August Entry: Spearmen & Dragon of the Rose

[pyrandon]

Hello, friends.

I'm not sure if this will be my actual entry to this month's challenge--and believe me, after seeing all the other entries I initially quailed at entering at all!--but I tried to go in a new direction by hand-drawing an image in which the rose was contained in the picture in some way. In this case, a couple spearmen.

The image on the left is the basic line drawing & colors (before PS effects applied), the middle is B&W on parchment, and the far right is colored on parchment.

Anyway, just "playing around here", having fun being creative. Take care!

[HellHound]

I like that one a LOT. I could see using it on some of my less "underdark-y" maps.

[ravells]

Excellent work! Voting is going to prove very hard this month!

Ravs

[Gamerprinter]

As complex and 3D looking as my rose is, I can see more use for a compass rose like this than my "monstrocity"!

Good job!

[pyrandon]

I don't know why you'd care, but I enjoyed seeing everyone else's "process" images that I thought I'd post mine too.

The first is a scan of the individual stick figures; the second is the "in the works" line tracing.

Take care!

[ravells]

Thanks Don! I find the thoughts behind maps and the works in progress as interesting as the final result.

[RobA]

Very clever! THings like this show who the real artists are here :)

[pyrandon]

Okay, I thought the spearmen rose was my August entry, but I like this one much more, so...disregard the spearmen. :)

My original idea was to have a top-down view of the dragon breathing fire due north, with its wings being E & W, & its tail being south, but my sketch-ups, while workable, were not dramatic enough for my tastes. So I just goofed around & came up with this. Perhaps it's unusual that it "points" west (vs. north), but I'll risk the wrath of the cartography police. Call me Danger Seeker. :)

Below are the WIPs & two color variations on my new, shiny, improved dragon compass rose. This was a "blast" to draw (hehe...bad pun, sorry.) All done in Photoshop from a scanned sketch.


Thanks for peeking at my goofing around. Take care!

[pyrandon]

And just for fun--here's a way this may be interesting as the corner of burnt parchment. :)

[Ishmayl]

That looks great, pyrandon. I'm confused about the Dragon being a compass rose, but it's still a great little drawing nonetheless. :) Your actually entry (presumably the two soldiers) looks like it would fit really well in the bottom right corner of an old city/regional map.

[ravells]

I love it! Using West as the main Cardinal - why not? Great thinking, and another beautiful drawing ! I love the way the curves of the W follow the Dragon's wing.

Ravs

[RobA]

Why not?

Historically, East was often used as the main cardinal indicating the holy land was to the East. In a fantasy world, it would make sense for the primary direction to be in that of something very important (or superstitious).

-Rob A>