2681 West Beach Road

 

Zoning

I’ve pretty much just been working (a little) on the map of Graven these past weeks as I prep for the CELTA course. The pre-course task took forever, but it’s done now and I have a little time before classes start. Like, a day. I’ve “zoned” the buildings and the map, separating them by wealth/”use” (residential buildings are divided into wealth “zones”, but commercial, industrial, and office buildings aren’t really). The map does show density/wealth a little bit, but it’s mostly just for my own reference so it’s not very clear. Basically, the darker the color, the denser and “poorer” the area. The lighter the color, the less dense and “wealthier” the area. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the densest areas are the poorest or the least dense are the wealthiest – a lot of dense areas are also wealthy, with gated communities and beautiful uses of not a lot of space. There are also plenty of poor areas where buildings have been demolished (partially or fully), or where there just aren’t a lot of (permanent) buildings. I’ll be working on refining exactly where buildings will go, where I’ll need plazas and parks/green spaces, etc. tonight, and hopefully by tomorrow evening I’ll have finished placing all the buildings. I’m also hoping to do some area sketches, especially of the “poor” area, with a lot of notes for the upcoming comic (!) I’ll be working on that during lunch hour at CELTA, so I’m leaning towards a penciled-with-light-digital-painting look (actually, Badirfilay is a great example of the sort of line and color style I’m looking at).

Here’s a look at what I’ve done with the zoning so far – maybe I’ll have a more detailed “notes-map” locating things like central plazas, major parks/green spaces, etc. later this evening.

City Map Layout/zoning

 

Welcome to Graven

Graven City Map

Graven is a fictional island-city, set in an alternate Earth where mythical creatures and magic are real. Like real-Earth, however, people are moving into such a technologically advanced age that such creatures, and magic, are no longer believed in or looked for in life. In order to maintain and build their own way of life, a group of witches and wizards moved to Graven and started building. The city grew very quickly, and now has several districts, including a high-rise commercial & business district at the southern end of the bay area. Most of the north-eastern bay area is still a sort of “wild area” where many of the mythical creatures live. Those that aren’t dangerous, such as unicorns and the masked beasts, often roam the streets of the city along with “normal” animals like giraffe and sheep. This is the basic map showing the island and the buildings. I’ll be working on adding parks, natural areas, and key buildings (which I’m designing by hand), as well as labels, over the next month or so. I’ll also be writing up a description of the city (probably just short notes on the map itself, although I’m also working on a simple “travel guide” to Graven, which I’ll publish as a PDF at some point). For now, the easiest way to describe Graven is to think of Venice, old Florence, Paris, Tokyo, and any small towns or villages, mostly in Europe, with winding roads, lots of closely packed buildings, canals, and buildings arcing over streets and even over canals. I’ll be adding in those canals along with the parks and natural areas next.