# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  Oct / Nov '17 Lite Challenge: Map an Island - Pick a Shape

## Bogie

*Oct / Nov '17 Lite Challenge: Map an Island - Pick a Shape.*

For this challenge I want you to map an Island.  How you do it is up to you.  Use your favorite style or try something new.
The only requirement is that you have to use one of these 4 shapes and the island should be approximately 150 miles ( 241 km ) across.


Regarding size:      ( EDITED to resolve some questions )

Most of the islands are between 100 and 150 miles wide and I adjusted them so they were all about the same.  if you rotate the island, then the 150 miles would run north to south so it stays the same size.
The 150 mile scale was intended to be a guideline so everyone would know what they were working with, but my primary goal is to see what kind of an island you would build out of these shapes.  If you prefer to work at a very different scale, it is OK with me, the voters are the ones who decide what they like anyway!

Win a silver compass, you know you want one, come and get it.

The Challenge will run until the end of the day on the 14th of November (Midnight eastern daylight time between the 14th and 15th, more or less, depending on when I can get to the computer to start the voting) and then there will be 3 days of voting. Someone is going to win a Shiny Silver Compass, make it yours!

As usual, title your threads: "Oct / Nov '17 Lite Challenge: << your title here >> "

Don't forget to put the hashtag: ### Latest WIP ### in front of all WIP pictures, and especially in front of your final map. And don't forget, there is a WIP button that automatically posts this for you. Try it, You'll like it!

And remember, if you put more than one image on the same post, only one of them gets picked up.

Quick rules reminder: The Lite Challenge is open to anyone who has not already won 3 Silver compasses, 1 Gold Compass, or been selected as a featured Cartographer's Choice Map.
Also, the map has to be started after the first day of the challenge, no reusing older maps even if they were not finished.

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## Bioluminescence

Interesting shapes - where did you get those islands, Bogie?

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## Bogie

> Interesting shapes - where did you get those islands, Bogie?


Google Satellite, they are real islands.  Bonus points if you can figure out where they came from.

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## Greason Wolfe

Before I start digging into this, I have a question. Do we have to use the given orientation or can we rotate the shapes to fit a personal vision. Obviously the actual shape would have to be maintained and recognizable but being able to reorient things might be helpful for some.

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## waldronate

That's a peculiar set of glaciated terrains. It's sad the way you lopped the western bit off of Devon Island, though. The Mercator projection throws things off a bit, too.

[edit] I see, you chopped up all of the islands. Somerset is missing its whole southern half! Wait, Melville is intact. Prince of Wales seems to have undergone a bit of a rotation, though.

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## Mouse

This reminds me of those old psych tests.  You know - the ones in the 70s and 80s where the doctor holds up flash cards with different shapes and asks you what you see?

Well they did in films anyway.  No idea if they really did it  :Razz:

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## Greason Wolfe

Rorschach tests.

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## Mouse

Yes - those things  :Smile: 

Candlesticks and butterflies  :Wink:

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## Straf

> Google Satellite, they are real islands.  Bonus points if you can figure out where they came from.


My friend might know - I'll ask her.  :Wink:

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## Redrobes

Well when I look at the first one I see a voluptuous woman. For the second one I also see a voluptuous woman, the third I see more of a young woman pouting and the fourth is more like the first voluptuous woman only in a different pose.

Do I have a problem doc ?

BTW: Here is my entry....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:W...set_island.jpg

 :Wink:

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## Bogie

> Before I start digging into this, I have a question. Do we have to use the given orientation or can we rotate the shapes to fit a personal vision. Obviously the actual shape would have to be maintained and recognizable but being able to reorient things might be helpful for some.


You can rotate them, just keep the original shape.

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## Bogie

> That's a peculiar set of glaciated terrains. It's sad the way you lopped the western bit off of Devon Island, though. The Mercator projection throws things off a bit, too.
> 
> [edit] I see, you chopped up all of the islands. Somerset is missing its whole southern half! Wait, Melville is intact. Prince of Wales seems to have undergone a bit of a rotation, though.


Ding Ding Ding!!  Bonus points.  Yeah I had to alter them a little to make them fit and get rid of some Google labels.

