September Entry: Generic Fun

[Badger]

I too apologize dorpond, there was nothing intentionally cruel meant in anything I said. I have a rare disorder called "no tact" ... and has gotten me into quite a bit of trouble before. So, I'm sorry if anything I said offended you.

Since you've had a deep and long conversation about rivers, I should mention that RobA has been coined as our (un)official river police... he's got a thing about gravity defying and forking rivers in the wrong direction... so much so that now many regulars here in the community point out 'river infractions' .... all of which is meant in light hearted jest.

I personally don't care which way a river forks... as long as the map looks good... which yours does. In fact, We'd like to see more of your maps around here, not just in the contests

[Badger]

OK,

I tried again at some rivers. Let me know if it is still "illogical"

I also took a step back and looked at my original piece. I tweaked and played with it a bit.

Let me know what you think of this version. Better? Worse?

I like that one a lot. Rivers look great, love the swamp areas you made for it. I like this one better than the first

[Ascension]

I have to add my apologies as well as I was blunt and not helpful. It was meant as a jest as I assumed you might be "in on the joke". At any rate, these rivers are good. The way I approach drawing rivers is to think of lightning bolts...all jaggy and squiggly and forking...with the myriad small forks up in the mountains and the main big bolt being near the coast...essentially think of the storm cloud as the ocean and the bolt progresses towards the ground snaking and forking to think of the ground as the mountains. I hope this bit is helpful

[Midgardsormr]

Since we are on the topic of rivers, are there any discussions, tutorials, theories, writeups, etc, on rivers or the making of rivers? I have never studied them before and am very curious how they actually work.

There are discussions about rivers and how they behave scattered throughout a number of threads here, but no single thread that tackles that subject thoroughly. Sounds like it's high time we had one. I'll start it in the tutorials forum. My expertise is far from comprehensive, so I'll hope that others will chime in and offer some instruction, as well.

Here's the thread: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...1583#post31583

[dorpond]

Everything is cool guys! Obviously there was a misunderstanding.
The problem is that I am not here enough to know that your tone and lingo is just being fun, sarcastic, and jokingly.
All cool.

So, I just didn't like my mountains so I tried again. I also did a ton of other stuff over the whole map but little stuff that probably won't even be noticable at a glance.

Anyway, still chipping away!

Please let me know if this is getting better or worse.. Sometimes if we chip too much, that can be a bad thing too!

### Latest WIP ###

[NeonKnight]

Durn

Everyone is changing features on their maps I actually like

Dorpond. I loved your mountains. For me, if I can look at the thumbnail and see most features it is a GOOD map, If I need to open the map to it's full size to determine 'gross' features (and by gross I mean large, not disgusting ) I get sad.

Again, my opinion only.

[dorpond]

Thanks for the comment NeonKnight!
I changed it because the other two maps felt a bit unrealistic to me. The mountains felt too white so I toned them down. I thought it was an improvement but now after reading what you said, I am uncertain.. Hmmmm, what am I to do? LOL

Anyone else have any comments on the latest WIP?

[dorpond]

How is this NeonNight? Is this better? I spent around an hour and tried to define the mountains even further with lighting and shadowing (dodge and burn).

I think compared to the original piece, the detail at 100% is much better and that is what I have been struggling to accomplish. Nonetheless, please let me know what you think now. Thanks!

### Latest WIP ###

[Ascension]

These mountains looks much better than in the previous image since it gives a sense of height to them and I really like the trees, its like I can almost see every leaf and that's pretty cool.

[Badger]

oh yeah... love whats going on there with your map dorpond... mountains look great!