March/April 2015 Lite Challenge: Treetop Village of Eren Tulluath

[whump]

Here is a last minute entry to see if a little bit of time pressure motivates me

This is a village of Half-Elf craftspeople situated in the treetops in the Elven style but open to trade and the outside world in the human style. It is governed according to the ancient rules of its guilds, known as Circles.

Below is the first sketch (well to be honest 2nd or 3rd sketch...). All the text is in but probably needs nudging to improve the layout. The empty circles are for the guild symbols. Everything else is rough outlining and needs tweaking or improving in one way or another, but all the substance is there. If I have time I'll colour it, otherwise it'll stay black and white. OK, back to work!

Would love to hear any thoughts, criticism, comments and the rest.

### Latest WIP ###

[ChickPea]

Welcome to the challenge, whump! I like what you've got so far. That border looks fantastic. I hope you have time to get more done, though there's nothing like a deadline to motivate you!! Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

[Meshon]

Haha, awesome. You must have a long weekend! Great border on your map, is it hand drawn? I think the trees could use a little finishing, maybe a shadow for form (mind you, I've made flat trees like that and they get the information across when you're in a hurry).

I only count four circles... where are they hiding? *goes off climbing trees

cheers,
Meshon

[MstrWelf]

Better late than never and a bit of pressure hasn't hurt anyone LOL. Great idea, it's just because of the darn trees you can't see anything. Nah, just joking, I wonder what you'll end up on Tuesday?

[whump]

Thank you ChickPea, Meshon and MstrWelf! You got me on the long weekend - I'm taking advantage

For the border I sketched it first then drew it in Inkscape as a single line, bordered it and then tweaked to do the knotting and get the lines even. Were this on paper it would be possible to hand-draw it directly, but I haven't been able to do that digitally, the feel is just not the same, plus you can't rotate the page so readily. The design is based on one in the Book of Kells.

As for the trees... it's not at all silly to say they obscure a lot. In reality you can't see anything through forest canopies, let alone houses and platforms and the like. So I'll have to see if I can strike the correct balance between making it seem like it's a forest and not just a field with trees in and also picking out the village which is meant to be the point of the map after all!

OK here is the latest WIP, with more trees, tweaked text and the finished border. Next step is to finalise the houses and then get the chainsaw out and tackle the trees.

### Latest WIP ###

[Bogie]

Welcome to the challenge Whump.
This is looking real good. There are a lot of people here who love black & white maps, but I hope you have the chance to color it.

[rdanhenry]

The side text and the text under the circles disagree as to which of Carvers and Carpenters is Buoyant and which is Amenable.

[whump]

rdanhenry, thanks for the correction!

Thanks, Bogie! The likelihood of it getting coloured is... low. I'll try to get the guild circles and numbers in to call it 'finished' before the challenge ends, but sadly real life is intruding on precious mapmaking time! Still, it has been a great exercise in seeing how much is possible in a short time.

The latest version has all the drawing nicely done now.

### Latest WIP ###

[Abu Lafia]

Thats a really great entry whump! Overall very well done. Im looking forward how it finally turns out.

[Bogie]

Nice work Whump, big improvement in the treehouses. Like I said, I like color, but there are a lot of people here who love B&W. ( I secretly think it is because they are color blind )