# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Town/City Mapping >  Village & similar drawings

## Chlodowech

A while ago i've started another thread for a large town drawing - a few days later, university started again, limiting my free time to a level on which i can not handle drawing a large town within a reasonable amount of time (and being able to draw like two houses per day would drive me crazy  :Very Happy:  ). This is where the idea for this thread started - if i can't make large maps, why not just do small ones? 

So i thought where i could begin, and i decided to continue where i ended last time - on my large medieval town map. There's not much in the background which is worth its own drawing, in fact there's only a tiny castle on a wooded hill ridge. This castle and its immediate surroundings however will become the first of what hopefully becomes a whole little series of maps, depicting a region around that mentioned town.

So now, let's start with the drawing finally... i'm not starting with the very beginning, but at a point where i already got a decent bit done.



And this will be the final extent of this drawing.




And to show the context as well, this is the tiny depiction of the castle in the older town drawing:



Other drawings will include villages, hamlets, castles, monasteries and similar stuff, maybe also one or another small town if i have enough time for that.

----------


## Chlodowech

Update, the hamlet around the castle is now done:



Along with this map, i decided to add some background story for the locations as well, which i have in fact considered before as well, but mainly for myself to get a realistic feeling for the maps. This will include place names, also for the town, which hasn't got any yet (and since i'm really bad with names, any suggestions are welcome  :Very Happy:  ).

Now for the castle and hamlet:

KARNBERG

The castle of Karnberg was built originally during the first half of the 11th century, as one of the first fortified places of the upper hillsides which were settled shortly before. Its owners, the family of Karnberg belongs to the lesser nobility and was originally given the castle to control the lands of the Diocese of [town name placeholder]. Over the centuries they managed to become largely independent from the Diocese and to purchase some own land and belongings in the proximity of their castle. These efforts often led to conflicts with adjecent powers, mainly the benedictine monastery of [town name placeholder], which culminated in a feud in the 1370's during which the monastery was sacked by the troops of Karnberg, and the prompt reaction of the Bishop who then besieged, captured and destroyed the castle of Karnberg, leaving only the chapel intact. It was rebuilt shorty afterwards using the gothic style and strengthening the fortifications. The 15th century remained a relatively peaceful period, even though the old conflicts were never completely solved, but the gradual concentration of economical power in the towns reduced the financial ressources of both the monastery and the Karnberg family. As a result, the extension of the castle's hamlet came to an early stop, leaving it as a small settlement with a tavern and an oversized church that reminds trespassers of the once ambitious plans for Karnberg.


PS: I'm not sure if i'll keep doing this  :Very Happy: 

PPS: This is the monastery mentioned in the castle's description

----------


## Naima

Very nice fable style.

----------


## Ilanthar

You really have a great talent for doing those excellent towns & castles. I'm loving those.

----------


## Chlodowech

Many thanks to both of you, im really glad you like the drawing!

Just as usual for me, progress slows down a lot after the first few days, still i got a few new things to show today. The vast majority of the buildings is now done, making visible the second village at the bottom of the river valley. That village consists mainly of simple farmhouses, while the only two stone buildings are the chapel and the monastic grange built by the monastery mentioned in the text before. Both are seen as a provocation by the Karnberg family and are therefore a major point of conflict.

----------


## Chlodowech

Last one before the watercolouring, next one will either be me having ruined it or the finished drawing.

----------


## Chlodowech

The drawing is done, i haven't decided yet whether to add a decorative border to this one as well or not. A better image will come later, along with the result of my decision-making and a finished map thread.

----------


## ChickPea

Beautiful work!

----------


## MapMappingMapped

Awesome work! Really, what else can I say? A look at the images on this thread only has inspired me like hell!

----------


## Chlodowech

Damn, so many nice words again  :Very Happy:  Thanks a lot to you, ChickPea and MapMappingMapped!

