# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  January 2019 Challenge: Frosgard

## XCali

Hi everyone!  :Very Happy: 

Been a while since I got the time to even think about adding a map for the challenge. But, yesterday I started with a little map for the fun to illustrate something for my web novel, and it struck me, given its story, it is more or less in line with a dystopian idea. So, here be I adding it for the challenge.  :Very Happy:  Yays!

The story goes:
Frosgard is a town built out of necessity. The people of a once grand city with great prosperity were thrown into a continuous onslaught of ice and cold. The once warm summers disappeared without a trace, replaced by massive blizzards that struck out of thin air. In the fallout the people were forced to abandon their city, their home. What followed was a desperate struggle to survive in the dangerous lands, that became even more so with the never ending cold, many were lost. Seeking shelter from a particularly bad blizzard, they found a place big enough to bring the survivors and so the new town Frosgard was founded.

It is mostly done with round brushes and some others.

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## Abu Lafia

Stunning work XCali! I love the gloomy dark green/blue reflections beneath the ice. I think you'll make the buildings (looking awesome btw.!) stand out a bit more? Otherwise i'd suggest just that  :Very Happy:  They're hard to see in the shadows atm.
Looking forward to see this piece coming together!

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## XCali

> Stunning work XCali! I love the gloomy dark green/blue reflections beneath the ice. I think you'll make the buildings (looking awesome btw.!) stand out a bit more? Otherwise i'd suggest just that  They're hard to see in the shadows atm.
> Looking forward to see this piece coming together!


Ah, thanks! Appreciate it!  :Very Happy: 

Hehe, yeah after doing the first part I thought the exact same thing, so...



I hope that is better.  :Wink:

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## XCali

Just a quick update.

The buildings were too dark. So, I got to adding several lights down there. This is the bigger version.  :Smile: 

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## Abu Lafia

Damn, that looks way better than i could've imagined it! The diffused light from the lantern seems very cozy ... ok cozy is not very dystopian...maybe spooky?  :Smile:

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## - JO -

You really mastered the lights here ! Fantastic job !!! The sky, the mountain over the village, the houses, the public lights... All of that ! Excellent !

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## XCali

> Damn, that looks way better than i could've imagined it! The diffused light from the lantern seems very cozy ... ok cozy is not very dystopian...maybe spooky?


Hehehe! Spooky fits.  :Very Happy: 

Anything else you would like to see on this project?  :Smile:

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## XCali

> You really mastered the lights here ! Fantastic job !!! The sky, the mountain over the village, the houses, the public lights... All of that ! Excellent !


Aw, thank you! It means a lot.

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## MapMappingMapped

Awesome! And doesmn't that peak look like a great wave?!

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## XCali

> Awesome! And doesmn't that peak look like a great wave?!


Hehe, who knows. A glacial lake could have ruptured and then with the massive blizzards rolling in, it could have frozen over.  :Razz:  (Makes one think, don't you agree?)

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## Jaxilon

I also thought of a wave....and then once I saw the town in there I said, "They are DOOMED!"

I think if you put some lanterns in the town with some light reflecting around it would really add to the ambiance. <-- Oh, haha, you already did it....Looks great!

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## XCali

Hehehe.  :Razz: 

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Okay, so I spent some time smoothing out the worst of the rough edges from using a solid round brush for concept. Hopefully, this works.

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## Ilanthar

:Very Happy:  poor village! Great idea and splendid choice of colors.

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## Wingshaw

Wow, this looks great so far! I really like the icy colours and the sky background

Wingshaw

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## Diamond

Two thumbs up from me; that looks outstanding.

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## Azélor

The ice is starting to look really good. 

Btw the setting and title  remind me of Frostpunk.

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## XCali

> poor village! Great idea and splendid choice of colors.


 :Very Happy:  I have half a mind to go with the wave thing, or at the very least place a mage casting a spell to freeze the wave.  :Razz: 




> Wow, this looks great so far! I really like the icy colours and the sky background
> 
> Wingshaw


Thanks. Getting the ice right is a fun challenge.  :Razz:  




> Two thumbs up from me; that looks outstanding.


Thank you!  :Very Happy: 




> The ice is starting to look really good. 
> 
> Btw the setting and title  remind me of Frostpunk.


Thanks
Hmmm, I can see it, that is, if you look past the whole industrial feel of Frostpunk. Hehe.  :Smile:

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## Tenia

Wow, excellent idea, I love the sky and you're fully into the topic

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## ChickPea

Fantastic concept and it looks gorgeous!

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## XCali

Thank you.  :Smile: 

Really I am so thankful for everyone's kind words. It reminds me again what amazing community this is and how supportive. You all are awesome, what you all meant for me when my life took some knocks... Thanks. I just wanted to say that.  

Anyway! Have to say, this challenge is proving to be great fun.  :Very Happy: 
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For this update, I wanted to tone down a bit on the somewhat harsh white and so I added tones of blue to give the idea of the aurora's light hitting it aside from the hard moonlight.

Let me know if this works better than the harsher whites. 

