January/February 2014 Lite Challenge: Jannah Manor

[Jalyha]

Will it still save my map?


Nevermind, it worked! Thanks so much <3

[Jalyha]

Omg 24 hours without an update? Are you having withdrawals?

Sorry, I was playing with goats!

Okay so... enough silliness. Here's what I've done on my manor and gardens in the last 25 hours:


### Latest WIP ###



Doesn't look like much, I know... but that roof is a pain in the neck. Almost everything else is merged now (hope there's no problems!) and I've got 50ish layers of ROOF!

But yeah.. roofs are cool

Anyway, I'll go back to my goats... gotta keep them off the roofs...

(This blathering is what sleep deprivation does to you! Scary, huh? Plus... running out of stuff to say about roofs, so....)

[Jalyha]

Oops... I did my working screen. Oh well. Minor update here, and testing a file size issue


### Latest WIP ###

[Diamond]

This is coming along quite nicely, Jalyha!

[schattentanz]

This is all kinds of impressive, Jalyha.
Especially when comparing the first to the current WIP steps

[Jalyha]

THANKS!


I think I've found my niche. I just have to do this mapping thing a completely different way than my painting, lol ^_^

Next up... getting ambitious... (and inspired by goats) Imma add a WATERFALL feature!! (if i can )

[Jalyha]

omg water/waterfalls are HAARD. I cheated a little bit by covering most of it in MOSS and plants cause it's sooooooooooooooooooooooo hard. But I think it's pretty good for my first real attempt at a bird's eye view. (Well for me anyway)



&& I won't improve if ya'll don't pick my picture apart, so feel free to criticize


Edit: Omg I don't know how to label ANY of this

[Jalyha]

Getting close to finished, I think I'll add some variation to the land height, finish the manor roof(s)

(Okay, is it "roofs" or "rooves"??? Starting to irritate me ! )

ANYway I hope it's done soon cause I'm tired of trying to think of more garden-y stuff






Uhhhh... it didn't update >.<

Let me try again:



### Latest WIP ###

[Jalyha]

I'M DONE, YAY!

My next post will be the final "Latest WIP" post, with the contest entry as it will remain (barring any tragedies). I just wanted to post a little about the process first, so as not to clutter the final post up, for those people who just want to see a *map*. If there's a rule against that, some nice CL can just merge my posts, right?

Anyway...

This is my first *finished* map. I've found I'm not very good at mapping. I'm great with colors and textures and blends. I know (usually) what does and does not look good together. I simply don't know what things look like from a mappish point of view. I keep trying to do isometric, since that's closest to my passion/semi-income-source-occupation, painting landscapes. It always starts to look more like a painting, and less like a map. This does, too, I'm sure, but at least it has all those "map" elements.

So.. I finished it. I found that approaching it as entirely separate from painting helped a lot. But.. none of my paintings took this long. In fact, this is the longest I've ever stuck to *anything* and actually finished it.

How did that happen? It was the Cartographer's Guild. That's right. You guys. Little words of advice and encouragement (even when it still looked AWFUL!) and just knowing all these people are watching, so I *can't* give up.

And I was going to do a full list of thank yous and credits, but the truth is... I can't.

Every single WIP thread and every single tutorial on this site is in this map. I learned to *think* about how the water looks under the land from above from the guides on coastlines (lake), and how water moves from all the nagging river posts (Useful for a waterfall). I referenced hundreds of posts on buildings for my roofs. I learned that grass isn't always green, and a MILLION other things.

And I incorporated all of it.

And my first map still doesn't deserve to be on the same site as all the wonderful work you all have done.

So thank you all.

And a special thanks to Bogie (my competition!) who was extra helpful with advice (and inspiration! THAT is the style of map I could draw! <3 ) and even let me totally ruin one of his beautiful chests by turning it into a water feature. (I want to be like you when I grow up)

OKAY, so enough gushing.

I don't expect to win... SO many great entries. But I'm happy to have been a part of it, and I hope my next map will be even better (and I'll be off to map some goats in the meantime!)


I also learned that I should merge both more often, and not so much Shadows should be done closer to the end, because, let's face it, mine look like scattered puzzle pieces. I learned that colored maps need more color! But next time maybe I won't go so bright I learned that I should know what information I'm trying to show before making a map to show it!

And a bunch of other stuff. But you don't care.. you just want a map, right?

So.. I'll go get it. Don't like... jump out of your seats or anything.

[Jalyha]

-FINAL-

Jannah Manor exists in a world much like our own, and with a slightly more advanced level of technological advancement. The manor, and its' gardens, are a reminder of simpler(?!) times.

Tourists visit Jannah Manor, and tours of the gardens are given on Tuesdays. The rest of the time, you're on your own. A box for donations is affixed to the gateway arch, and with it, a "Please Take One" box with a beautifully (?!) illustrated pamphlet/map to help you catch the key points.

This is my humble rendition of what that map would look like:

(Thanks again for letting me steal your chest, Bogie. )

### Latest WIP ###