I'm actually planning to make this a small "worldbuilding" series, drawing a whole set of villages and stuff. I haven't got to the point yet though where i want to do a proper region map, but that may come as well in the future - i just have to develop another style for it  :Very Happy:

----------


## The Lazy One

> The drawing is done, i haven't decided yet whether to add a decorative border to this one as well or not.
> Attachment 112337


If i might suggest, while i love the linework there is a bit of sense of scale missing in that. I think that adding a few people (or a lot) wandering around could help a lot with that. It's little more than dots afterall.

----------


## Chlodowech

Glad that you like it, and indeed - although i will most likely not add tiny people to it, i realized that i totally forgot adding the scale indicators that i used on the previous maps, like waggons and such. I'll add that stuff, just as there will be some minor tweaks to the forest in the foreground, since i'm not yet completely happy with it.

PS: Added a few wagons, carts and human silhouettes.

----------


## Chlodowech

The finished map can be found here now.

----------


## The Lazy One

Great work on that! and lovely little humans too!

----------


## Chlodowech

I quickly made something like a first sketch of what could in the end become a regional map for the whole set of drawings that i'm planning to do. I didn't spend much effort in doing it, mostly because i rather spend my time with town drawings than regional maps, however i've got to the point to realize that it's pretty hard to keep all the tiny villages in a logical context without wasting a thought on the larger surrounding region.

So here it is - not at all a beauty, but it does for now serve the purpose.



For now it's only the part that i've properly thought about, but the remaining geography won't be that spectacular anyway - another hill ridge south of the river and between the sea, and a lot of small lateral valleys (like the one at Karnberg castle) leading into both the main river and the sea.

PS: The next posts will be about village drawings again, and if i ever get to draw a proper large regional map, i'll create a separate channel for it.

----------


## Chlodowech

Time for the next one. Along with spending a bit more time on the region sketch i pinned down a few more places that i‘ll draw, and i actually managed to think of names for them before drawing!  :Very Happy: 
Anyway, next one’s gonna be a large village called Arningen, which is owned by the benedictine monastery of [still haven’t got a name for that damn town]. It’ll have a parish church of a decent size and another monastic grange, but this time a fairly large one which is the centre of the local wine production.

The size of the drawing will be 20cm x 15cm (without the border, this time i‘ve set it up beforehand, allowing me to draw a nicer border), techniques will be as always.

Size comparison with the Karnberg map:



The location of Arningen within the region (the place has got a slightly different spelling on the map)

----------


## Chlodowech

Progress happens quickly nowadays  :Very Happy:  Nah, i only managed to get a good idea for the shape of the village quickly, and for once i was concentrated during the drawing  :Razz:

----------


## Anna Sellers

This is looking great.  I really like the way you draw your buildings.

----------


## Chlodowech

Thanks a lot Anna!  :Smile: 

This morning i managed to get the majority of the village buildings planned out, which this time is more of a perspective job than on the last one. This is the current status:

----------


## tainotim

Very nice progresspicture. Look forward to see the final result  :Smile: 

Cheers,
Karl

----------


## Chlodowech

Thanks a lot Tainotim! Means a lot from someone who's as good as you with city maps  :Smile: 

I got a bit bored by the tiny houses today, so i decided - after finishing the church - to do a cutaway drawing of just that church. As inspiration for this i used 15th century southern german churches from Mühlhausen (close to Stuttgart) and Pipping (nowadays a part of Munich). Both of them have pretty much their whole interior preserved from the late middle ages. As to when it comes to the wall paintings, i'll probably add some to my drawing as well.



And here's another image of the church.

----------


## Chlodowech

The church drawing is done and, more importantly, i got some small bits of the actual town map done. Time to show both.

----------


## Chlodowech

I managed to get properly motivated for this one again - first update for today.

----------


## Chlodowech

2nd update, all planned buildings are done - maybe a third ipdate will come later with more natural stuff.



