February/March 2014 Light Challenge: The 12 Dancing Princesses

[wdmartin]

The version of The 12 Dancing Princesses from Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book is a sweet, romantic story. Each night, the 12 princesses descend through a series of forests to their hidden dance hall:

They went down, down, down, till at last they came to a passage with
a door at one end, which was only fastened with a latch. The eldest
Princess opened it, and they found themselves immediately in a lovely
little wood, where the leaves were spangled with drops of silver which
shone in the brilliant light of the moon.

They next crossed another wood where the leaves were sprinkled with
gold, and after that another still, where the leaves glittered with
diamonds.

At last the Star Gazer perceived a large lake, and on the shores of
the lake twelve little boats with awnings, in which were seated twelve
princes, who, grasping their oars, awaited the princesses.

[...]

On the other side of the lake the garden boy saw a beautiful castle
splendidly illuminated, whence came the lively music of fiddles,
kettle-drums, and trumpets.

So here is my map: the path of the dancing princesses.

### LATEST WIP ###


The basic elements I want are in place, but I'm happy to get any feedback or suggestions.

This was done mostly in Photoshop and Inkscape. I am heavily indebted to OpenClipart.org for the flowering tree and the castle, both of which I modified in Inkscape and exported as a bitmap to Photoshop. The rest of it -- caves, spiral stairs, and bridge -- I made myself. This also uses a texture from cgtextures.com to provide some visual variation on the dirt areas.