*** March '10 Challenge Voting CLOSED - See Notice ***

[torstan]

Edit: Due to the fact that most of the entries do not satisfy the legend or label condition of the art brief this poll has been closed. Entrants will be given until 4pm EST on March 30th to update their entries to satisfy the condition, at which point we will re-open voting. Please read this thread for information on this:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...lease-Read-***

The poll has been closed and the votes reset.

Original post:

The time has come to vote for your favourite map of the town of Iwaizumi. This map must be judged not only on it's attractiveness, but also on how well it fulfills the art brief.

The art brief includes very specific instructions. Please re-read these before you chose the map that you vote for:

Map Brief, Town of Iwaizumi, 1287 C.E. (1287 A.D.)
Red Eye of Azathoth, Chapter 2

This chapter is set in Iwaizumi, a small town in the northeastern part of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This part of the country is known as the “Tibet of Japan” – steep mountain valleys, rushing mountain streams, and winter snows make travel difficult.

Iwaizumi is intended to be a remote location in which the investigators are stuck by the winter snows. An inset region map showing the mountain road and valleys would be a nice touch but is not required by any means.

Iwaizumi is located at the junction of two rivers, one flowing east-west and one joining from the north. Two notable features outside Iwaizumi should be noted on the map, at least as directions:
1. the water-rich limestone caves of Ryusendo, which are up the northern river about an hour's march for armoured men.
2. Mount Sakainokami, southwest of town.

About 250 people live in Iwaizumi. The exact locations of buildings within the town are not important. For the sake of the plot, there must be the following items labeled or on a legend:

• a central square,
• a shrine to the local deities,
• a large fortified wooden house with guest quarters for the village governor, and
• twenty or so peasant houses clustered around the central square and governor’s house, including rice, wheat, and vegetable farmers, a beekeeper, sheep herders, and so forth.
• a mill,
• a tannery,
• a bridge over the east-west flowing main river, and
• a ford across the north-south flowing tributary.



The thumbnails of the challenge entries can be found here:

Challenge Thumbs

Please vote for two (2) maps only.

Please rep those that you vote for and any others that you think are worthy of it.

This poll will end in 4 days time (the morning of April 1st). Good luck to everyone!

[Immolate]

Torstan.... the thumbs are not updated. As I did a lot of work in the last day, that's a problem for me.

[Immolate]

Ravells,

I cleared cache and cookies and I still get my old map in thumbs. The latest one has a bamboo border and lots of trees.

Edit: disregard. I should have just refreshed. Leave it to me to jump right to the more techie fix when the obvious fix will do.

[ravells]

Looks OK to me Imm.

Had to vote for Djekspek .... can't resist the linework....just can't resist. My second vote went to Imm for his beautiful roofs and little flags.

[Immolate]

I gave a lot of thought to the entries this time. That isn't uncommon for me, but neither is it a given.

Araknin's entry is balanced and pleasing. I think he made an excellent design choice in using the palate from the example painting, and I find the minimalist approach to be admirable, if you can pull it off while still showcasing your skill.

Najmir's entry was intriguing with a number of unusual and creative design elements. It successfully made Iwaizumi feel like a small place in a big, somewhat ominous mountain range. I found the road and the trees a bit incongruous however.

Redrobes' piece was very oriental, an affectation that I didn't bother to work toward because I knew I couldn't pull it off. My only criticism is that the houses don't quite seem to match the style of the rest of the piece.

Sapiento's map had a lot of promise. I wish he'd been able to finish it.

Ravell's map is fascinating, even inspiring. The perspective and the rendered mountains give the whole thing a sense of scale and offer the viewer a great deal of information. It would have benefited from a little more blending to relieve the impression of it being a high-tech map. The overall impact, like my own map, comes off a little too monotone. Finally, the tannery is upstream from the village. If ever a violation were to provoke a citation from the river police, it would be that one. But those are secondary considerations.

Djekspek's piece is gorgeous. The border is sheer genius. The inset doesn't really sell itself as necessary though, and the compass seems like and afterthought.

Gamerprinter's piece strikes me at about the same level. It is absolutely beautiful. It too has a an inset that I think does more harm than good--obviously a subjective critcism that may be unique to me. Also, the compass doesn't really harmonize with the piece, much like Djekspek's.

Everyone did an excellent job. Thank you and rep to you all!

[ravells]

Hah hah! You spotted the upstream tannery! Thanks for the critiques Imm!

[torstan]

Edit: Looks like it's sorted. Make sure you hit refresh when you view the thumbs page to get the most recent version.

Here's my screenshot of the thumbs page:

Screen shot 2010-&#4.png

The bamboo border is there for me.

For people voting, please make sure you see a thumbs page like this. If you do not, then hit refresh.

[Immolate]

Thanks guys! Imaginary crisis averted!

[mearrin69]

Awesome entries, guys. In the end I went for Djekspek and GP. Immolate's was a very close third. Imma pass around rep to all entries when I get more time tonight. Congrats to whomever wins...and everybody else, because all of the entries are great!
M

[edit]Eh. Going to have to expand Djekspek's award area under his member information area.

[rdanhenry]

If I could only vote for one, it would by Immolate's map. It covers not only the town, but enough of the surrounding for any tactical gaming that might take place in the area. The fields are shown, giving a real sense of this as an agricultural village. All requested elements are in place and the beekeeper is even marked!

After that, it came down to Djekspek and Gamerprinter for my second vote. I liked Gamerprinter's round fields and general design, but Djekspek's gorgeous drawing and well-characterized town won out. I am having some second thoughts in that while I assume the building across the river on the low end of Djekspek's map is the tannery, it is not obviously so (as in Gamerprinter's map).

Araknin had three bridges, no ford to be seen. I had to eliminate that entry for not matching the stated requirements.