March/April 2015 Lite Challenge: Treetop Village of Eren Tulluath

[whump]

Here is a last minute entry to see if a little bit of time pressure motivates me

This is a village of Half-Elf craftspeople situated in the treetops in the Elven style but open to trade and the outside world in the human style. It is governed according to the ancient rules of its guilds, known as Circles.

Below is the first sketch (well to be honest 2nd or 3rd sketch...). All the text is in but probably needs nudging to improve the layout. The empty circles are for the guild symbols. Everything else is rough outlining and needs tweaking or improving in one way or another, but all the substance is there. If I have time I'll colour it, otherwise it'll stay black and white. OK, back to work!

Would love to hear any thoughts, criticism, comments and the rest.

### Latest WIP ###
Eren Tulluath export.png

[ChickPea]

Welcome to the challenge, whump! I like what you've got so far. That border looks fantastic. I hope you have time to get more done, though there's nothing like a deadline to motivate you!! Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

[whump]

Well I found the time to colour it by making it an illuminated manuscript with a limited colour range. I decided it should be drawn on bark in keeping with the theme. I wasn't sure whether or not to colour the village but in the end decided to keep it in black and the numbers in red to stand out.

Anyway it is done! These challenges are tough aren't they?

### Latest WIP ###
Eren Tulluath export4.jpg

[Chick]

My only observation is that on a scale of birchbark, the map would be so small as to be unreadable.

[Meshon]

Haha, awesome. You must have a long weekend! Great border on your map, is it hand drawn? I think the trees could use a little finishing, maybe a shadow for form (mind you, I've made flat trees like that and they get the information across when you're in a hurry).

I only count four circles... where are they hiding? *goes off climbing trees

cheers,
Meshon

[MstrWelf]

Better late than never and a bit of pressure hasn't hurt anyone LOL. Great idea, it's just because of the darn trees you can't see anything. Nah, just joking, I wonder what you'll end up on Tuesday?

[whump]

Although it superficially resembles birch bark, that is in fact the bark of the Mori'il tree! Funnily enough its leaves also bear a remarkable resemblance to oak leaves... ahem.. Nothing like a liitle fantasy retrofitting

(Also a liitle housekeeping note, I was naughty and forgot to credit the texture. It's this one: http://www.sharecg.com/v/2283/related/6/Texture/2276)

[whump]

Thank you ChickPea, Meshon and MstrWelf! You got me on the long weekend - I'm taking advantage

For the border I sketched it first then drew it in Inkscape as a single line, bordered it and then tweaked to do the knotting and get the lines even. Were this on paper it would be possible to hand-draw it directly, but I haven't been able to do that digitally, the feel is just not the same, plus you can't rotate the page so readily. The design is based on one in the Book of Kells.

As for the trees... it's not at all silly to say they obscure a lot. In reality you can't see anything through forest canopies, let alone houses and platforms and the like. So I'll have to see if I can strike the correct balance between making it seem like it's a forest and not just a field with trees in and also picking out the village which is meant to be the point of the map after all!

OK here is the latest WIP, with more trees, tweaked text and the finished border. Next step is to finalise the houses and then get the chainsaw out and tackle the trees.

### Latest WIP ###
Eren Tulluath export2.png

[Bogie]

Welcome to the challenge Whump.
This is looking real good. There are a lot of people here who love black & white maps, but I hope you have the chance to color it.

[rdanhenry]

The side text and the text under the circles disagree as to which of Carvers and Carpenters is Buoyant and which is Amenable.