Redrobes got it also!!  But I think he needs some deep therapy,,  :Wink:

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## Mouse

> Well when I look at the first one I see a voluptuous woman. For the second one I also see a voluptuous woman, the third I see more of a young woman pouting and the fourth is more like the first voluptuous woman only in a different pose.
> 
> Do I have a problem doc ?


I guess we can be fairly certain that you are absolutely 100% obsessed with butterflies, then  :Razz: 

And that entry is cheating.  You already made it!  Er... I mean it was made a few million years ago!  LOL!

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## Redrobes

I got it from Waldronates post. And yeah I need some therapy  :Smile:   And for my entry I think I will use a Wacom Tablet and a satellite !

But what may be cool is that since they are real places, I think I might have the height maps for them. If I dont have to go through the tedious bit of making the height map for the land then I think there maybe some life from me in this one. Not sure tho because SRTM only went up so far given that the shuttle flies on a wibbly line +/- about 60 degrees or so. These islands might be a bit too far north for SRTM. I have another source tho and I thought that one was global. I need to check. Its been a while since I have had to convert any real DEM data.

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## Straf

Ah I thought they were bits chopped off Alaska until I went and checked.

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## Greason Wolfe

Voluptuous women? Realy? All I saw were evil, toy soldier eating teddy bears. Though they might also have been voluptouos butterflys and elephants. Difficult to say sometimes.

Rotate okay, aye. Gonna play with these shapes when in get home from work today and see if inspiration strikes.

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## Straf

Are we allowed to add bits, like other smaller islands or are we restricted to just the dark shape?

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## Greason Wolfe

So after a little time spent taking this mini Rorschach test, island blot 1 has gotten into my head and is speaking to me. It is telling me to throw my hat in on this one and promising me that work won't waylay me again before I have a chance to finish (yeah right). Gonna run this one through terragen and play around with some textures I made about a year ago for just this sort of thing.

Wish me luck. I don't have much hair left and if work drags me away from this again, I may not have ANY hair left.

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## mixerbach

> Are we allowed to add bits, like other smaller islands or are we restricted to just the dark shape?


I would say it's always better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, *Straf*.  
Note: My authority in this forum is absolute zero.  :Wink:

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## Bogie

> Are we allowed to add bits, like other smaller islands or are we restricted to just the dark shape?


I would say it is OK to add some smaller islands to the map as long as one of the primary island shapes is the main focus of the map.

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## waldronate

It's going to be hard to get good-looking height fields for all of them because (a) it looks like the interior of some of them is a big ice dome and (b) there will be some serious distortion of the height field due to the high latitude and Mercator projection of the originals.

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## tilt

Interesting... having spent my time watching Blade Runner 2049 yesterday in stead of mapping my city I feel in a sci-fi mood. I'm thinking dystopian future where this island is one of the few places left where flooding hasn't taken the world.  :Smile:

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## tilt

Hmmm... the island size is messing with my plans... its way way way to big 240 km across...  the details disappear at that scale :/  a tenth of that would be fun  :Smile:

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## Mouse

Are there any rules that say the island has to be the same size as it is in reality?

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## Greason Wolfe

I do believe that in the first post, Mr. B stated that the island had to be approximately 150 miles across. Would assume that means at its widest. Not sure how that compares to the reality of the selected islands though.

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## industrygothica

I took "across" to mean east-to-west, and I rotated my map so that it would be longer rather than wider. So north to south is definitely more than 150 miles. Hope that's ok, otherwise I have some tweaking to do!


-IG

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## Kier

I took 150 miles across was the longest part.

I wish it were smaller also. I have never done a regional map or an island map. But I will give it a go, been wanting to try a map like this anyway.

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## tilt

> I took "across" to mean east-to-west, and I rotated my map so that it would be longer rather than wider. So north to south is definitely more than 150 miles. Hope that's ok, otherwise I have some tweaking to do!
> 
> -IG


That is fine.. its just cause I was hoping it was more like... 15 miles across... so I could put in more details.. but I'll make it work somehow.. just not the map I planned in my head  :Wink:

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## Dromedary

We can freehand it if it is recognizable, correct?

