Cartographer, or Engineer?
by
, 05-22-2019 at 01:47 AM (3554 Views)
On closer inspection of the map from my satchel, there were several things that stood out to me. Rivers ran loosely into the lakes and sea, hills and terrain sat on top of each other, the coastline was too thick, and I still didn't know where I was on the map. How do you orient yourself to imagined terrain features when you don't know your starting point? It's too much to even think about all at once ... small bites, still eats up the elephant.
I set about trying to relax and just take it one thing at a time. How bout them rivers? I removed the eraser tool from my satchel, and began to slowly and methodically remove the extra tails from the water areas. I added some more lakes, and brought the rivers under control again. In the process, when I came across a terrain feature, that just cried out from the map, begging to be repaired ... I bowed to the will of the voices.
Ok now ... that was starting to look a little better ... now about that thick coastline. I decided to try to reassign the coast again by tracing over the edge of the water (somehow, the original sketch had already been deleted ... thanks, tutorial). When the ants came out of the ground again to crawl across my page, I gave them all the water places, and even the extra lakes just for good measure.
I was the queen ant, directing all my minions to do my bidding. I think some of them went on strike at the last minute, I don't think they liked the idea of a dude as their queen. Several lakes didn't make the selection, and even several islands too. That's enough failure for one day. I sat on the sand of the beach. The round structure still in the distance. I still don't know where I am yet. I will probably have to go to that building over there and ask for directions. Maybe they will be friendly ... maybe they aren't cannibalistic ... maybe they aren't slavers. In the meantime, I will just sit here and let the sun shine for a little bit.
Sometimes I create so many roadblocks to my own forward progress, I think I may be part engineer.
(5/22/19) D. Clanloch