More thumbnails for Argia!

These are more drawing on how I imagine Argia and daily life. The first picture is a shot from the top straight down and shows the lay out of the main cave of the city with the lake in the middle, the bridge leading over it and all the "houses" sitting along the walls to the top. My wide angle exterior shot will look a bit like this but with more perspective and not just like a picture taken flat from the top.
The second shot is very similar to the one I posted earlier but I only just had the chance to scan the picture. It shows the cracks in the walls that make proper air circulation possible and it also shows that the homes reach up into the top of the cave and it hints towards the tunnels that are everywhere and occupied like everything else.
The third shot was the most fun because I actually had to look up squirrels and what they really look like - my first version was way to skinny but now it looks really cute and even recognizable! This shot stresses the daily dangers of guarding the insect farms as giant squirrels regularly attack them and try to steal the insects. This might turn into my low angle exterior shot.
The last picture shows a typical house front of a loved home with plants (mushrooms or other cave plants, will look them up) on the window sills, a water can and curtains. I think these details will be part of my interior shot as I plan on having the door wide open so that I can add details to the inside of the house and the house front, it will have a two point, possibly three point perspective. 

one, two and three point perspective drawings

These are my perspective drawings with one, two and three point perspectives. They are very simple and basic but I do understand the concept much better now than before and will try and implement the right perspective into my drawings whenever possible.

Small changes to my mission statement about Argia

After having a think about the criticism I received for my ogr I decided to make a few changes in the logic to make my city more believable and complete.

So first I went away from the idea of having lots of little tunnels only and turned the whole city more into a cave with tunnels that lead away from  it, possibly to other inhabited caves. For caves, it is also easier to explain the air supply as a few simple cracks in the surface are bringing down enough fresh air for everyone to prosper.

My exterior wide angle shot will be of the biggest cave, my point of view will be from somewhere very high up and it will show the lake at the bottom of the cave which is also the water supply, it will show all the doors and windows to everyones houses (apart from the doors, windows, plants, smoke pipes and front lights there is no exterior of the house, you can only guess the shape and size to the back), the stairs and lifts that help out everyday live and allow the Argians to live on the lowest as well as on the highest floors of the caves without problems. It will show a little boat or two riding the gentle waves and the bridge that spans over the lake to make getting around so much easier.

Other changes include the giant insect farms (the insects are giant, not the farms) and a well known predator to all Argians: the giant squirrel population which also occupy the tunnels and is a big threat to the people as they love attacking the insect farms at random.

Instead of having all the walls and everything emit light all the time I thought it would be good to have a specific gem that shines like a normal candle and can be mined a few tunnels along. It is believed that it is this discovery that made the Argians leave their old homes and move underground permanently as the gems work similar to sunlight and give everything a positive attitude. It also means that there is less smoke as no torches and candles are needed and the gems seem to emit light for generations without ever running out.

I also thought it would be nice if every household has got a few plants in their windows, likely miniature trees or ivy which will rank up into the neighbours pot and have a chance to give up some oxygen into the caves and tunnels. The plants are held in a very pale green colour as the light from the gems is giving them enough energy to not go pale but not enough to keep their original bright green.

For the low angle exterior shot I might show a fight with a squirrel that is attacking the insect farms, I already drew a thumbnail with that topic so it would be great fun.

For the interior shot I want to "zoom in" into a house with the door wide open so we can see some of the interior and some of the outside like plants and windows while the inside will show daily pottery that is being used as well as children's toys lying around on the floor and many details out of the daily life.

Argia: Explaining the air supply and transport methods

Unfortunately when opening the file I forgot to select transparent background so I simply turned down the fill to 56% and started drawing the colours onto the underlying layer, taken from my colour palette, which gives this picture a bit of a washed out look.
This picture explains where the fresh air gets in as the Argians simply rely on the caves and tunnels to sort themselves out. These are just small crack in the surface that let air in, but not rain for example as that would likely flood the whole city. There is always some draft coming through and the stormy season can be quite rough underground, as your drying clothes might fly away if not secured properly.
The transport systems exists in stairs and mechanical lifts for goods which is difficult to handle by one person only but it can carry a great load. The stairs are present on any floor and represented by the diagonal lines going up and down. They are nice and broad and not too steep and some have even pretty decorations.

This picture shows the original colours I was using, without the fine lines. I just really like the look of it, as it is bright and happy and you can still see all the important patterns and what's going on.

Colour palette for Argia (first try)

These are the different colours I will be using for my city, on the left side is more the colours of the walls and the clothes and on the right it's plants and water. I am trying to use as many autumn colours as possible, but the green of the plants is very light because they have been under the earth for so long. The water comes in 3 shades because of the difference in colour when it comes to depth, as there is quite a deep lake in the middle of the city I will try and distinguish between very shallow, normal and deep water.
All the colours might change if I don't find them suitable, but it's a start!

Mailin's Online Green Light review for Invisible Cities!

Mailin Berg, Invisible Cities, 8/10/2014

Sorry it's just a link for now but this is my work! Will try and make it into a proper pretty scrolly pdf later but need to go.

Thumbnails for Anastasia, Argia, Despina, Dominia and Ersillia!

These are my hand drawn thumbnails for the cities Anastasia, Argia, Despina, Dominia and Ersillia, I still have the last 4 left to draw and will do that when I published these! All of them are just quick ideas and things that pop into my mind when I read the description and I will also work hard on my perspective. It needs lots of improvement. Also, after talking to Jordan last week he pointed out that I should make my sketches widescreen instead of square, I am still adjusting to that but getting better!