by Pär Lindström

The reason for making this map was that I wanted to try out some water colour/oil paint effects in Photoshop on a CD3 map, as a way to give the map a more hand drawn feeling. When I make a city map I find it much easier if I have a story to tell in the map. If you have a reason for why things turn out the way it does it will feel much more convincing in the end. This is the drawing pre-Photoshop – click for a high-res version.

In this specific case I decided to draw a map of the town Littlebridge. A small town two days travel into the forest in the country Armadien in my Etrakien fantasy world. The town is situated not too far away from an area called the “Traal lands”. Traals are Troll like creatures that lack in technology what they gain in physical power. When the Traals don’t trade with the people in Littlebridge they come to plunder. This is the version post-Photoshop. Click for a high-resolution version.

So the city had to be well protected and with some of the food production inside the heavy stone walls. I also wanted the city to have some docks to show that it is a trading centre. Then of course as in all towns you will have more or less buildings just outside the gates. I also decided to put a large house outside each gate as a kind of inn for travellers that arrive after the gates to the city has closed for the day.

The map is completely done in CD3 (bitmap A) when it comes to terrain and houses. The labelling is done in Photoshop (mostly because I’m too lazy to learn how to do it in CD3) and I’ve also added some oil paint effects in Photoshop on the end result to achieve the purpose of the map.