Village of Ursus

Design sketch for the village center of "Ursus," an imaginary village at the North Pole, for the "Flurry the Bear" series of novels (in print.) Design program was to layout the village streets to form a large snowflake as seen from above, so I needed to design a village center and square that was circular with six radiating streets coming out from the center like a wagon wheel. From above, branch streets angle off the main streets, forming the six sides of a simple snowflake, as seen from high above. 

Building types are primarily two or three story traditional "village" buildings as you might see in any colder climate area of Europe. The center of the square features a statue of "Flurry the Bear," barely sketched in (bearly? he he...) The background features my "House 500" posted a year ago (look in my gallery.) 

I also drew scaled out full-size versions of some of the houses in the village as studies for possible real homes, four of which are at the bottom. This demonstrates how you can cross assignments and use aspects from one design sketch to "kick-start" another series of ideas. I might actually develop one of those houses at the bottom into a real home plan sometime later this year.

First time I draw a snowy landscape with roofs covered with snow! Fun assignment and nice little commission project from Jonathan Skye. Thanks buddy, for being patient! I am absolutely swamped with business this year so projects are moving a little slowly, but that's a GOOD PROBLEM for me to have he he...