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## Bogie

> We can freehand it if it is recognizable, correct?


Yes you can draw it any way you want as long as the shape is recognizable.

Regarding size: 

Most of the islands are between 100 and 150 miles wide and I adjusted them so they were all about the same.  if you rotate the island, then the 150 miles would run north to south so it stays the same size.
The 150 mile scale was intended to be a guideline so everyone would know what they were working with, but my primary goal is to see what kind of an island you would build out of these shapes.  If you prefer to work at a very different scale, it is OK with me, the voters are the ones who decide what they like anyway!

I Copied this info to the first post so it would not be missed.

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## tilt

> Regarding size: 
> The 150 mile scale was intended to be a guideline so everyone would know what they were working with, but my primary goal is to see what kind of an island you would build out of these shapes.  If you prefer to work at a very different scale, it is OK with me, the voters are the ones who decide what they like anyway!


YAY, thanks Bogie - makes it easier to do my vision... so just enough room to fit in a deck chair LOL  :Wink:

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## Kier

This is going to be a awesome challenge. After seeing some of these maps, its going to be great seeing what everyone does with the same islands(particular the island I chose, lol). Rivers, mountains, etc. Who puts the valleys here and why, then throw in the different styles. Going to be fun.

On second thought, My 1st, 2nd , 3rd, ...10th attempt on mountains came out too realistic for my watercolor approach. This is not going to be fun.
But I have an image in my head, I will get it to paper, then to Gimp, then through a filter, then another, then a bump map, followed by a blur, then overlay, then back to normal, and with luck it will look just like my 1st attempt at the mountains, that I decided not to go with.  :Smile:

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## tilt

> This is going to be a awesome challenge. After seeing some of these maps, its going to be great seeing what everyone does with the same islands(particular the island I chose, lol). Rivers, mountains, etc. Who puts the valleys here and why, then throw in the different styles. Going to be fun.
> 
> On second thought, My 1st, 2nd , 3rd, ...10th attempt on mountains came out too realistic for my watercolor approach. This is not going to be fun.
> But I have an image in my head, I will get it to paper, then to Gimp, then through a filter, then another, then a bump map, followed by a blur, then overlay, then back to normal, and with luck it will look just like my 1st attempt at the mountains, that I decided not to go with.


Yep.. that sounds about right LOL

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## industrygothica

> This is going to be a awesome challenge. After seeing some of these maps, its going to be great seeing what everyone does with the same islands(particular the island I chose, lol). Rivers, mountains, etc. Who puts the valleys here and why, then throw in the different styles. Going to be fun.
> 
> On second thought, My 1st, 2nd , 3rd, ...10th attempt on mountains came out too realistic for my watercolor approach. This is not going to be fun.
> But I have an image in my head, I will get it to paper, then to Gimp, then through a filter, then another, then a bump map, followed by a blur, then overlay, then back to normal, and with luck it will look just like my 1st attempt at the mountains, that I decided not to go with.





> Yep.. that sounds about right LOL


Sounds way too complicated for me. I barely even know what a bump map is, let alone how to use one.


-IG

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## waldronate

> I barely even know what a bump map is, let alone how to use one.


I'm told that it's a thing for people of limited vision.

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## tilt

> I'm told that it's a thing for people of limited vision.


ROFL .... funny  :Wink:

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## ScottDA

I think I'll give this a shot. I'm new on this forum (although relatively active on the ProFantasy one) and it will be my first challenge of any sort, but I have a good start on something.

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## ladiestorm

Scott!  Welcome to the Guild!  It's good to see another cc3+ user in the mix!  I look forward to seeing what you come up with.  I've seen some of your maps at the PF forums, so I think you will do just fine  :Smile:

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## Bogie

Welcome to the Forums and the Challenge Scott.

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## ThomasR

O, great Bogie ! Are we allowed to change a little bit the shape ? I'll explain myself. Going digital will be hard for me. I spend too much time drawing digitally already and I work faster with pen and paper. I'd like to use the shape, print it at a very low opacity and take out my fine liners to draw the whole map in a few hours as an Inktober entry. That'll help me deliver a finished map this time  :Smile:  Thanks in advance for your answer.

