Lost Island of Queensrÿche

[aeshnidae]

My completed map for the April/May 2018 Lite Challenge, “Create a Bookcover.” The challenge required using a given map shape to create a book cover and required all names to be famous musicians/bands. I'm honored to have won this challenge and I appreciate all of the feedback, votes, and lovely comments from my fellow Guild members.

I have a 1957 printing of the Lord of the Rings trilogy; each book has a fold-out map of Middle Earth attached to its inside back cover. I was dusting my bookshelf and for unknown reasons had “Silent Lucidity” by Queensrÿche stuck in my head…and inspiration for this challenge hit. I went for a Middle Earth feel to my map; I haven’t been successful with that before but think I finally came close.

I photographed the plain red cover of Fellowship (without its book jacket) and then fiddled with it in Photoshop. I drew everything else except the text and city icons by hand, using a Wacom Intuous tablet in Photoshop. The trees are mine, but I turned my tree into a brush so I didn't have to do each one individually. The mountains and hills I did draw individually. The font is Party Business, available at dafont.com. The folded paper texture is from OnlyGFX.com. Both font and paper are under a free "any use" license. The city icons are brushes by Schwarzkreuz, which he kindly made available here; I combined two or three of the brushes to make the icons.

WIP thread is here.

Lite Challenge Entry:
Lost Island of Queensryche v8 (sm).jpg

Map only:
Lost Island Map (sm).jpg

[ChickPea]

This was a great entry, and well-deserved win. Great to see the map on its own. I love the Tolkien feel.

[MistyBeee]

A charming map ! The colors are perfect, and as I already said, I'm absolutely fond of your compass
Congrats for your win !!

PS : Is this a new avatar ?

[Neyasha]

This is such a clever idea with the old book cover and the fold-out map. And the map is also beautiful just for itself. Congratulations for your win!

[aeshnidae]

Thanks so much, you guys. I'm really glad this map was a hit, and even happier that the Tolkien feel actually worked!

MistyBeee - Yes, it's a new avatar...or at least new here. A friend of mine is a wonderful artist and drew my D&D character for me. Once I realized that my Chocobo robe was hiding my face (and thus my gender), I decided to switch it up. And I'm thrilled that you're fond of my compass - I have enough maps out there now that I wanted a way of incorporating a logo of sorts, but without messing up the feel of the maps. I love dragonflies (hence "aeshnidae") and was delighted to realize they make good cardinal points for a compass rose.