Weekly Round-up - 19th February, 2018

Welcome to the weekly round-up, a summary of what's been happening at the Guild over the past seven days.





Lite Challenge
The Jan/Feb 2018 Lite Challenge was inspired by an idea from XCali, who suggested we "Create a map around a mysterious entrance, like a village having this ancient door in nearby woods. Or a city built to protect a door that hides a great secret. Or underwater ruins that obscure a lost tomb. Or a hidden pirates cove, the entrance to the inside of a hollow asteroid, The back way into Alcatraz like Sean Connery used on "The Rock".

We had a bunch of great maps as usual, and thanks to all who entered. Our congrats this month go to Eri, who wins a first silver compass with the gorgeously coloured entry ‘Lizardfolk Shrine’.

Honourable mention to runner-up aeshnidae for entry ‘Hidden Tomb of the Gryphon Riders’.


Regular Challenge
February's regular challenge has about a week and a half to go, and it's shaping up to be another great one. There's still time to enter if you're fast. Remember, February's a short month, so don't put it off. Our topic this month is 'Elevator Pitch Prophecies' and we're using our favourite Donjon random generator once again. Check out the entries here.


Challenge Suggestions
We've had a couple of suggestions for future challenges, so vote if you like 'em.

Map an area in a Desert!, suggested by XCali
Option 1 : Map a sandy desert with dunes and hidden secrets beneath the sands. It can be a fantasy desert or a sci-fi one with giant creatures living beneath the sands....(more ideas at the link)
Option 2 : FROZEN DESERT map! To make things more interesting (continues at the link)

Map a historical event/period, by MapMappingMapped
"Any event or period from the French Revolution to the Greek-Persian wars, or even, to be more original, the Ice Age ... or the Tikal hiatus. It can be a campaign map following an army's advance, or a map of the concerned territories at the time of whatever event/period you've chosen."

Remember, if you've got an idea for a challenge, post it in this folder. Keep 'em coming, folks!





The latest work-in-progress threads, interesting discussions, new tutorials etc etc. It's all here.

• Several of our artists have their own thread for practice and test sketches. We've had several updates in these threads this week. Check out Motley Mapping Fragments by Abu Lafia, Random sketches by Thomas, and Ilanthar's tests & sketches. Voolf also updated his Miscellaneous Art thread, but has since started a separate thread to develop one piece titled 'Raum's Stronghold'.
• 'Map of Duskford (in perspective!)' by Leo Hełm-Pirgo
• 'Ki'Bair a desert city WIP' by Jaekaido
• 'How to draw in a mountain range in Photoshop?' Share some tips.
• What do you think of Inkarnate?
• Bonus thread - An interesting discussion on pricing for map commissions.

We had so many great maps posted in Finished Maps last week, it would an injustice to restrict ourselves to five only (also, I couldn't choose between them!)

• 'The city of Kurushimi - L'Empire des Cerisiers' by Akae
• Two new maps from Sapiento : 'Realia', and 'Warband: Against the Darkness'
• 'City of Curton' by Tonnichiwa
• 'The World of Maloreth' by ThomasR
• 'Three Sticks Lake' by Lukc
• Two new maps from DanielHasenbos : ‘The Princess Bride - The Kingdom of Florin’ and ‘Contention’
• 'Tún Vareg - City Map', by Blaidd Drwg
• 'Province of Helhome', by Troedel
• New map from Wired: ‘Kyrune’
• New from Jo: ‘Loyala and the island of Essertines’
• And two new maps from Jared Blando, aka The Red Epic : ‘Zohar and the Known World’, and ‘City of Saryenia’

The nomination threads will close in less than two weeks, so if you haven't picked your nominations yet, get moving! You can see all of 2017's finished maps in this thread. Pick your favs and nominate them in the Atlas Awards folder. Remember, you can't nominate a map that's already been nominated for a particular category (though you can nominate it for a different category).





Some links for your reading/viewing pleasure...

• Hippos, Worldbuilding, and Amateur Map-Making, from tor.com. Features the work of our very own Tim Paul.
• Unique map of Italy from LOC Maps, "Sometimes, you just have to see something from a new perspective"
• 'Look North' from Map of the Week. "Going through my recently acquired road maps, I was intrigued by the many different north arrows..."
• From Maps Mania, "How to Traumatize Your Baby & Get a Good Night's Sleep", an interactive map of The World's Creepiest Lullabies.
• 'This Is The Largest Minecraft World Ever Made, Took 8 Months To Create'
• Sketch n the city - UK cities sketched in detail
• If you ever fancied buying Clip Studio Paint (formerly Manga Studio), they've got a sale on right now, though there's only about a day left at the time of publishing.

---

Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter

---