PS: i just realized that the stream i‘ve drawn along the main road is proper nonsense, since it’s flowing along a slope there and not at the bottom of the valley. So as nice as it would have been, i‘m gonna move it in front of the houses.

----------


## Chlodowech

Another bit of progress, and i‘ve started the shading.

----------


## ThomasR

Your maps are always inspirational ! Thanks for sharing them  :Smile:

----------


## QED42

> Your maps are always inspirational ! Thanks for sharing them


Strongly agree!

----------


## Chlodowech

> Your maps are always inspirational ! Thanks for sharing them





> Strongly agree!


Damn, that's nice to hear that my work is considered inspiring  :Very Happy:  And i'm glad that there's a place like this where i can share this kind of stuff (i'd probably not started with proper city maps without joining this forum).

Otherwise, this image will be the final one for the village of Arningen here (it is technically done), the next one will be on the finished maps section (when i've got a better quality image ready).



PS: Finished map thread can be found here now.

----------


## Larb

I want to see some in colour because these are really good.

----------


## Chlodowech

Damn, sorry for not reacting here for a while, but many thanks to all of you! About the colored drawings, i'm considering doing that for the next set of town maps.

I think i haven't mentioned this before, but all the drawings shown here so far were done on one single sheet of paper, A2 size. Therefore my primary worry at the moment is to fill the remaining blank spots of that sheet. As to what i'm drawing to fill them, i haven't been too creative - it'll be another cutaway drawing of a church, this time the one of Karnberg.



Expect to see some more progress on that one during the next days.

Otherwise i've done a few quick sketches on various buildings of Karnberg, including interiors and ground plans of both the church and castle chapel, and a more detailed drawing of the priest's house next to the church.

----------


## Chlodowech

After quite a while its time to start a new place - the mining town of Eisenberg.

Eisenberg is located at the foot of the mountains, at the top end of the valley in which Karnberg located as well. The town exists only due to one reason: Iron mining. This has led the town to massively grow and equally massively decline a few times during the last 200 years ( point of time is still 1500 AD). Currently, Eisenberg is in a phase of decline again, as the mining technology once again is insufficient to reach the deeper ore veins.

The last peak of the development, which was about 50 years ago, has made the town very rich however, and furthermore attracted a lot of other businesses to supply the rich miners, and those have formed a relatively stable market town in the center of the mines, which reduces the economical consequences of the decline a bit.

The visible result will be a rather scattered, unfortified town with a solid core town and the mining areas around, and furthermore a lot of unfinished buildings, which cant be completed anymore due to the decline - this includes the parish church and a monastery.

This is my first rough layout - if you have any questions or ideas, let me know:

----------


## Chlodowech

First of all, the layout of the town again, now on a larger piece of paper (A2) and in 3D.



Then, as Eisenberg is a mining town, some research about medieval mining had to be done, as i gotta draw at least the overground structures related to it. Luckily i was able to find a number of excellent depictions of mining activities from the late 15th and early 16th century. Two of them are manuscript pages and originate from the bohemian silver mining town of Kutná Hora, the last one is an Altarpiece from Annaberg in the german region of Saxony. The following links will lead you to the documents:

Kutná Hora, Document 1 (1490's)
Kutná Hora, Document 2 (early 16th century)
Annaberg, Altarpiece (1521)

All three show basically the same - the mining and smelting process, and the production of the coins. The mining equipment used for it is also relatively similar. In each of the documents, three types of mineshafts were built, for the access of the mine (with a ladder), the transport of the material (with a winch) and for the ventilation (with a ventilation mechanic). All three of those can be covered by a building, but none of them needed to be. Other than that, some smelteries and similar buildings, and also the buildings of the mining authority seemed to have been nearby.

In my case, there will be iron mining, which will obviously not end up in coin production, but rather in hammer mills, for tool production. Other than that, i can pretty much draw the mines as they were painted in those documents.

