July 2011 Challenge Entry: Mas

Okay, actually going to try to finish something that I start this month. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's going to try and do something else besides the immediate idea of islands and so I'm going to next idea and make the black the water and white the land, and so Mas the Land of Flooded Plains was born. Still hammering out the ideas but basically I'm going for a beautiful verdant green paradise criss-crossed with lakes and waterways with the black shapes serving as the lakes. More to come soon, and I actually mean that this time.

-D-

P.S: Sorry to the admins for doing this again but could you please change my title to July Challenge Entry: Mas. Don't add the "The Land of Flooded Plains" bit because that what make it too long.

No prob, man. Changed. Only takes a few seconds.

If moving the shapes breaks the rules of the comp stop me now, this is my first draft of the lake placements, I'm going to do some rotating and maybe some resizing. The shaps will still be there and completely intact, they just won't be anywhere near where they were in the original pic. Basically the idea is that two mighty rivers run close by each other in a flat low land area where seasonal floods and soft soil turns the area in vast exspanse (I can't spell) of lush marshes, deep lakes and fertile flood plains, perfect for growing the number one crop in the Dal Lands, rice. To take full advantage of the trade going up and downt two rivers the Mai Clan dug a great canal between two of the lakes and built a large city in the centre, reaping in a nice proft from all the new trade passing through.

-D-

P.S. I also hate to impose on the Powers That Be again but could you please change the "S" in the title to "I", it's just easier to pronounce.

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I think this is the first time something like this has come up. I think your OK, the shapes are still there and recognizable.

If the majority of the rest of CL's find issue with it I'm good with that as well.

The shapes have to stay as originally presented, sorry man. You can add more shapes to get the look you want but these shapes have to remain intact and together.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up, will put them back the way they were. That actually adds an extra challenge in that I now have to draw my own lakes to help balance the map and get what I was aiming for.

-D-

Okay, scrap the lakes idea, that's not working. Back to the island idea but with a twist. I need to keep the shapes as they are but the comp rules didn't say they had to be on land or water, so up up and away we go. My new idea is Mas, the Temples in the sky, while still keeping the shapes as they are and where they are I plan to distort the perspective of the map so that we are looking at them from an angle so I can create islands floating in the sky. The shapes will remain as they are and where they are but sinse they are floating and in the sky I can open up the map a bit and change how high they sit in relation to each other, that will count right?

-D-

I think perspective is okay. Also, you don't have to keep them oriented as they are, you can twist the whole thing around (not twist each shape). I twisted mine around and I'm making my shapes into either a forest or parks (depends on if I go hand-drawn or rand-mcnally atlas).

Okay, some progress on my maps, warped the perspective to get more of a 3/4 bird's eye view of the shapes. I did have to move some of th objects up and down because the perspective turn them into a single long blob. From a top down view all of the islands are still in the right place but I will still be moving them up and down to move them closer to their original position.

-D-

Sorry for the slow updates, it's been a busy week at work with several comps and tourneys and plenty of large tour groups keeping us busy. Anyway done the base work for the floating islands and now moving onto the sketching for the details and buildings on the islands.

-D-

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