Now you try:

What is this place? Why is half of it missing? Do people still live there? How do you get up there? Why is it built on the side of a mountain? Is the blue in the corner a river?

Now go off on a tangent.
What if it the tower weren't ruined?
What if the house were a tiny cottage at the base of... let's change it some... this enormous black marble tower?
Who lives at there?
Is it guarded? Why or why not?

How would you write a room description from this?

This is a purse by Kathleen Dustin. It's made of polymer clay, which we don't have in Elanthia, (no plastics, you know). Nonetheless, it's still cool.

This is a reproduction of a medieval toothpick. They didn't have pockets back then, so they wore them on chains around their necks. What other things could you make with this design?

Remember when you're designing that the place you start does not have to be the place you end up. Taking a real life image and letting your mind go wild is a very successful tool for making our fantasy world that much more real.