# Gallery > Finished Maps >  The Steel Remains

## ravells

Turns out the map I did for the competition didn't quite (actually by a long way) match up to the Author's vision of the world. I've been re-doing it with his input over this week and this is either the final (or near final) result. Strangely enough I was in the process of writitng a tutorial about how to make maps like these (it's pretty much non-destructive, so really easy to edit which is very handy in situations like these when changes have to be made). Once I've finished the map, I'll finish the tutorial and post it.

Cheers

Ravs

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## Eilathen

Absolutely gorgeous, Ravs. Looking forward to seeing it printed in the second book  :Smile: 

Have some rep!

And congrats again on winning the contest *thumbs up*

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## Steel General

Very cool Ravs!

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## ravells

Couldn't have done it without you, Eilathan! Thank you again for opening a new chapter in my life....I love this Guild!

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## Korash

Looks amazing Rav

Love the mountains

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## torstan

That's absolutely beautiful. Well done.

Any chance of knocking the coastlines down from pure black? They're the only black on the map and they stand out a little - though perhaps that's a very good thing.

It's a stunning style and the font choice is spot on. Great stuff! Please accept my inaugural use of my three spots of rep!

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## Valarian

I quite like the boldness of the coastlines.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a phallic peninsula?

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## overlordchuck

> Is it just me, or does anyone else see a phallic peninsula?


Only because you mentioned it.

Mountains are really quite great and the colors are awesome.  I rather like the black coastlines, though I kind of wish the forests were textured a bit more.

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## ravells

Funny you should say that, overlordchuck...my wife said exaclty the same thing about 20 mins ago and I'm working on them now! I'll make the coastline a little lighter...thanks torstan, I didn't spot that one. Heh Ian...it's that sort of book.

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## ravells

How's this?

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## Gamerprinter

Awesome map, Ravs! Now I have to read the book.

Big time congrats, have some REP!

GP

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## ravells

Thanks GP! Do read the book, it's a stunner!

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## Torq

That is absolutely incredible Ravs. What a winner. A great map in every respect. I'm gobsmacked. Love your work man!

Torq

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## ravells

I must be very humble or something, but I don't think it holds a candle to your maps, Torq, or GPs or especially Bohunk's, Torstan's, Ascension's and Toff's whose maps I just salivate over everytime I see them.

I think it may have something to do with looking at the same thing for a week rather than seeing it all at once when it's finished.

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## torstan

Love it - though now I won't be able to look at that peninsula the same way again.

As for the different styles - I think it has something to do with knowing precisely how something is constructed. I look at maps like these and don't really have the first idea how to put one together, whereas I know all the dirty secrets that go into mine  :Smile:

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## ravells

I think you might be right...I think I'm cheating somehow.

Although I'll tell you what, the final layer on this map was a parchment texture which I set to multiply and lowered the opacity a bit....the effect was amazing, it deepened all the colours and made them richer but in a way in which they still all worked with each other. A curve layer adjustment (with the usual S shape) on top of that and thing just came alive.

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## Ascension

Absolutely astounding!  Dude, that rocks...hard!  The colors are simply perfect and evocative of something only slightly grungy despite being old.  I like the mix of "real" terrain (mountains) with other artsy elements (rivers, text).  Think I prefer the bold coast...brings the style together for me but I like it either way.  Excellent stuff, bro.  Now gimme a tut  :Wink:

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## ravells

I'm so glad you said that! That was exactly the look I was shooting for (in empathy with the book) - mixing real and graphic is usually dangerous. Tut coming...I't's already 3/4s written....you won't believe how easy it is.

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## overlordchuck

The forests are officially spot-on.  Lookin' forward to that tutorial.

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## Redrobes

Beautiful map there. Is there going to be an outflow on that lake next to Shaktur  :Wink:  Rep heading your way if I am able.

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## Clercon

Really nice map and congrats to winning the prize. Well deseved I would say.
I think we all feel the same way with our maps. You look at them for hours and you know all the weak spots and things you missed. It's like when renovating your house (I'm living in an old villa from 1903 so I know about renovating) it all look crap to you, 'til you put in all your furniture and stuff. Then no one can see what you missed (it's like gaussian blur in photoshop)

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## Eilathen

I was in the bookstore today and what did i see? The MMPB Version of The Steel Remains. And it includes ravells' awesome map! The black n white does not do it justice but ah well...it still looks top notch. AND what else did my eyes detect? Yes, the url to the cartographers guild. Cool stuff! Thanks ravs!

Cheers
Eilathen

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## töff

Those mountains & the plains coloring are mind-blowers. I also dig your use of text styles. All-around fine summer fare! Two thumbs up.

