September 2007 Entry: The Glass Journal

[Venardhi]

My only complaints would be the illegible diary entries, and the consistency between drawings. The first and last particiularly don't look much like they belong in a traveller's diary. For something like this I would lean towards minimalism. What tools would this man have at his disposal, what style of map or illustration would he make? A little color is good, but that latest one looks like exactly what it is, a digital painting.

Good stuff though, don't take me too harshly, I'm just a negative nancy and a perfectionist. . . which is why I never finish stuff.

[Amonite]

I figure she has her paint kit with her - I would. I was thinking of going with hand doing the labels on the map, but I rather like being able to read labels. And I would assume, being a cartographer, that her handwriting on at least maps would be much finer. I was going to just zoom in on the pictures, and only leave a little of the journal text visable for entries, but I forgot about that this time. In the future, I probably will, and then just type the journal entry. Because yah, its really hard to handwrite text in Photoshop Elements. If I had time, I would finish up the pictures in Project Dogwaffle, which is my paint program of choice. But, if I actually want to finish the journal, I need to save time *pout* I forgot to put in my compass and directions scale on the last one too...*fret*

Anyways, as far as the color ones go, I will likely put in an entry explaining the actual process of her map making later. What I had in mind was the world being a blend of science and magic, was that she could create the map elsewhere and then magically 'imprint' the map onto her journal page. (It would be the same process for other images, such as the first painting of the glass ocean) I will probably start doing some actual hand maps as the journal continues, because its easier and the result is prettier - but I am half doing this project to get used to my pen tablet ^.^ I do want to do at least one actual ink map on parchment though, so that one at least should be more realistic

[ravells]

The evolving story of it has me utterly hooked. This is the best WIP I've ever seen, because it's a story and a wip worked into one.

ravs

[Amonite]

DAY SEVEN
We left Lemis early this morning and should reach Copperhead before nightfall. On the way, I ordered the airship to land to better examine the first of the knucklebones. These first few on the southern fringe are very finger like, almost delicate, and are all smaller than myself. This is interesting, because if the stories and pictures hold true, the knucklebones farther on are both larger and more knobby. The strangeness of the first few hundred knucklebones in comparison to the rest has led the area to be dubbed Ladyhands. The sand about our feet showed quite the variety of color. Black and tan sand was predominant, but there was pale pink in the mix as well. The ground was littered with very tiny white pebbles and small white stones, presumably eroded from the knucklebones. A thin layer of white duct coated the base of the knucklebones. After lunch, we continued our journey on to Copperhead, which we should reach before nightfall.



NOTE: I was originally gonna do a digital painting of these, then decided to just tidy it all up and do outlines...but then once I scanned it in I decided I liked the sketchiness and untidiness of it And, I like how the not showing the journal page entirely turned out. Because my handwriting is terrible, and my digital handwriting is worse!

[ravells]

Wonderful! I love the way you're working in all the elements of the brief and making them your own by extrapolation. Fantastic!

Ravs

[RobA]

Might I suggest using a handwritten font? There is a nice set here:

http://www.autofx.com/dsg/rff/hand_s...d_scripted.asp

that are royalty free and available for the mac and PC.

In particular, Dear Joe might capture the look you want. You can jiggle the kerning and such manually to make it look more random, but still legible (or render it large then erode the text).

I have to believe that an artist (especially one who keeps a journal) would have fine penmanship all the time

Otherwise, waiting for the next installment (like of like finding pages in a Myst game!)

-Rob A>

[Amonite]

Lol well, I am an artist (not a cartographer) by trade, and my penmanship is horrid. I have a hard time 'writing' letters. If I take a while and 'draw' the letters they come out much nicer ^.^ I will definately check those links out, and handwritten font would be awesome especially for future maps.