May/June 2016 Lite Challenge: Orihlam

[Josiah VE]

I actually like the forests quite a bit. I think the whole thing is a little at least bit cartoony so at least to my eye they fit it. Everyone has different opinions I suppose..

Looking awesome Jshoer! Again, the tower illustration just adds so much to it..
That border must have taken you a long time!

[jshoer]

Beautiful work here jshoer! The tower looks great and I love the way the mountains stand out with their thick outlines. I'm not a huge fan of your forest style, I have to admit, but I think it's because they seem slightly more cartoony than the rest. That being said, your linework is as always superbly done and I'm always deeply envious of your ability to be so consistent and neat in your ink-drawn pieces.

Also, the large, solid border encloses the map nicley and sits well with the tower! Looking forwards to the next update.

Thanks, GLS. I'm happy the border works so well. Of course, all I notice when I look closely are the inconsistencies!

I actually like the forests quite a bit. I think the whole thing is a little at least bit cartoony so at least to my eye they fit it. Everyone has different opinions I suppose..

Looking awesome Jshoer! Again, the tower illustration just adds so much to it..
That border must have taken you a long time!

I know, that tower is a huge, integral element of this piece! I'm so glad it came out like I hoped. This is the first time I've done a major illustration like that as part of the map and I was afraid it would come out a complete bomb. The border wasn't actually as time-consuming as I feared - I just did it in chunks and grabbed a few minutes here and there to do each. Now that it's done, though...whew!

So, here's a minor update, but it has to do with those forests:

### LATEST WIP ###


I've taken all the woods in the lower two-thirds of the map and added more little "U"s to the lower-left of the forest canopies. I think this makes the forest shading a lot more consistent with the mountains. It also adds some three-dimensionality to them, which might address some of the perspective- and cartoony-related comments you all had. In the woods just to the west of the volcano, I put in a second tier of "U"s to make it look like the more N-S oriented forests have several layers receding into the distance. I'm now almost completely satisfied with the level of texture in those forests! I haven't done the northernmost ones yet.

Remaining:
- Maybe ~doubling the number of \|/ marks
- Decide whether to put anything inside the border zigzags
- Finish up the two corner boxes (the lower one is going to be my signature glyph)
- Final digitization and labeling

[ThomasR]

Hi jshoer.

First I'd like to join the choir and tell you I freaking love your tower ! The mountains are great too.

I like what you did with the forests and I'm not that bothered by the skewed perspective as for the texture, I like what you did on the rim of the forests but I think it would be more effective inside the forests as a mean to give it relief, signaling some hills for example.

Also, one little problem for me : the entrance of your dungeon seem askew. Apart from this minor issue, You did a beautiful piece here, cannot wait to see what you planned for the corners.

Cheers.

[Ilanthar]

Yep, nice map already and great tower!

[jshoer]

Tanks thomrey and Ilanthar.

I like what you did with the forests and I'm not that bothered by the skewed perspective as for the texture, I like what you did on the rim of the forests but I think it would be more effective inside the forests as a mean to give it relief, signaling some hills for example.

Also, one little problem for me : the entrance of your dungeon seem askew. Apart from this minor issue, You did a beautiful piece here, cannot wait to see what you planned for the corners.

Here is an updated scan with some subtle changes in the main map, as well as a lot of work in the border.

- I manipulated the shading in the forests a bit more to give them several layers of texture
- More texture on the plains, which adds contrast to the lakes and rivers
- The dungeon has a few extra mountain lines around it to give more of an impression that it goes down into the mountain
- The volcano has a longer ash cloud

### Latest WIP ###


I think I'm done with the linework at this point - I've definitely reached the time when I need to stop myself from adding things unless they really help out. I will be naming things on the computer and adding information to the legend to finish it out.

[Bogie]

The map is wonderful, I like the shading on the mountains a lot. Can't wait to see it all finished.

[ChickPea]

It's looking fantastic!!

[jshoer]

Here I am playing with labels in GIMP (and, not shown, Inkscape). I just need to figure out how to bend them along paths...

### Latest WIP ###

[ChickPea]

I always use Inkscape for labelling, as I find it so much easier. You type your text, then draw a line with the Bezier tool & curve it into whatever shape you need. Then select both text & line and, on the Text menu, click 'Put on path'. You can move the line around to position it exactly where you want, and it'll move the text with it. Then, when you've got everything perfect, remove the stroke from the line, which makes it invisible. Easy peasy.

[jshoer]

After playing around a bit last night, that's what I'm thinking, too. It seems like GIMP would be a better tool for putting in a white background behind the labels, though, since I don't see a paintbrush-like tool in Inkscape. Is there?

Right now, I guess what I can do is put together the labels in Inkscape, then go back to GIMP to paint white over where the labels go and re-import the background to Inkscape.