----------


## Sulla

This looks like a fascinating project. Where on the map will the mines go? I am assuming, like the original documents, underneath the "plan" of the city? I look forward to seeing the evolution of this project!

----------


## Chlodowech

Thanks Sulla, glad you like it!

The mineshafts are mostly located at the edges of the town, and the mines belonging to them follow the ore veins, marked in blue on the tiny regional map below.

----------


## sfaustina

Very nice map. I'm looking for a map artist. would love to see your portfolio

----------


## NolaSong

I really love your architecture style! I've been working on some maps that have the buildings drawn in and I'm not very good at getting the perspective right yet. Your buildings look so nice.

----------


## vxzf

it's looks really good, i like the long depth on it.

----------


## Chlodowech

Well, another few months have passed... right now i have some free time for map drawing, but i‘m really not in the mood for something really tedious - something like Eisenberg, with tons of details that need a lot of research and which implied a complicated perspective.

Instead i‘ll start another town. It’s gonna be a location within the region that i‘ve sketched a long time ago (on page 2), but once again i haven’t got a name for it yet (feel free to propose names if you have any ideas). It’s gonna be at the conjunction of two rivers, or rather on a rocky outcrop high above it. The very peak of the rock will be taken by the castle and the dense and walled core town will be adjacent to it. There will also be a lower town down at the river and partly along the roads leading up the hill, but i have not yet thought about its shape or any specific features of it.

----------


## MistyBeee

Popcorn time ! Another cool movie by Chlodowech ^^

----------


## Adfor

How about Lumdenshadt, one that came to me while putting in some Skyrim time.  :Very Happy:  Love the layout so far.

Cheers!

IR

----------


## Chlodowech

> Popcorn time ! Another cool movie by Chlodowech ^^


There might be a chance that an actual town drawing happens now, after half a dozen of failed attempts  :Very Happy: 




> How about Lumdenshadt, one that came to me while putting in some Skyrim time.  Love the layout so far.


Thanks for the proposal! I took it, and adapted it a little bit. Also i'm glad you like what i've got so far - even though i've already started changing things in the actual 3D version  :Razz: 


PS: The town drawing will from now on be continued here.

----------


## Chlodowech

Today was the first time in weeks that i felt inspired to draw tiny houses again (doing a job that makes you draw buildings the whole day takes its toll). However, one hour of inspiration was enough to lay out most of what will be a small village in the same valley as Arningen, just a few miles upriver, going by the name Berdingen. 



PS: i have not in the least abandoned Lunburg, in fact a bit of work on the suburb there has been done as well - its just that i need a quick and easy thing to draw with my limited amount of time currently.

----------


## Chlodowech

Not a lot of progress, but im making my way back to the Karnberg and Arningen level of detail.

----------


## Chlodowech

Some more progress.

----------


## Chlodowech

2nd update for today, buildings are essentially done, and i doubt there will come a more of them on this tiny bit of a map.

----------


## QED42

Looks like a very nice little hamlet, just right for someone to come in and exploit the lack of defences.

----------


## Tiana

> Looks like a very nice little hamlet, just right for someone to come in and exploit the lack of defences.


Hm. Must've been the wind.

----------


## Chlodowech

Glad you like it, and yes, in case of an attack, the villagers‘ best option would probably be to make a run for the nearby forests  :Very Happy: 

I had a good run today - the nature is done and i started with the shading, only to stop now because i‘m too tired  :Razz:

----------


## Chlodowech

The finished map can now be found here.

PS: Any wishes what i should do next? Eisenberg is certainly too big for the amount of time i can spend on it - i could either do more work on Lunburg or i could draw another village, hamlet, monastery, etc.

----------


## Gingervitas

Wow, all of these are fantastic!

----------


## KatSanders

This is so awesome.

----------


## Neflite

Wow this is awesome  :Smile:  I struggle with perspective a lot... any tips?

----------

