Mar/Apr 2015 Lite Challenge: Shilfah - The Floating Village

[Bogie]

Yeah, I agree with J.Edward, I really like the little images in the description instead of putting numbers on the map.

[ChickPea]

I like the recent changes you've made.

I think the decorative border looks really nice and the colour works well. It contrasts enough to stand out but also blends with the warm reddish-gold tone that you have overall.

I think the parchment background to the text is much better, and agree with the others that the little images are a lovely touch.

If I had to quibble about something, it's be the spacing of your title underneath the map. I have one of those orderly, logical minds that craves symmetry and it irks me that the spacing between the border and the word 'Shilfah' is much less than the spacing between the last line of text and the bottom border. I swear I'm not OCD but that kind of thing makes me twitchy!

I absolutely love this entry. It's beautiful.

[Abu Lafia]

I'm glad you flipped it. It looks better.
The little inset images by the description look great.

Yeah, I agree with J.Edward, I really like the little images in the description instead of putting numbers on the map.

Thank you guys, i really appreciate it. Because there won't be many other things on the map to label beside the houses i made it this way. Although i really like labelling maps directly, i wanted to try out something new here and am happy that you like it.

I like the recent changes you've made.

I think the decorative border looks really nice and the colour works well. It contrasts enough to stand out but also blends with the warm reddish-gold tone that you have overall.

I think the parchment background to the text is much better, and agree with the others that the little images are a lovely touch.

If I had to quibble about something, it's be the spacing of your title underneath the map. I have one of those orderly, logical minds that craves symmetry and it irks me that the spacing between the border and the word 'Shilfah' is much less than the spacing between the last line of text and the bottom border. I swear I'm not OCD but that kind of thing makes me twitchy!

I absolutely love this entry. It's beautiful.

Hey ChickPea, thanks for the comments. Funny that the spacing in the title came to your attention, because it twitches me too actually XD After i reworked the border, i had to rearrange the size of the cartouche, so that the horizontal pattern fits with the vertical ones on the points of intersection. So there is less space now than before but i forgot to make the Title fit again. Thanks for the reminder, and regarding the OCD thing (didn't know the english term before) i think everyone tends to problematize anomalies and irregularities, especially with things they like and/or create themself. More problematic is in my view the pathologizing decision to call some phenomena "disorder" and others "perfectionism" (ofc i prefer the latter for myself ).

[Abu Lafia]

Finally i added some boats and made the water a bit lighter. I also put the title in a "proper" place
C&C are as always welcome.
Cheers,
AL
### LATEST WIP ###
Shilfah_the_floating_village_WIP12.jpg

[MstrWelf]

You can see how little changes make big differences, positive in that case. I really like your latest WIP. Means I have a lot of work to do

[Abu Lafia]

After many WIP-updates, finally the buffalo - the pride of the village - returned to Shilfah from the daily grazing-trip in the marshes
Due to my lacking drawing skills, i modified falcon's cow that i found over at the Dundjinni Forum, originally made by Darkness. It seems to be the only suitable "top-down-cow" in the whole net!
I've seen that some people from the CG are also active over there and maybe can answer me a question: Am i right, that the mapping-elements in the forum there are free to use (modify)? I assumed that, because i used the already modified version from falcon, but i want to be sure not to do something stupid here... If it's not cool, ofc i would immediatly shoo those buffalo back in the water...

You can see how little changes make big differences, positive in that case. I really like your latest WIP. Means I have a lot of work to do

Thanks MstrWelf! Although i'm pretty far with this map now i hope to finish it in time because i have a lot of stuff to do over the weekend. Some details are still missing and maybe i'll add some more information on the sidebar.

### LATEST WIP ###
Shilfah_the_floating_village_WIP13.jpg

Cheers,
AL

[Bogie]

Due to my lacking drawing skills, i modified falcon's cow that i found over at the Dundjinni Forum, originally made by Darkness. It seems to be the only suitable "top-down-cow" in the whole net!
I've seen that some people from the CG are also active over there and maybe can answer me a question: Am i right, that the mapping-elements in the forum there are free to use (modify)? I assumed that, because i used the already modified version from falcon, but i want to be sure not to do something stupid here... If it's not cool, ofc i would immediatly shoo those buffalo back in the water...

Almost everything at Dundjinni Forums was posted to be used by others, (with just a few "no-commercial use" exceptions). Giving proper credit as you did is appreciated. Have fun, use what you find.
Actually there are a lot of cow pics, here are a couple links for you.
http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/foru...ID=9073&KW=cow
http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/foru...ID=3563&KW=cow

[Abu Lafia]

Thanks a lot Bogie for the clarification and the further references!
After my search here at the guild was a bit messed up due to the "holy cow" phrases and ofc "madcowchef" i totally missed to use the search function at the dundjinni forum myself . I think i will tweak them a bit more with the other material, because i was a unhappy with the position of the head of the cow i used so far...

[Abu Lafia]

Hello everybody, here's another update:

- I added some algae-like waterplants, which as children we called "Entengrütze" (duck-groats ^^) and is seen on some pictures of the euphrat-tigris marshlands. Would love to hear what you think about this addition.

- I modified the buffalo a bit more with the cow-pics posted by Raven_Starhawke over at the Dundjinni Forum.

- I tweaked the colour of the water back to a more darker tone so it contrasts better with the above mentioned "Entengrütze". Because of that i also added more shadow to the reed-fields. I also darkened/redid the texture of the islands a bit.



### LATEST WIP ###
Shilfah_the_floating_village_WIP14.jpg

Well i guess i really need to call the map "finished" soon, because i somehow tend to rework all the things done so far and maybe its not always for the better... otherwise i'll end up in a therapy session over at the "i hate my map" thread XD

Cheers,
AL

[Bogie]

I like the Entengrütze, but maybe a bit less of it, with some open water areas. ( but that is just my opinion, depends how swampy you want it to look )