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Thread: April 2008 Entry: Islands in the endless streams

  1. #1

    Post April 2008 Entry: Islands in the endless streams

    "Islands in the endless streams
    Harbour hopes and hazy dreams
    Of lost and lonely lovers' schemes,
    Soaring with the seabird's screams."


    Hi all. Thought I'd get myself started with a stab at the challenge. For all that I've always loved maps, I think coastlines and islands have a special magic above all other maps, so this challenge really intrigued me.

    I have no particular ability in this area, so this might wander a bit, but since I'm doing something new I thought I'd do everything new! Rather than a treasure map, or a 'here be dragon's' map, I'm trying to create a map for a secret assignation. Two lovers seperated by a churning sea, two countries seperated by the fires of war. A Prince and Princess who were to be married, but when treaties break down they are forbidden to meet again. A secret note from a man to his love, telling her where to sail so that they may be together again. De dum de dum de dah...

    Because this is all new, I'm starting by shamelessly filching from some of the great tutorials on the site (or linked to it). So far I've followed the 'how to make paper' tutorial, after that I'm going to read a few coastline type tutorials, and we'll see how it goes. Comments are utterly welcome - I'm very new to this and have virtually no ego to bruise, so let me know what you think

    Tying it all together is the poem, giving clues to follow on the map. And because we're being new, this will be written in a metre that I've never used before (and am finding bloody difficult to be frank). If anyone wants to know more about the rhyme structure (hey, you never know!), I can expand on it a little. But for now, here is stage 1, 'paper made in photoshop' (assuming I've figured out how to link stuff)
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  2. #2

  3. #3

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    I like it so far!

    I think for battered and over folded paper its too complete. My suggestion is do the rest of your map and then 'tear' away some of the paper edges.


    sigurd

  4. #4
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Badger's Avatar
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    Very clever concept indeed, brilliant, can't wait to see the end result!!!

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    Guild Artisan su_liam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sigurd View Post
    I like it so far!

    I think for battered and over folded paper its too complete. My suggestion is do the rest of your map and then 'tear' away some of the paper edges.


    sigurd
    I disagree. Well not completely. More wear and tear wouldn't hurt it, I just don't think it's necessary. A letter, lovingly crafted and folded into a pouch before being sealed and handed to a trusted messenger. The messenger promised not to break the seal and he is a man of his word. The letter isn't handled, so it doesn't lose pieces, but the vagaries of a hard sea voyage and months of secretive overland travel take their toll. Even sealed safely in it's pouch, the letter bears the marks of it's travels. Salty spray from innumerable vicious storms have drenched the paper. The sand and heat of a desert passage have dried and dusted its surface. Along with the courageous messenger it has slogged through the mud of swamps(and it has been moistened by the messenger's sweat as he lay in delirious fever). They have slept together in cold leaky haylofts, and run together from farmers bearing pitchforks and Royal Guardians bearing sabers. All to finally swim across a fecatory moat into the Princess' Palace to deliver his precious burden.

  6. #6

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    Wow!

    I have to admit, su_liam, you've pretty much nailed the response I was going to give. The chart has been through a lot to get to it's destination, but it's been looked after as well as possible in the circumstances. Kind of like the letters Cyrano ran through enemy lines so that they could reach Roxane.

    At the same time you're definitely making this trip sound a bit more hazardous than even I had imagined! I haven't made provisions for a desert, and though there is a swamp, I hadn't realised that it would make the messenger quite so ill. Poor bloke doesn't even have a name yet! I hope he recovered properly before trying to swim that fecatory swamp (and does that word mean what I think it means? You'd think the sanitation in royal castles would have evolved past the 'chucking it out of the window' stage...)

  7. #7
    Guild Artisan su_liam's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SpamValiant View Post
    At the same time you're definitely making this trip sound a bit more hazardous than even I had imagined! I haven't made provisions for a desert, and though there is a swamp, I hadn't realised that it would make the messenger quite so ill.
    Well, of course, our Prince planned a less hazardous route for his Princess. The Messenger, too, would not have chosen so hazardous a route. He had no power to decide where the currents might drive him after his schooner foundered in the storm. Added a bit to the journey.

    Quote Originally Posted by SpamValiant View Post
    Poor bloke doesn't even have a name yet! I hope he recovered properly before trying to swim that fecatory swamp (and does that word mean what I think it means? You'd think the sanitation in royal castles would have evolved past the 'chucking it out of the window' stage...)
    I can't find fecatory or fecuid in the dictionary, so I guess we'll have to go with feculent. And, yeah, it means what you think. I'm assuming this is a normal fantasy world with a technological level somewhere in the King Arthur to Pirates of the Caribbean range. Magic might make a difference, but why waste precious manna on something only the serfs will smell?

  8. #8

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    okay, finally time for a little update. I've been on duty all weekend so no real chance to work on the map, but I have managed to get the poem/riddle pretty much sorted. Just a little polishing needed

    So with the layout coming together, I spent tonight trying to add a few coastlines to my parchment, just to see how it feels. Attached is the result so far - I think the layout will be pretty much this, but I might change the style. I'm fairly happy with it but I need to see it with place names on etc before I decide if this is the way I'm going. (Thank god it's a monthly challenge not a weekly one!)

    Anyway, not sure if it's considered poor form to solicit advice on challenge maps, but if not feel free to tell me what I ought to do!

    More to come over the weekend since I'm not working this time (yay
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    Last edited by SpamValiant; 04-18-2008 at 01:27 PM. Reason: correction

  9. #9

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    Solicit away! (never though I'd say that in public)...

    I like the look and want to know where you are going with it... The little clusters of islands seems to be telling me something, but what, I can not say...

    -Rob A>

  10. #10

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    Well, I was mainly going to ask for opinions on the coastal style, whether the shading lines work or if maybe for a plain, battered map like this I should go for something simpler.

    But looking at it today, after a night's sleep, I actually feel better about it than I did before, so I think I'll keep to this style.

    Once I've got the last few island layouts sorted I'll then need to consider fonts, and then whether the map will bear a few landscape marks (hills, mountains etc - I promised a swamp and I'd also like to get in that desert of su-liam's!), and then finally whether to just touch it witha hint of colour. But TBH, all of that is the funstuff compared with polishing off the bleedin' poem. Back to the grindstone...


    EDIT - just got back from work, and on my way out to see friends. Thought I'd post the result of last night's session - moved a few islands around, deleted some, added others. Put on most of the island names, still need to finish one small cluster and then all the mainland names. The test will be faded and blended to match the rest of the map once it's all finished....

    ### Latest WIP ###
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    Last edited by SpamValiant; 04-18-2008 at 01:27 PM.

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