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## Bogie

> O, great Bogie ! Are we allowed to change a little bit the shape ? I'll explain myself. Going digital will be hard for me. I spend too much time drawing digitally already and I work faster with pen and paper. I'd like to use the shape, print it at a very low opacity and take out my fine liners to draw the whole map in a few hours as an Inktober entry. That'll help me deliver a finished map this time  Thanks in advance for your answer.


No Problem Thomas, as long as the shape is recognizable.  There are already some entries that have slight variations.  Glad to have you in the mix.

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## ThomasR

Thanks ! That's a map I'll be able to stuff into my schedule  :Smile:

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## - JO -

Hello !

Little question : would it be possible for to join the challenge with my own thread, but, of course, not to be involved in the final vote (as I’m excluded of the challenge) ?

I still haven’t received my computer back from repair, but I have an idea of a island map that I could draw, and I would be glad to receive comments and critics in a WIP thread...

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## Bogie

Yes, with a brief disclaimer about the not voting part on your post and don't use the WIP tag because I will forget and include all the pictures from the thumbnail gallery in the voting..

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## - JO -

OK ! Thanks a lot !

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## industrygothica

Awesome! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

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## OldRed

May one use ink and paper? Or is the editing strictly digital?

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

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## industrygothica

> May one use ink and paper? Or is the editing strictly digital?
> 
> Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk


People use ink and paper all the time.

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## waldronate

But you need to post a digital image (e.g. from a camera). It's generally not allowable to mail your entry in.

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## Bogie

Ink & Paper is fine, then either scan you art or take a high res photo for it for posting.

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## ChickPea

Bogie, with your permission, I might join in on this. I won't start a thread in the challenge folder, as I may not finish in time. Just want to make sure you're OK with me borrowing one of your island shapes?  :Smile:

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## Bogie

Sure go for it, love to see what you do with the map!

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## ChickPea

Thanks, Bogie.  :Smile:

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## jshoer

I think I'm going to have to take a crack at this! As always, I've been meaning to get back into it and this challenge looks like a good opportunity...

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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## ladiestorm

If I can figure out how to import the image, I may have a crack at this too.  I've been toying with map style idea for cc3+, and I've been itching to give it a try, to see if I can make it work... this is a good opportunity to try it.

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## Mouse

Make a new sheet called BITMAP and put it somewhere near the bottom of the map.  

Use Draw/Insert File to insert the template bitmap, and type 0,0 ENTER to position the bottom left hand corner right on the origin.  Then you only have to stretch it to the opposite corner and click when its as large as you want it to be.

I might have a different setup to you, but I can never turn them transparent.  That's why I put bitmaps near the bottom of the stack - so I can hand draw the outline of the island on top of it, then get rid of the bitmap by deleting that sheet  :Smile:

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## industrygothica

CC3 sounds complicated. I think I'll stick with Photoshop.  :Smile:

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## Mouse

Its what you're used to, really  :Wink:

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## industrygothica

> Its what you're used to, really


Fair enough. I still wouldn't mind trying CC3 someday, but I just don't have the energy to learn anything new right now.  Old dogs, maybe?

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## ladiestorm

lol... Mouse, I figured it out, and daplunk over at pf had a video that I used to make it work, so it's all good.  I'm not ready to post anything, yet, because I'm still working out the kinks of what I'm trying.  I don't know how it's going to look, probably terrible, but I am trying something new to me.

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## Mouse

Oh that sounds interesting!

Now you've got me wondering what it is you're going to try  :Smile:

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## Mouse

> Fair enough. I still wouldn't mind trying CC3 someday, but I just don't have the energy to learn anything new right now.  Old dogs, maybe?


Old dogs?  Nah.  CC3+ has a steep learning curve, but not half as steep as when I was struggling to learn how to crudely steer the very basic bits of Krita the other day when the Win 10 update completely messed up my Wacom-GIMP setup for good and all  :Razz: 

Never think you're too old for something, IG, because if you're too old then I'm positively ancient, and I refuse to be older than 6 (shoe size)  :Razz:

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## industrygothica

> lol... Mouse, I figured it out, and daplunk over at pf had a video that I used to make it work, so it's all good.  I'm not ready to post anything, yet, because I'm still working out the kinks of what I'm trying.  I don't know how it's going to look, probably terrible, but I am trying something new to me.