You know, I gotta say, though, I ain't happy with the river coloring. And I don't think I've ever seen river coloring done to my liking, especially at the estuaries -- at least, in a map style that emulates the birdseye realworld coloring. In this case, that than dark line that works on the coast kinda makes the thinner river areas a bit off, esp. at headwaters. I wonder if that line could be thinned & faded the further upriver it goes, without a hundred extra hours of work. But then what to do with the light blue color? Hmm.

Anybody got an example really awesome birdseye headwater-to-estuary style?

Grr @ rivers. If we can have the River Police, then I want to form the Misoflustors.

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## töff

> holds a candle to your maps, Torq, or GPs or especially Bohunk's, Torstan's, Ascension's and Toff's whose maps I just salivate over


That's an awfully kind thing to say, and for my part I think the drooling is mutual. That doesn't quite sound right, though, does it ...

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## Steel General

What's a little drool between friends...  :Razz:

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## ravells

Book with the map should be out soon now...keep your eyes open for it at your local bookshop!

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## ravells

> I was in the bookstore today and what did i see? The MMPB Version of The Steel Remains. And it includes ravells' awesome map! The black n white does not do it justice but ah well...it still looks top notch. AND what else did my eyes detect? Yes, the url to the cartographers guild. Cool stuff! Thanks ravs!
> 
> Cheers
> Eilathen



WHAT??? It's out?? 

I've been trawling the bookshop every week or so and haven't seen it ....curse Waterstones!

Oh man, I should have dithered in b&w rather than going greyscale....I hope it looks ok.

Toff! I'm amazed you could see the esturies....at that size of print they've got to be really small.

Eilathen, the Editor said that they would use the colour version on the website....so let's hope.

ohhhh....Eilathen...thank you, thank you, thank you.....It would have never happened without you!

Seriously I'm going to break out the champagne tomorrow...this feeling beats the heck out of being a lawyer and winning cases. I don't think I've ever felt such a sense of accomplishment in my life.

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## töff

> amazed you could see the esturies....at that size of print they've got to be really small.


Well, there's towns on top most of the estuaries (which makes sense) but one's clear. Anyway, this map's estuaries look fine; it's the headwaters that made me rant _in general_.




> going to break out the champagne tomorrow


CHEERS! Here's to Ravells on bookstore shelves!  :Smile:

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## ravells

Ah I see what you mean now toff....you're right the headwaters are really blobby....drat.

The release date for the book here is 9th July so the Champers will have to wait for a little while yet!

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## Karro

> Seriously I'm going to break out the champagne tomorrow...this feeling beats the heck out of being a lawyer and winning cases. I don't think I've ever felt such a sense of accomplishment in my life.


Wait... you're a lawyer?

I guess we all do what we have to in order to make a living... but it's what we do for love that really defines us!  [At least lawyering is more interesting than what I do.]  If you're a lawyer in England, does that mean you have to wear the robes and wig?  I wonder what court would be like over here if we made our lawyers do that.

Also... since this is now in a real live fantasy novel, doesn't that make you an industry pro, too?

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## töff

> the headwaters are really blobby.


It's a totally minor thing taht nobody but a few of us perfection-obsessed cartographers will ever notice. But still, I sure would like to find a way to do rivers better in general. It's high on my "I suck at this" list.

I was looking at the Vaniya map, and the headwaters work well enough there, just as simple black lines thinning to sharp points. But that map has a particular style that lets a thick black pointy line work well. I don't think that's any kind of universal solution (which there probably isn't one of, anyway).

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## ravells

> Wait... you're a lawyer?
> 
> I guess we all do what we have to in order to make a living... but it's what we do for love that really defines us!  [At least lawyering is more interesting than what I do.]  If you're a lawyer in England, does that mean you have to wear the robes and wig?  I wonder what court would be like over here if we made our lawyers do that.
> 
> Also... since this is now in a real live fantasy novel, doesn't that make you an industry pro, too?


lol...no we got rid of wigs and gowns in the '90s, although I still have mine somewhere. It was quite a contested issue at the time: the antis said that it was antiquated and out of touch and the pros said that it gave court proceedings a sense of gravitas. 

I wouldn't consider myself an industry pro - this is strictly a hobby for me!

cheers

Ravs

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## Steel General

Don't the actually call lawyers 'barristers' (or something like that) in England - or at least I thought I heard that somewhere.

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## Redrobes

> ...the pros said that it gave court proceedings a sense of gravitas.


 hah - who would think that wearing robes would give a sense of gravitas - thats so silly... oh erm shuffle shuffle.

