WIP Imperial Dragon Island
ScottA
Surveyor
Thought I'd throw my hat into the ring for this month's Lite Mapping Challenge over on the Cartographers' Guild site. Never tried one and am a newbie over there, so this is all new to me. I've spent a day so far puttering with it and am relatively pleased so far.
I was inspired to do this by my younger brother who died suddenly and unexpectedly on Tuesday. He was 52. The inspiration comes from his long-time character from our 30+ year D&D campaign. His character was the last member of a dragon-god worshipping order of monks. Poetic, now, I suppose. So its cathartic, if nothing else....
I was inspired to do this by my younger brother who died suddenly and unexpectedly on Tuesday. He was 52. The inspiration comes from his long-time character from our 30+ year D&D campaign. His character was the last member of a dragon-god worshipping order of monks. Poetic, now, I suppose. So its cathartic, if nothing else....
Comments
This is a nice map too! I like the theme you've used and the way you drew the waterfall, as well as the rhumb lines. Very nicely done! They just seem to give it much more character.
@Monsen: thank you.
@Lorelei: I agree about the text. I'm going to work with it to make it more legible. There are some spacing issues but some of that is the font, itself, so I may just change it altogether. The wax seal was just a spur of the moment idea but I'm pleased with the way it came out.
@Tonnichiwa: thank you.
As I say, it's a WIP. There are parts I really like and parts not so much. Still waffling about the swampy area on the western shore. And I don't like how glowy it is. Part of that is sand, especially off the northern coast.
Eh, in any event, it helps to bring some distraction and normalcy back into life right now, even if I don't end up entering it into the CG Lite Mapping Challenge.
This is a perfectly wonderful map!
The map's a delight. I love the crispness of the verdant greenery and the mountains, contrasting with the misty swamp, and the dark weirdness towards the east coast. While I see what you mean about the glow, an ethereal quality probably isn't amiss in this case. Indeed, I'm tempted to say take it still further, and make the island group literally float on cloudy mists ABOVE the sea. That seems somehow apt for a Dragon Island (though I may be biased here...).
The seal's a delight, as also is the intricate logo symbol by your copyright line - is the latter also self-constructed?
Not sure about the central lake is all - it seems to sit too much above its surroundings, but that may be just me, as I've commented before here on sometimes seeing craters as hills.
With the lettering, I'd maybe try italicising it before changing the font, in case that might reduce the spacing oddness, though I suspect a different font may be needed ultimately.
And CG or not CG, there's always room in Nibirum (Community Atlas World) for another island!
@Shessar: thank you, and thanks so much for the nice words about the map!
@Wyvern: thank you. And thanks, too for all the kind words about the map! I took your suggestion and added some mist to the northern shore and fog over the marshy area to give it more of a mystic feeling. That wax seal was a throw-away idea I had, but everyone really likes it, so I'm glad to did it! That little icon next to my copyright is a symbol is my personal logo and something I use for all my work. It is something I did from an old line image I found many, many years ago. I don't know how clear it is, but its a crescent moon face smoking a big pipe with clouds billowing around. See what you mean about that lake. I redrew it with a smoother edge and I think it addresses that issue better. And that font was not going to work, so I just changed it.
@LadieStorm: thanks so much. And no worries.
Here's a slightly altered version, still a WIP. I didn't have much time to tinker today, but I addressed a few things. Not sure I'm happy with the breaking waves off the northern coast, so they might go bye-bye in the next incarnation of the map.
The sandy beach surrounding most of the island is a nice touch. I also like that structures are few and, given their locations, a little mysterious. I'm particularly drawn to the obelisks (or whatever they are) in the eastern lake and the structures in the misty lands to the southwest. The waterfall is brilliant. I agree with you that the waves to the north should either go or be reduced or toned down, though. I do think you made a good choice changing to the new title font.