That's what it's about - Learning new things. I don't think my map will win this month, but I'm happy that I tried something new, learned new techniques, and it still looks pretty good. Looking forward to seeing what you've come up with!


-IG

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## jbgibson

New tricks vs. fallbacks :-).... there I was fooling with the new (months old scarcely used) Wacom, seeing if I could digitally hand-label stuff, or at least add bits to something digitally typeset.   Arrrgh!  Itll feel natural... some day.  My dissatisfaction with free fonts in the 1700s-map-lettering look is none have the exaggerated serifs Ive come to associate with that era. .  Surely I can use fonts close enough and add tails with tablet, riiiight?

Not right.  BUT!  Now I have it sorted where Ill do the bulk of linework digitally, print in non-photo-blue on paper ... or any color really, since with a color scan back in I should be able to subtract all non-black linework.  And (fallback to old way) Ill do the lettering by hand.   Usedta I found my hand lettering too far from those old map masters but Ive turned up some cruder examples I think I can duplicate :-).     Ive done hand lettering before on digital map by printing the base and lettering on mylar, scanning the stack back in, and touching up.  Ink lettering on Mylar and trying to keep it all registered stinks tho.  That was with dip pens; now I have a nice fountain pen AND a week away from computer where I couldnt do digital stuff anyhow.  Necessity being the mother of invention... or of de-invention, since Im doing an old thing rather than thinking up a new way?

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## mixerbach

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to make a quick* general announcement that I just posted my _third_ WIP for _West Prapihn Islet,_ my entry for this month's Lite Challenge.  
Should you or a friend happen to find yourself with a minute that is not already spoken for this week, I would be so pleased if you used it to take a gander at what I've put together so far. If you have _more_ than a single minute and can manage leave a comment with your thoughts on the _Islet_ so far, it would truly make my day.   :Very Happy: 

But I can already tell what you're thinking, "MB! On this big, intimidating website, it's nothing short of a miracle that I found this thread! How do you expect me to find your little Islet thread among over a dozen entries this month?!"  

To this I say, "fear not!" Anticipating just this dilemma, I have a solution for you! Utilizing advanced Cartographer's Guild technology**, I have hand-crafted*** the following digital object that will teleport you, seemingly by magic, to the very thread in question!  Simply click once and hold on tight! 
╡▓╞══  Next stop: West Prapihn Islet  ══╡▓╞ 
Failing that, of course, you could just copy and paste this into your browser's address bar: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=39511.  But where would be the fun in that?! 

*    "quick" being a relative term. In this case, relative to reading _War and Peace_.
**   The Cartographer's Guild denies any involvement in the development of the aforementioned "technology" and wishes MB would cease making these kinds of claims publicly.  -Thank you
*** The term "hand-crafted" is, of course, meant to illustrate that it was crafted by my hands on my keyboard.

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## Bogie

OK my Friends!  Final Warning!  Less than 24 hours remain, I will start the voting just after midnight Tuesday night  (Eastern Standard Time U.S.).  That is just a little more than 22 hours from now.  Get your maps finished, Don't make me come over there!

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## Falconius

Wow lots and lots of entries again.  This should be a down to the wire finish folks!

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## industrygothica

Yeah and they're all great.  It's going to be a nail-biter!

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## Mouse

It might take all three days for me to decide what to vote for!

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## industrygothica

> It might take all three days for me to decide what to vote for!


You can cast all of your votes to me, I won't mind.  :Wink:

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## Mouse

Cheeky!   :Razz: 

LOL!

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## ladiestorm

I noticed that there are a lot of entries this time!  I love it!

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## jshoer

Woohoo! This was a fun one!

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## jbgibson

So the family vacation didn't allow for much progress on my Domnio Spes'Boscoso entry map <shrug> ... but it's built itself into 'reality' in my head, so I've linked to a continuation thread post-contest.  Thanks for the pick-an-island idea Bogie - it kicked me into motion at least :-).


Happy to help.  B.

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