# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Suggestions >  Lite Challenge Suggestion: Heraldic Beasts

## torstan

Gamerprinter's dragon got me thinking. How about a challenge with the following brief?

Create an image of a heraldic beast. It can be for use in a crest, or a compass, or a map adornment or just a plain straight up picture.

The idea would be just to have a fun and quick contest with some pretty images out of the end of it that may or may not be of use on a map. I guess you're more likely to get votes if you _do_ make it useful to the voting community, but equally I'm sure entries that are just plain awesome will do well as usual.

Thoughts?

----------


## Ascension

All for it.  I like the idea of making map elements, icons, tokens, or other illustrative/graphic/3d work.

----------


## Redrobes

Its not a bad idea but when I needed my wyvern Ravs came up with this great book of copyright free images to use.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...0&postcount=24

stuffed to the brim with them that you can use.

----------


## Jkaen

My main worry is its pure art rather than cartography (although the idea is for use on maps granted). I think it would have a small uptake

----------


## Valarian

Not a good challenge for the artistically inept (like me)

----------


## Steel General

Maybe this could be offered as a secondary challenge or something similar?

----------


## Gamerprinter

Just so you know the September 07 Challenge was create a compass rose, so the guild has tried something like this and it did get about 10 entries, and that was in the day when a dozen entries was all we ever got.

I'm sure this challenge idea would fly - maybe not 30 entries, but that's expecting a lot, even though we accomplished that last month.

GP

----------


## torstan

I realise this one is not for everyone, which is why it was proposed as a Lite challenge rather than a full monthly one. I'd definitely not expect a monthly mapping challenge to not involve a map - at least the compass rose was clearly map related where as this one is clearly a little more tangential.

The thought came to me when looking at maps such as this one



linked to from here: http://www.rsoperations.com/History/...to_Gallery.htm

I was really surprised to see the amount of artwork in decoration and thought it would be fun to have some fantasy variants of that. Gamerprinter's dragon compass was another element in that thought process.

Edit: The image didn't show. Fixed it.

----------


## Gamerprinter

Torstan! Cool reference image map. I sort of did that for part of my Dec 07, with schooner illustration and voodoo symbol on my island map.

I noticed you're sitting at 97 rep, soooo Congrats on your second Rep Pip! Have some Rep - for the whole idea. I'm on, if this becomes a Lite Challenge - I won't even use my Dragon. I'm thinking an ocean motif and an Octopus Compass Rose, in addition map border and perhaps inset art like those in the sample image.

GP

----------


## torstan

Thanks! I was looking for decorative text borders in old maps and came across this. I was stunned by the amount of illustration and decoration on the old renaissance maps - certainly something I'd like to try to take a shot at.

Let's see if we can get a few more than 9 people to pick up the baton on this - though 9 entries for a lite challenge would be a pretty healthy start I'd have thought... and the Lite forum is looking sooo bare and empty.

Thanks for the rep GP - a new shiny pip of my very own.

Oh, meant to post this one too. This was a dragon tile in the floor of the teutonic knights dining hall in Malbork Castle. It got me thinking about stylised imagery of heraldic beasts.

----------


## Steel General

That's pretty durn cool!

----------

