Thanks for the comments - and thanks for the tip on Inkscape, i wanted to do the whole project with as much opensource elements as possible, so its a great find.

The Land and Water:
Yep, I see what you mean Eilathen, i think the contrast is perhaps too close between the two. I wanted to avoid a realistic terrain (mostly because I dont trust my abilities with a paintbrush yet ) but also to carry across the olde worlde feel.

So - back to the studio with a new arts package to wrestle with some tints and fonts... here's a question - does anyone know of a way to 'distress' fonts (not just a guassian blur) so they look like old ink that has been blotched, mouldered, lost their lustre over time?

And thanks for the tips with the blog as well rest assured i'll be posting some more things up on there soon for any interested.

(perhaps I should kick this thread back to the WIP section....)

ian