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## Karro

> lol...no we got rid of wigs and gows in the '90s, although I still have mine somewhere. It was quite a contested issue at the time: the antis said that it was antiquated and out of touch and the pros said that it gave court proceedings a sense of gravitas. 
> 
> I wouldn't consider myself an industry pro - this is strictly a hobby for me!
> 
> cheers
> 
> Ravs


Ah. I assume your judges at least still wear the robes, though (at least ours do... although I can't even tell you when they ditched the wigs).

I think there is a lot of room between "purely a hobby" and "working professional", and I suspect there's room in that spectrum for "getting paid and/or publicly lauded to do my hobby".

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## waldronate

There is also potentially a great distance between "working professional" and "getting paid"!

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## ravells

> Don't the actually call lawyers 'barristers' (or something like that) in England - or at least I thought I heard that somewhere.


Court going lawyers are called barristers and client facing lawyers (as I am these days..I jumped the fence) are called solicitors.

It's a good system which works well. Us solicitors tend to get too close to our client's causes and the barristers we hire keep us objective.

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## ravells

> Ah. I assume your judges at least still wear the robes, though (at least ours do... although I can't even tell you when they ditched the wigs).
> 
> I think there is a lot of room between "purely a hobby" and "working professional", and I suspect there's room in that spectrum for "getting paid and/or publicly lauded to do my hobby".


Depends on the court. In the commercial court they wear suits, but in the criminal courts they still wear robes...probably to add that sense of gravitas. Don't believe the serial criminals buy it for a second though.

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## ravells

> There is also potentially a great distance between "working professional" and "getting paid"!


From what I've heard and read it's a veritable gulf.....pretty much the same as law <S>

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## Karro

> There is also potentially a great distance between "working professional" and "getting paid"!


Touche.

That's why I got a business degree in college: I feared that the likelihood of "getting paid" to do something I love was fairly slim.  It turns out, on the other hand, that "getting paid" to do something you don't love is frightfully boring and soul-draining.

So... that's why we (i.e. I) have these hobbies!

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## mmmmmpig

wow... that is a stunner!  Congrats on the publish!

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## Werthead

The UK paperback edition of _The Steel Remains_ came out last week and this map has pride of place sitting in the front of the book, so congrats to the OP.

Wonder if it's going to be used in the second and third books as well?

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## Gandwarf

Using it in the other books would make sense.

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## Nikenik

Had to register to see the map. Reading the book for the second time now and was surfing Richard Morgans homepage and found this. Well worth the hassle of register. =)

Congratulations and thank you.
/Morgan-fan

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## töff

Welcome, Nikenik, for whatever reason you signed on  :Smile: 

I must say, though, it's somewhat of an inconvenience that non-members can't see the attachments. There are people with whom I'd like to share some of these threads, but without the pictures it loses a lot ... and I don't think we actually want everybody registering, do we? In other words, our visitors are gypped of the pix.

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## Gandwarf

There are pros and cons for people having to register to see attachments or not having to register.

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## Werthead

Morgan gives out massive props to Ravs here for the map (and his consumption of wine), which is quite cool.

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## Turgenev

Wow, fantastic map Ravi! I would rep you but I need to spread it around a bit more. I'll have to keep my eye out for the book on my side of the pond.  :Wink:

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## Steel General

The book is now available in hardcover through the Science Fiction Book Club - don't know if it has Ravs map in it or not.

I plan on ordering the book as soon as i get a bit of extra $$$

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## vgunn

Awesome map!

Haven't had a chance to pick up the book. Anyone care to give me a brief review?

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## Sheyd

I just had to say, this is a wonderful map.   I tend to be in awe of most of the maps done by the folks here.  I sucketh mightily when it comes to maps, however I am slowly trying to learn how to become better but seeing this map,  It's almost demoralizing.  :Smile:    Learning a new program (Gimp)  is a slow process especially when the only layers I've ever been familiar with are those in cake, sandwiches  and snow.  :Smile:    The desire to produce a map keeps me winnowing away at tutorials and my lackluster results.   Seeing your map tonight however is seeing the end goal  (WAY WAY down the road for me).  Once again A great map.

(Egads this is my first post... and I joined in May of 08!  I am ashamed and hang my head in lamentations.)

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## Gandwarf

Welcome Sheyd... we don't bite, so be sure to post up a work in progress once you feel comfortable enough with your work. It's the best way to improve yourself I think. Ravells has done many maps and this map is a culmination of his efforts.

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## ravells

Thanks Sheyd. It was fun to draw. As Gandwarf said, post up your WIPs and we'll help you !

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## Vambo

Just want to say I think your map is fantastic, I have been a Richard Morgan fan for years and when I read his praise for you and your map in the Blessed are the Mapmakers post on his page, I just had to come and take a look.  Well done  :Smile:

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## ravells

Thank you!  :Smile: 

He's a really nice guy in person.

