Pictorial map illustrator

llustrated Seattle Map — Oblique Night Cityscape + Hand-Painted Landmarks (Gouache Style) Illustration / Concept Art | One-time project, two panels OVERVIEW I'm commissioning a two-panel illustrated artwork of Seattle as a personal gift — a record of the years my wife and I lived there. It's digital, to be printed and framed later, so I'm looking for real artistic quality rather than a graphic. PANEL A — the main piece. A high-oblique pictorial map of Seattle, viewed from the Alki shoreline in West Seattle looking east-northeast, at roughly a 40 degree tilt. Because the ground plane is tilted, the downtown skyline stands up in elevation directly on its true coastline rather than sitting in a band at the bottom. Behind and above it the city flattens toward plan view — real street grid, real geography from OpenStreetMap data. Fifteen individually hand-painted landmarks sit on it, each glowing warm against the dark. Islands, water and Mount Rainier on the horizon. PANEL B — a horizontal companion painting: two figures on e-scooters on the Alki shoreline path at dusk, seen from behind, with the skyline across the water. Intimate and atmospheric. THE KEY SPECS 1. GRADED MAP PRESENCE. The base map is not one opacity. It's roughly 10% present in the foreground water, 45% in the mid zone, 75% in the upper flat region. The map is weakest where the emotion is and strongest where the information is. 2. LUMINANCE RATIO. No element of the base map exceeds 35% luminance. The warm lit windows in the paintings sit at 90-100%. That ratio is the design. 3. THE SKYLINE IS NOT A BAND. It stands on the true Elliott Bay waterfront line, integrated into the projection. This is the single most important structural requirement. WHAT I'M PROVIDING A full artist specification document with a projection diagram, zone-by-zone treatment, palette with hex values and luminance targets, and a written scene brief for every landmark, each with a Google Maps link. You are not designing from scratch. SKILLS NEEDED Environment concept art or matte painting: constructing an oblique or panoramic city view with atmospheric depth. Night cityscapes with lit windows. This is the primary skill and the one I'm screening hardest on. Digital painting: Procreate or Photoshop with painterly brushes. Gouache or editorial illustration style with genuine brushwork — NOT flat vector icons. Architectural illustration in three-quarter elevation. One panel includes two figures. Keeping 15 scenes consistent as a series. Cartography, helpful but not essential: OpenStreetMap extraction, QGIS, Adobe Illustrator. I'm open to sourcing the raw geodata separately if you'd rather paint from a supplied base. SCOPE 1. Oblique base geometry — Seattle, West Seattle, Alki, Elliott Bay, Puget Sound, Bainbridge and Vashon as silhouettes, Mercer Island, Lake Union, Lake Washington, Bellevue edge, Mount Rainier on the horizon. 2. The downtown skyline in elevation on the true coastline, with layered atmospheric depth. 3. Fifteen painted scenes including Pike Place Market with its neon sign, the Space Needle, four restaurants, a passenger water taxi, Pier 62, three lakeshore landscapes and Discovery Park. 4. Panel B — the shoreline scene with two figures. 5. Composite — soft warm light pools beneath each scene so the grid dissolves around them, a dotted gold trail connecting scenes chronologically, subtle washes, soft vignette, faint paper texture. DELIVERABLES - Layered master PSD for Panel A, 12,000 x 16,000 px - Layered master PSD for Panel B, 12,000 x 5,000 px - 15 individual scenes as transparent PNGs, min 3,000 px long edge - Oblique base geometry as a separate layered file - Flattened TIFFs and low-res JPEG proofs - Full personal print and usage rights (personal gift, not for resale) PROCESS I'd like to start with a small separate paid contract for Panel B alone, before committing to the main piece. It's a complete artwork in its own right and it lets us both check the style is right. Then three milestones on Panel A: 30% — oblique base geometry with the skyline placed, plus Pike Place approved for style 30% — all 15 scenes complete 40% — full composite, revisions, final delivery Three revision rounds included. My estimate is 90-130 hours total. Timeline flexible — I'd rather it be right than fast. TO APPLY 1. Two or three examples of NIGHT CITYSCAPES or oblique / isometric / panoramic city views from your portfolio. This is what I'm screening on — flat vector maps won't tell me what I need to know. 2. Any prior map, travel poster, or architectural illustration work. 3. YOUR OWN ESTIMATE of hours for this scope. I want to see your number, not just agreement with mine. 4. How you'd construct a 40 degree oblique of a real city from OSM data. 5. How you'd keep 15 separate paintings looking like one hand. In your first line, tell me which landmark you'd be most excited to paint and why. SKILL TAGS: Concept Art, Environment Design, Matte Painting, Illustration, Digital Painting, Map Illustration, Cartography, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Architectural Illustration