My Dear Arramatapo...
Glenarc, an incurable explorer, is searching for the fabled city of Eneanay, where the men have wings and fly as hawks in the sky. He has crossed a sea, and battled through many dangers and hardships along the way, only to fall into the lair of the great mother of all dragons - Sheleeva.
While his faithful mule was being eaten, Glenarc managed to snatch his carryall and find a nook at the back of Sheleeva's lair, where there is a small pool of rainwater fed by a hole in the roof. He is safe here, but without a rope or axe he cannot escape.
Four of the carrier pigeons that were in the cage on the back of his mule have escaped and are flying around the cave. Glenarc thinks of the journal he has in his carryall - of the ink, quill and brush he has with him, and a plan starts to form.
He coaxes the pigeons into his shelter using the handful of grain he always has in his pocket for his mule, and while they wait for more food he tears a page from his journal and starts to draw a map for his son to come and find him. Seeing that there isn't time for him to make four whole maps, and not knowing which if any of his birds will make it home, Glanarc rips the map into four strips and ties each piece to the back of a separate pigeon.
Only three of the pigeons made it home, so only three of these maps survive to be shown...
Drawn in CC3+
Here is the WIP thread.
The second version of this map assumes that Glenarc has sufficient time, and that the circumstances permit him to create a complete map for each pigeon, which is then rolled and placed in a rucksack like carrier on the pigeon's back (please see post number 3 in this thread for a photograph of the intended dispatch technique)
Last edited by Mouse; 10-12-2016 at 09:21 AM.
My goodness, poor Arramatapo. Wolves, bears, ogres and snakes... and that's just the first map! He's made of sterner stuff than me.
Great job with this, Mouse. I can't remember if I posted again in the WIP thread, but I do like the font you finally settled on, and sorry for forcing you to visit DaFont and wasting your afternoon!
Have some rep.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
LOL! Thanks Chickpea
I didn't want anyone to get bored, but I think I may just have slightly over-cooked the adventure aspect of the map!
And no - you didn't force me to go to dafont. I went all by myself. I just didn't expect there to be quite so many handwritten script fonts available. I did my usual trick - went through the entire n-page collection, and ended up coming back to page 2 or 3 to grab the only one that made me stop and think; 'that looks like it might be about right'.
The font I chose was one of the 100% free ones called 'Benegraphic' - not too formal or highly skilled, but the right sort of style for writing with a natural quill, since they have a tendency to break if you push the nib away from you in forming the letters (as you would have to do with most of the more modern fonts).
I didn't fully realise it when I posted this map as 'finished', but there is an alternative design - a long ribbon map that shows the whole journey in one piece. It was put to me by my Profantasy Forum friends that providing there was time Glenarc would be more sensible to draw the same map 4 times and send a complete version with each of his pigeons. Wyvern in particular was amazingly sweet and did all this research for me - enough to prove that a trained carrier pigeon can carry as much as 75g in a rucksack like tube on its back - which would allow for quite a lot of map (providing it was a long thin roll).
I really like this picture that Wyvern found for me:
The original caption reads: "Captain Caiger of the British Army Pigeon Service, holding a carrier pigeon equipped with a 'back carrier' message capsule, 23rd July 1945" and it comes from right at the bottom of this BBC tribute page.
I think I will continue to work on the ribbon map over on the WIP thread, and post the final version with the separate strip maps above when I'm done
Last edited by Mouse; 10-10-2016 at 09:51 AM.
I really like the evolution of this map, from the start, brainstorming and the final result. Reminds me of an example map in CC3 or the Tome (?), I don't know, but I like that you know how to use your tools.
Just one little thing: the background (the wood panels) look too sterile and flat IMHO.
Sorry, can't rep you yet...
Thanks Katto
The concept was a joint effort. I started it, but the community buoyed me along, and this is what I/we have come up with (though the drawing is all my own).
I've yet to buy the Tome myself, though I will with my recent winnings. So I wouldn't know if there is a similar map in there. Mind you, it wouldn't surprise me if there was, since a journey map like this one isn't exactly an original idea.
There are a couple of CC3 Annual editions with journey map styles, but I don't have any of the annuals either - not yet anyway.
The wood is the top of a kitchen table. I think I will have to work on the texture a bit more to make it look more distressed - its one of my own (I haven't been making them for very long).
I'm not entirely sure whether to load this into the first post on this thread, put it here, or start a new one entirely.
I think I'll put it here and also add it to the first post.
This is the alternative ribbon version of the same map - the version where Glenarc has sufficient time, presence of mind, and perseverance to draw a complete map for each pigeon.
It had to be long and thin because that's the only way I could get a reasonably large area of map into a space that appears to be no bigger than a forefinger - the back carrying capsule on the back of Captain Caiger's pigeon shown in the photograph a couple of posts ago.
So here it is, complete with CC3 page curls
The curled version is pretty cool! Very clever concept.
Thanks Ilanthar
A lot of the momentum that carried the development of the map this far is down to the interest and support of my friends - both here and back at the Profantasy Forum
Last edited by Mouse; 10-13-2016 at 09:32 AM.
I have been asked to write a tutorial on how to draw page curls in CC3 by a couple of users over at the Profantasy Forum, which is where it will first become available.
Please let me know by PM if you also wish to see the tutorial posted here at the Guild. It won't be anything spectacular - just a pdf set of instructions with a few screen shots
It's a great concept, very enjoyable
I'm impressed you managed to produce this in CC3 too.
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