May 2011 Challenge Entry: No Title Yet

[RjBeals]

ah man... you went there did ya. okay okay.. I guess I taunted you. It's gorgeous DJ.

[LonewandererD]

Abandon all hope ye who enter this competition, Djekspek is going to win this one. When I first saw the map I honestly just a little "meh". Now that I have seen the progress on the handrawn aspects of it I'm now more "holy crap". Don't know how you keep doing it but you've done it again DJ

-D-

[Djekspek]

thanks guys for the praise, but there are loads of awesome entries so far, so lets just see how this goes... At least I'm having a lot of fun doing some new stuff .... Fighting at many fronts now... I did more tries to fit the nation into the map and this is the best effect so far, so I'll leave at this for now. Furthermore working on the handdrawn piece and trying to get clear labels on it. Also did the border based on some ornaments from old books, and decided to do a sort of 'washed' map effect on the overland map (just want a soft look to not distract from the nation map) for which I created some mountain and forest brushes....

So 'only left now' is a compass, some title, more handdrawn map stuff, and using my icons to complete the background map (maybe with extra abels but not sure yet)... but there is time still.

cheers, DJ

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[jtougas]

Oof.. this is SO good. When will I ever learn..

[ravells]

Simply beautiful. It's like looking at a world in miniature (which is what I love about your maps). Using the heavy black strokes as borders was a genius idea, it seems counter-intuitive conceptually but when you see it in action it works really well.

[Ascension]

The border is super cool, totally dig it. But it's dominating the more simple map. Save it for another, more detailed map, though.

[eViLe_eAgLe]

*starts drooling* Amazing :]

[Ramah]

I'd agree with Ascension. The map is fantastic but the border dominates it. Maybe if you removed the colouring from the silver bits so the whole thing was like the areas in the middle of the border.
Still, great stuff.

[Steel General]

Stunning!!!

[Djekspek]

Thanks guys. Ascension and Ramah, you are completely right on the over-the-top border so I tuned it down (didn't want to make a new one, but I think this should work better). Finished the handpainted stuff and added more icons in the back map (although it's a little too crowded now maybe). Also a title was added (I had an over the top title and created a non-fitting compass so i decided to just put in a title as text). And I gave the back countries a little more color. In general I'm happy, but there's something in the composition still nagging at me, maybe I should move the whole thing up (and maybe to the right) a bit or add something on the right side. hmm.. anyway, latest update. cheers, DJ

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