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## Kellerica

Nice work on the lighting effects so far! The auroras are amazing! The snow could maybe use a bit more softness to it? I can still kind of see the long strokes it's been drawn in, and it makes it look a bit less snowy and more... um... fiber-like? If that makes any sense?

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## aeshnidae

Beautiful color palette! The background looks like the northern lights to me. As tons of other people have already set, the lighting is beautiful.  :Smile:

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## Ilanthar

Very nice idea, I like the improvement on the snow/ice.
I kinda agree with Kellerica about the aurora, maybe something more evanescent on the outsides. A gradient maybe?

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## XCali

> Nice work on the lighting effects so far! The auroras are amazing! The snow could maybe use a bit more softness to it? I can still kind of see the long strokes it's been drawn in, and it makes it look a bit less snowy and more... um... fiber-like? If that makes any sense?


Thanks.  :Very Happy: 
Wtih my next update, I tried to ease the fibre effect of the snow. 




> Beautiful color palette! The background looks like the northern lights to me. As tons of other people have already set, the lighting is beautiful.


Thank you.  :Smile:  Yeah, it is the Northern lights, though it is a strange kind of challenge to get them right.

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## XCali

> Very nice idea, I like the improvement on the snow/ice.
> I kinda agree with Kellerica about the aurora, maybe something more evanescent on the outsides. A gradient maybe?


Kellerica? She mentioned the snow being fibre-like still. The Aurora on the other hand is a bit of a challenge to change at the moment, though I will see if I can touch it up.

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## XCali

Hi!

Today, I again tried to root out more of the hard round brush strokes.

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## Tenia

Beautiful. Be careful not to blend too much. I'm not sure I don't prefer the previous version.

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## Kellerica

Looks nice, I think the snow is certainly improved now!

For the auroras, I don't know for sure if this would work, but you could try adding some light vertical strokes along the length of the the whole thing? The lights sometimes look like they are made of these kinds of lines, like in this picture.

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## Ilanthar

I think Kellerica's idea is a very interesting one!
And it's looking good, anyway!

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## RenflowerGrapx

> Looks nice, I think the snow is certainly improved now!
> 
> For the auroras, I don't know for sure if this would work, but you could try adding some light vertical strokes along the length of the the whole thing? The lights sometimes look like they are made of these kinds of lines, like in this picture.


good shot. I totally agree about some light effects

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## jshoer

I concur about adding some vertical highlights to the aurora!

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## ThomasR

I'm in awe looking at your glacier effect !

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## XCali

> Beautiful. Be careful not to blend too much. I'm not sure I don't prefer the previous version.


Noted! Thanks




> Looks nice, I think the snow is certainly improved now!
> 
> For the auroras, I don't know for sure if this would work, but you could try adding some light vertical strokes along the length of the the whole thing? The lights sometimes look like they are made of these kinds of lines, like in this picture.


This is my first go at Auroras, it is certainly quite an unique set of stuff to figure out for it  :Razz:  But, I will try.




> I think Kellerica's idea is a very interesting one!
> And it's looking good, anyway!


Thanks  :Wink: 




> good shot. I totally agree about some light effects


If I get the time between working, I would want to get them more detailed. Though, at the moment I can only tweak them a bit with the time I have.  :Smile:

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## XCali

> I'm in awe looking at your glacier effect !


Thank you!  :Very Happy:

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## XCali

Hi everyone!  :Very Happy: 

This week was crazyyyy busy. Luckily I had a little time to spare today. I do hope to get the time to tweak it even more, but my work is getting in the way a bit at the moment. 
Hope you all enjoy! 

In this one I touched up the Aurora a bit and the light it would cast. Also experimented with a title for it. 

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## jshoer

I think that green aurora is coming along nicely! I would add a bit more distinct definition, with some harder edges, to the blue one as well. Right now it kind of looks like a cloud.

The lighting effects on the inside of the cliff are looking really great.

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## XCali

> I think that green aurora is coming along nicely! I would add a bit more distinct definition, with some harder edges, to the blue one as well. Right now it kind of looks like a cloud.
> 
> The lighting effects on the inside of the cliff are looking really great.


Thanks  :Wink: 

Yeah, I thought the blue one needed some love too. I tweaked it in the next version (Next post after this one.)

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## XCali

Hiya!  :Very Happy: 

This is probably the final version. I will probably be busy the last few days of the month. If there are anything you all would like me to try and tweak before voting starts, please let me know  :Wink: 

Again, thank you for all your kind words and feedback throughout.  :Smile: 

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## Ilanthar

Nice improvements!

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## aeshnidae

Really great use of light! The green aurora feels especially real.  :Smile:

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## XCali

> Nice improvements!


Thanks. I was real busy this month, so I could only do so much with this one. The snow is still a bit of a head-scratcher to me, but ah well  :Razz:  




> Really great use of light! The green aurora feels especially real.


Thank you.  :Smile:  I had fun on this one. Auroras are tricky, but I feel more maps need them  :Razz:  hehehe.



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*For those interested*, the Web Novel that this started out for this month, is here. Heart of the World. It is about halfway in, but I chip at it when I can.  :Wink:  Enjoy.

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