All the best,
~Dogtag
Your map is a fitting tribute, and well drawn
I wouldn't worry about being a newbie. And if you don't feel like the life and soul of the party right now, there's no rule that says you have to start making comments on all the other challenge threads until your good and ready if you don't want to
@Ralf: thank you.
@Dogtag: thanks. And thanks for the kind words about the map. I'm sort of in a holding pattern right now. It is not finished but I don't know where I want or need to go with it.
@Loopysue: thank you. Doing this has been a great release and help. I was (and probably still am) in a fog, numb and no idea what to do. I don't know what made me go over to the Guild's site or to check out the challenge forum. I tried participating in some discussion when I first joined the CG site but frankly wasn't made to feel very welcome (except by Mouse!), so I never went back.
I am sorry to hear about your loss. The map is a really nice tribute and I hope making it helps you proceed.
The map is very beautiful. I do, however, agree that the waves look a bit uniform and do not fit perfectly. Here's a possible way to fix this:
-rescale some of the waves just a bit;
-put the waves on a separate sheet and add a transparency effect.
Take care,
Hadrian
Re-the floppy welcome mat problem you first experienced over at the Guild...
I'm ever so sorry, as that may have been down to me. There are so many newbies over there every day that the Community Leaders are pretty hard pressed to greet everyone. I and a couple of other established members started to meet and greet people - entirely voluntarily on my part because I enjoy it, but what that means is once I've said hello you don't always get an additional CL welcome if their a bit pushed at the time.
I hope your experience of the Guild will improve. You're going the right way by getting involved with the challenges. Doing them will raise your profile and make people remember who you are and look out for you.
Adding friends helps a lot. Its a bit of a fuzzy function, because all it really means is that you can see their comments scrolling down your profile a bit like Facebook. You can keep track of what they are up to, and It can help just looking at their little conundrums, trials and tribulations if you feel alone (as I sometimes do).
Better take care if you friend that Mouse person though! She's a terrible chatterbox, and is likely to drown you out on your own profile! LOL! We can try that if you like, but I will understand if its all a bit much with my hairy little face all over the place over there and you end up having to 'ignore' me :P
Storm, Hadrian, Tonnichiwa - a few of the others are also registered at the Guild if you want to look them up and friend them?
No, you were very welcoming on the CG forums but I didn't really feel anyone else was. Didn't get the same sort of family/friendly vibe as there is here. May just have been me. I'll poke around some and see how things go. I don't even know what the point of the challenges is -- I just see people mention them here from time to time and saw a few over there, so thought I'd jump in with this one as it all just sort of came together. But I'm not even really clear on what the "winner" gets. This is mostly for me to keep busy and try to get back to "normal." Beyond that, anything else is icing on the cake, I suppose.
Oh, and I like that Mouse character! She is a welcome friend, for sure.
As for the Guild Welcome, Sue is correct in the respect that the guild leaders try to greet everyone, but with so many active members, it gets hard sometimes. One way to help get a more friendly response at the guild, is to give some friendly responses. I'm a fairly outgoing person... when I first joined the guild, not only did I join, I immediately responded to some of the discussions, looked and commented on some of the maps and the WIP's I found, and started taking part in the challenges. Basically I got involved. I also started posting maps of my own, ones that I had completed, and maps I was still working on. Basically, I threw myself in and got involved. And I've received a great response in return.
As for the challenges and what you get? Well, if you win the Lite Challenge, you get one of those little silver compasses under your name. You also get your map posted on the home page for a month (until the next challenge winner), which means you get exposure. Plus, members tend to watch the challenge winners more, because they've proven themselves, which means more exposure. What you also get, is experience, and a lot of times, suggestions, critiques, and general feedback.
Here at Profantasy, you get a lot of assistance in how best to utilize cc3+, and general suggestions on how to make better maps. Most of us do this as a hobby, it's something we enjoy. Now some have become professionals, but most of us are amateurs.
