile: 
Cheers,
AL

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## Ilanthar

Wonderful job Tainotim! Glad to see my "huge maps" are useful for labelling  :Very Happy: .

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