Challenge News
Nov / Dec '18 Lite Challenge: Map the ruins of a lost city/fortress
The November/December Lite Challenge was inspired by a suggestion from MapMappingMapped. Entrants were asked to map an ancient place that is in ruins, whether real or fictitious.
The silver compass was won by PaperGriffin for map 'Fortress of Sunken Tears'. Check out the WIP thread here. Congrats from all at the Guild!
Honourable mention to runner-up MapMappingMapped for entry 'The Sanctuary of Qa'luk Sak Tan'.
December 2018 challenge : Remember December
December's regular challenge invited mappers to create something inspired by what December means to them.
Our winner was MistyBeee, adding another gold compass to her growing collection! Her entry, 'A Polar Map', was inspired by her personal Christmas traditions and memories. Check out the WIP thread here.
Honourable mention to runner-up aeshnidae for map 'Budapest Christmas Market'.
Dec 18 - Feb 19 Lite Challenge : Map a Deadly Dungeon!
Our latest Lite Challenge is running for two months, so extra time to perfect your entry! Bogie writes...
This month's Challenge is a classic, and who doesn't love a good dungeon? Go wild, be creative, the deadlier the better. Make it anyway you want. Traditionally, a dungeon would be an underground complex, but no rules this time, any type of battlemap like construct that could be used for RPGs or boardgames is acceptable.
Win a silver compass, your friends will be jealous!
Win a silver compass, your friends will be jealous!
More details in the intro thread. Check out the current entries here.
January 19 Challenge : Map a Dystopia
Diamond's back!
January's challenge gets 2019 off to a happy start by asking us to 'Map a Dystopia'...
Since we are now officially living in the year Blade Runner took place in, I thought we'd do a map challenge where we map dystopias. They could be of your own imagining - you could map a great elven forest after dwarven industrialism poisons all the trees, or the irradiated ruins of some ancient city, or the orbits of satellites where all that remains of mankind look down on their dead Earth. Or you could map something from your favorite YA or adult dystopia novel/film.
The subject matter and mapping style is completely up to you, as long as it fits the bill in some way of being a dystopia.
The subject matter and mapping style is completely up to you, as long as it fits the bill in some way of being a dystopia.
Head for the intro thread if you have questions.
Maps of the Month
In case you missed them, here are a few highlights posted in 'Finished Maps' during December.
- Three new maps from Ilanthar: 'Portokal Monastery', 'AAS Moon Weaver', and 'Domhantyr World Map'
- The Swamps of Rasfadal, by DanielHasenbos (more maps in the thread, too)
- Two new maps from Sapiento: 'Inkonia 2', and 'Lorox'
- Two new maps from J.Edward: 'Southern Lagura' and 'In Hraminas'
- Three new maps from FrancescaBaerald: 'Map of Creon - Total Annihilation: Kingdoms', 'Barsoom - Official John Carter of Mars RPG ', and 'The County of Meratt - Paizo Adventure Path'
- Beyän, the Vertical City, by Robulous
- Castle and village of Karnberg, by Chlodowech
- Ridgebury Inn Battle Map, by Caenwyr
- Two new maps from Voolf: Outpost of Sildreth and Shu No Wan
Around the web
Some links for your reading/viewing pleasure.
- From Huffington Post, '9 Of The Most Exquisite Maps The World Has Ever Seen'
- 10 terrible maps that can still teach us something
- 12 maps that tell the extraordinary story of 2018
- From the US Library of Congress, 'A Year in Review: Newly Scanned Maps of 2018'
- 'The Mystery of Extraordinarily Accurate Medieval Maps' (Thanks to Aeshnidae for alerting me to this story!)
- From CartoNerd, 'Favourite Maps from 2018'
- If you struggle with colour palettes, perhaps 'The 5 Problems With Fundamental Color Theory' might help
- From David Rumsey Map Collection, '1940 WPA San Francisco Model 42x38 ft Now Online'
- From Atlas Obscura, 'For Sale: A 16th-Century Map of Iceland, Roamed by Fantastic Beasts'
- For Gimp users, quick demo of the smart colorization feature in upcoming version 2.10.10. Here's another example.
- If you need a grid to hand draw maps, Gridzzly.com might be useful.
- From Vulture.com, 'How to Be an Artist: 33 rules to take you from clueless amateur to generational talent (or at least help you live life a little more creatively)'. Agree?
- Round-up of Krita development in 2018/19
- Fun Twitter thread showing how Mercator distorts our impressions of the true size of countries and continents.
- From National Geographic, 'Our most memorable maps and graphics from 2018'. And here's Canadian Geographic's best maps of 2018.
- Indian cartography Twitter thread (thanks to Sammi Narramore for the link!)
Some mapping eye candy...
- Couple of maps from Reddit, 7th century Toledo, capital of the Visigothic Kingdom, Spain and 17th century Tangier, Morocco.
- The Art of Jane Tomlinson
- Earth, with the 'Soap Dish' projection?
- 1888 panoramic map depicts the quaint town of Bridgton
That's all for this month. Look out for the next round-up early February. Thanks for reading!
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