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## Locution

Very nice Ravs, great work!

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## maledei

I too just registered to see this map after reading about it on Richard Morgans blog. Great work, ravells. Congratulations to getting it published.

Although it is customary to have only registered users see the maps, I find it a bit of a hassle. One way to work around that would be to embed the picture via an imagehost like imageshack.us or tinypic, safes traffic for the forum too.

And as a quite late answer to vgunn's question: A good review can be found on Strange Horizons.
(Skip the review on the SF Site, it's ridiculously homophobic.)

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## ravells

Thanks for the praise guys, I'm glad you like the map!

maledei: hosting images locally is a deliberate decision of the guild. It makes it easier to refer to them, we can thumbnail them and we don't suffer from 'broken link' syndrome which can be very frustrating. 

best

Ravs

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## Diamond

I just started reading _The Steel Remains_ today, and what do I see but a familiar-looking map.  I was wracking my brains trying to figure out where I'd seen it before, and then I noticed the 'By Ravi Shankar' and the CG link.  That is damn awesome that your map is actually in what is (so far) the best fantasy book I've read in years.  Kudos to you!  (Although I'm probably the last person on the site to discover all this...  :Very Happy: )

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## ravells

Lol, thanks Diamond! Here's to more guild members getting published!

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## Blacky

Quite the very nice map. I'm sure will investigate your tutorial, I very fond of the style.

I do have one question: what font did you use as subheading (as realised by Richard Morgan... etc.) for the legend? It seem perfect for a project I have...

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## ravells

Hi Blacky. Unfortunately I managed to delete all my working copies of the map and only have the jpg renders, and it's so long ago I can't remember! Sorry I wasn't much help.

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## LaCamilla

Hello!

My name is Camilla, and like a few others here I registered to be able to see the map...  :Very Happy:  And indeed it is a great-looking map, well done ravells! It's a joy to see it in full colour as it's meant to be. I'm currently reading The Cold Commands, but since there's no map included I figured I should find it online, and so I ended up here.  :Smile:  What a nice forum this seems to be! 

Hope to see your map in a future version of the book, too!  :Very Happy:

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## ravells

Hi Camilla, Glad the map is of help!

I've just started reading The Cold Commands as well, and it's nice to see the locations turning up like old friends!

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## twang84

This map brought me to this forum. Lucky me there are a ton of other great maps to spend lots of time looking at. Thanks!

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## Lyandra

Gorgeous map ravells!

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## firefly50@bigpond.com

Thanks for the Map. Have been looking for it for a while. First time I tried to find it the site was down. I didn't know if the site was still going.
Great work.
Stephen

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## Tigon

Literally just finished _The Cold Commands_ this lunchtime and what do I find? The dedication to one Ravi Shankar. There's a familiar name I think and lo and behold... shame the map didn't make the second book Ravs, at least in the paperback version.

My... why is it so long since I've been here? Curse work and PC rebuilds...

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## ravells

Hope your PC rebuild makes a mighty machine!

I got Cold Commands on the Kindle version so I thought the map wasn't included in that for legibility I had just assumed it was in the paperback.  I can't understand why the map wasn't included in _Cold Commands_ paperback- I'd already put in a couple of new cities which appeared there and not in the _Steel Remains_. Ah well.  The really bad news is that somewhere down the line I have lost all the .psd files for those maps. I don't know what happened to them - so I've lost all the layers. 

On his blog, Richard Morgan had a great phrase about e-reader features like 'time remaining in a chapter' and all the other stats:

"It’s a Dungeons and Dragons-style approximation via numbers of the physical experience you aren’t actually having."

I've got to use that in conversation sometime and appear really clever. Of course only a Geek will get the D&D reference.

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## Eilathen

Wait what?! They didn't put the map into the second book? Why ever not?! This is the stuff that makes me angry with publishers. If you have a map, put it in there, damn you!

Too bad, ravells, it really _is_ a very nice map.

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## ravells

And it was all thanks to you, Eilathen!!!

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## Eilathen

Well, i just pointed you in the right direction  :Wink: 

As i said all those years ago : It's a shame that not more authors come here to commission a cartographer from this guild to do their maps. It would give us a) more books with maps (I hate fantasy novels in fictional worlds that do not have a map) AND b) maps that look like maps  :Very Happy:

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## Diamond

I finally got around to buying the second and third books in the trilogy, and the US/Del Rey editions, of course, don't contain the map.  So I printed it out from this thread on the color printer at work and have it all folded nice and neat in The Cold Commands, ready to reference.   :Very Happy:

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## lasko514

Really like your coloring. Great job!

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