***October November 2014 Challenge voting : Commission a Guilder***

[Eilathen]

Yup, this challenge was a very difficult one to vote for. A lot of good entries...and, as is the nature of this, very diverse and different outlooks from the start. Which kind of makes it harder to pick a "best" map. I like more concise and narrower challenges where you can better compare each entry with all the others (this challenge makes comparisons hard, it's like apples and oranges). That being said, this challenge shows how many talented mapper we have on here. It is a joy to look at these entries. So, WELL DONE, EVERYONE!

As to my votes: i had a hard time deciding and in the end, i cast 5 (!) votes because i couldn't really make up my mind. For artistic reasons, Lingon and Chasio got a vote. I love their hand-drawn styles a lot. Max got another vote from me, because he just has a very pleasing style and his maps always look good overall (at least to my eyes). My other two votes went to Domino44 because i like the composition and the style of this map and to evile-eagle because i like the feel and promise of that map (i hope we will see a finished version).

To close this post: i really hope that we will see finished versions of all the projects that are not finished yet.

[tainotim]

Phew. Hectic weekend, but at last, a moment to sit down and go through the entries and lay down my vote in the stack. I have chosen to narrow it down to one vote, however, in truth all the finished entries deserve one. This challenge has really brought out some truly inspirational, and beautiful maps – maps in styles unlike any I have seen before. Amazing! However, ultimately, I have decided to vote on Jaxilons Redthorn

Jaxilons map really is something ells. When following the WIP, we were allowed to see his creative process from the beginning, to the very end – showing a journey of many, many hours, probably days of hard work. Something that for me, only adds to my view of the stunning, final result. There really isn't enough superlative for me to describe this. The color is beautiful (even thought I miss the brighter version), the shape is great, and he managed to successfully combine traditional and digital elements without it being to evident – something that I personally struggle with.

A very inspirational piece. Good job Jaxilon!

Cheers,
Tainotim

[foremost]

Hello all.

Just found out the site is working again. I had been wondering why it hadn't been fixed in over a week, but turns out that my old bookmark no longer works, so I was unaware it was fixed

Would just like to congratulate everybody who finished an entry this month. We had some spectacular submissions and it was very hard for me to narrow down to my top two.

In the end, I like tainotim's (Blaidd Drwg-esk) city map and Sap's Starfall the best. In fact, I believe they are two of my favorite maps on the entire site.

Again, spectacular job to everyone who finished.

[Jaxilon]

First of all, I really don't like voting in contests I'm a participant in because I just feel really weird doing it.

I've struggled with this for way too much time so I just cut myself down to 1 vote. But I had to vote for Bogie because he gave me exactly what I ordered so that's 2 votes with one going to my "Hired" artist.

Honestly, I totally agree that everyone who finished deserves a vote because there are just so many excellent examples of cartographic goodness. I also feel some of the unfinished ones deserve a vote just because they are looking so good. However, knowing how hard I had to push myself to get mine done I don't feel bad in cutting them off at the knees since they didn't finish

Max = Clearly excellent. Your style is down solid and I love that whale illustration with the city on top. Personally, I think it could use a little color but that's just being picky.
Azelor = This is looking good so far and I salute you for doing a city map because I haven't really done one myself yet because I'm afraid drawing all the boxes would just bore me to no end. One of these days I'll man up and get 'er done though.

Bogie = Thanks for this map bro. It's going to be great to bust this out on my players next time we sit down. I'm excited to do that.
Chashio = This is one of those unfinished ones that I'm just stunned by. I love how this is looking so far. Not sure how it'll look when you get the mapping portions into it but right now it seems to me if this was finished you would have won.

Diamond = I hope you are ok and life is being kind to you because I'm surprised you didn't finish. You always seem to me to be so prolific I just automatically figured you would sail through. I always love your stuff too.
Dj = I think this is unfinished but maybe you were going for a monotone map. I kept expecting to log in and see a colorized version that would blow my socks off. You are probably just so busy with all the commissions you have going on

Domino = I like this map, it's got almost an old world crossed with comic book feel to it. It's a solid entry.
EE = has promise but unfinished unfortunately.

Jaxilon = I learned some things on this which is the whole point, plus, I think Bogie is happy and that's a satisfied client in my book
Larb = This looks like something you would get in a supplement adventure. Nice job.

Lingon = Love your washes on this. I like some of the forests you used in your prior works better than these but let me say that your watercolor maps are one of the reasons I wanted to to try myself. It's not finished though and I hold that against you because I didn't really like labeling mine so if you put labels on it I won't hold it against you, LOL.

Sap = This one bugs me. I guess it's just the creepy feeling I get from the border which may be the perfect compliment because if that's the effect you were after it's there. It's not my favorite of yours but it's certainly well done.
Tainotim = I gave my vote to this because all along I was thinking about how much time drawing all those lines had to take and it just looks so legit. I would have liked to see it in color with little red roofs or something but you finished it and it is an amazing piece really.

THW = I really love this style you have going on here, like I mentioned in your thread. Would love to see the whole ship. It's like something you might find on a mechanic's wall and you could just stare at all the rooms one by one while you waited for your car to be repaired.

xpain = This was really starting to take shape towards the end. At times I wasn't sure where you were going with your plans but I like how things were shaping up. Kinda reminds me of a video game screen there towards the end.

Whew, it takes a long time to go through all those and try to mention something about them. As usual I don't mean to offend so if something I said could be taken the wrong way, I meant it the other way.

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in making this challenge such a great success, you all make this place more wonderful than it already is.

[Bogie]

To Jaxilon: Thanks, glad you ( and Hopefully your players ) like my map! Thanks fo rdoing such a great job with the watercolor map of Redthorn.

To Max: Congrats on the win, it was a great map!

To Sapiento & Tainotim: Congrats on a great Second Place Tie!

To the rest of the Entrants: Great work! A ton of fantastic maps!

To EVERYONE: This was an amazing Challenge, but please don't forget we also have a Lite Challenge going on now and we could use a little more support and participation.

[Jaxilon]

Congrats to everyone for making this challenge such a good contest.

Congrats to - Max - for his grand win.