Over at the guild, there are a lot of Commissioned Professional mappers. J. Edward, Mike Schley, Bogie, just to name a few. These people make money from their mapping on a consistent basis. And some of the knowledge and expertise they share can help improve mapping in a general sense... knowing how mountain ranges are formed, how rivers flow, and how lakes are formed, understanding climate changes and the like all affect how worlds are formed, and how to map them. You can see different mapping techniques that you can adopt and adapt to work in cc3+ (sometimes).
Admittedly, there seems to be somewhat of a 'stigma' on cc3+ users. Most people over there use photoshop or gimp, and they don't think cc3+ can create the same 'standard' of maps that they are used to. Sue, Lorelei, Charles and Tonnichiwa have done a lot to break that stigma, especially Sue... who has produced some AMAZING maps with cc3+. That being said, you still can get a lot of good, solid advice on how to improve your mapping, just like you get here
The Guild is a massive place. There are dozens of forums, so it can feel a bit impersonal compared to our nice little Profantasy Forum where everyone knows everyone else, like in a village. It takes time to build a presence at the Guild, and its not for everyone. There are some people who don't like or won't use the Guild for various different reasons - not least of these the tendency for maps to be pinned or borrowed by scavenging types. Its happened to a couple of mine. I used to get really upset by it, but these days I just make sure that everything has my name on it nice and clear and blended into the map so its not so easy to remove - free publicity for me then
I do tend to stick around over there a lot more these days because none of my most recent maps are pure CC3, and a lot of them have no CC3 in them at all.
The purpose of the challenges is just exactly that. The challenge challenges you to push the boundaries of your current skills and learn new stuff - like with the frame idea. If you win you get awarded a silver compass badge to wear beneath your avatar, but most importantly of all by taking part you have learned new stuff that you can use in future maps.
As a result of taking part in a Challenge you will find that other members will give you reputation points. This is called repping, and results in a row of little green bricks above your avatar image. I have already repped your map, which is why you already have two green bricks. Repping power varies between members depending on how long they have been members and how much rep they have been given, but regardless of how much or how little we get from each member who reps us, we always thank each other for rep by leaving a visitor message on the repper's profile. That's just so you know what to do when you get plastered with rep at the end of the Challenge - since I am positive you will receive quite a lot.
@LadieStorm & Loopysue: Ah, I see. Yes, I guess the CG is just so big that I feel lost over there. But I'm (generally) a joiner, so once I have my forum legs there I'll probably become more active. Like here it takes me a little time to warm up to a place. I hope my comment about not knowing what the point of the challenges was doesn't come across as nasty or cocky, as it was not meant to be. It was a literal statement -- I didn't really know the mechanics of the site and forum and how things worked. I am impressed by some of the cartographic heavy hitters whose names I've seen over there, which is part of the reason I looked into the site in the first place. Although I have to say that some of our members here have produced, in my opinion, maps rivaling some of the BIG NAME guys and gals on CG. I am frequently humbled here when certain people comment kindly about my work as I admire theirs so much. I also already got the impression that CC3+ is looked upon sort of as the red-headed stepchild by some on CG. Well, if I had to rely on Photoshop or even GIMP I'd never get a map done!
The only boundaries that exist between CC3 and any other 'type' of mapper are the boundaries that we subconsciously decide must have to be there inside our own heads. Look at it the other way around. Are we... each of us... nothing more than the software we use? surely we are mappers first, and the users of various different types of software second. What does it matter to me if you use CC3, PS, Krita, Sketchup, Blender, or anything else that's out there? It doesn't change who you are, and the fact that you are first and foremost a mapper
Storm the boundaries (sorry Storm - figure of speech)! Blast through the walls in your mind! We're mappers!
Profantasy is the village where I was born as a mapper, and will always be my true home, no matter how many different apps I use to make my maps. The Guild is the city I went to explore, and where I found a great many friends to add to my heart
A smile is mightier than either the pen, or the sword
Neon Knight is also almost exclusively a CC3 user, but not very active.
Looking really good, Scott. Maybe you will be a winner? Who knows