June 2017 Challenge: Lost Garden

[HadrianVI]

Thank you, for the advice Sue. This and shading are the first things I'm going to do tomorrow. Because these things need to be done in time.

Here's the last update for today.

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This time it is only in ~2k and I tend to stick with that as I may not have the time to fix all the details before time runs out.

Is that still large enough?

[Mouse]

The only thing I can't quite see as well is all the marvellous details of the windows in the houses, but on the whole it seems to be large enough for now

I have a feeling that a bit more definition on the story block (ie take out the EFI that's blurring the edge of it at the moment) would pull it out of the background and place it firmly in the foreground - give the whole map a bit more depth? Try it and see

[HadrianVI]

Thank you, Sue.

Here's my next Update.

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This will certainly not be the last for tonight.

[Mouse]

Ok. So its a game of trying to spot things right now so that you have time to do something about them?

Its all looking very tidy - and the letter looks a lot better with an edge on it, though you may want to blur that shadow just a bit?. The thing that jumps out at me is the formatting of the text in the letter. I know this isn't easy the way text is done in CC3, but perhaps if you add about 5 spaces at the front end of each paragraph to force the first line to indent, the paragraphs would look be more visually separated as paragraphs. And as Snodsy pointed out on my own entry, you also have single words dropping down onto the last line of the last two paragraphs. This is what he called a 'widow' - a word stuck out on its own. If you add the spaces I suggested, and adjust the line breaks accordingly, the widows will probably sort themselves out because at least one more word will end up on that last line in both cases... I think

EDIT: that is a very handsome wax seal you have there, but it's very slightly dominating the map by being both large and red. Perhaps have a play with making it a tiny bit smaller?

EDIT 2: And those waterfall rings are perfect

[HadrianVI]

Thank you so much, Sue.

I edited the shade and the text a bit. And I reduced the seal by 10%. I can't go much smaller without the bevel effect doing crazy things
If it still appears too large I may just leave it away.

Also I added some more things to the background and made some other minor changes to the map.

At this point I am tempted to move the whole thing over to Sketchbook to add a few more lines and some additional vines. But then it would no longer be done entirely in CC3+.
Huge dilemma

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[Mouse]

The seal looks a lot better, and the letter looks great now you've sorted out the widows.

Labels? At least pointing out the places you have mentioned in the letter? Compass and scale? (tip with the compass - if you squash the overland map compass symbols down a bit vertically, they look much more ISO. That's what I did with mine - but you have to have them orientated in the right direction first before you squash them)

Whether you stick to CC3 or do a bit of 'post processing' in Sketchbook is very much up to you. Its still basically a CC3 map

I have a different way of seeing things. I use software like the tools in a toolbox. So I will use a metaphorical spanner where a spanner is required, and a metaphorical screwdriver where that is required, and sometimes I use them together on the same project - swapping back and forth between tools as the project develops and depending on what I'm trying to achieve at that stage in the project. I'm not going to tell you what you should do where choosing your tools is concerned, since you are the best person to know what you can do with each of those two mapping tools you have there. All I am saying is - you are the one in control of the toolbox and of making the decisions about which tool is best used to make the map do what you really want it to do. Cartography is all about the map, not the tools you use to get it there

(and this is where I might possibly get lynched for being just a little bit too radical... )

[HadrianVI]

I have to call it a night.

This is my latest version.

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@Sue: Once again thank you for your advice.

[Chashio]

Beautiful piece of work, Hadrian I'm glad you continued with it.

[HadrianVI]

Thank you Chashio

I had to leave in a hurry yesterday, because the fact that I left a dinner early to go home mapping caused quite a bit of displeasure.

So I'm not going to have any more time today to continue working on the map, except for a quick fix of the typo that sneaked in.

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@Sue I'm not dogmatic about mixing software, but since I am going to contribute the map to the Atlas I would have to rework the map once again, if I used other software than CC3+. Because of this and because of mentioned time limitations, I decided to leave the map as it is, without any further amendments made with other software.

[Mouse]

Ah ha! Now I understand

Sorry Hadrian - didn't mean to pressure you any

Brilliant entry

You should always enjoy your dinner