April/May '20 Lite Challenge: Dryad's Deep

[Kier]

Cool reflections in the water!

Thanks, Bogie. I am glad you noticed them, I have never done reflections on water before. Rather pleased with myself, lol.

[Kier]

Just venting my frustration. I have now worked on the final layer of undergrowth 3 times, and each time when I get done, there is a brown texture along the sides of my map. So mad right now. I can go back yet again to a previous save. But its driving me crazy, I must be deleting, shrinking or moving a layer by accident. Ugh.

[Kellerica]

What software are you working with? I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but what you said about a dark thing around the edges, immediately makes me think that there is a layer left in there with an accidental Inner Glow effect in place. Done that a few times and the frustration was very real when I had trouble locating the culprit.

Amazing looking map so far, by the way. Love how lively the foliage looks.

[Tiana]

Took a little bit to get back in the rhythm of it, then had it crash when I was saving it the other night . That sucked.

Yeah that sucks. I too have fallen prey to having not saved recently on some maps... it is the worst... nice map though.

[Kier]

Thank you for your thoughts, Kellerica and Tiana. I appreciate it. Needed a little sympathy.

I use GIMP. It is just the strangest thing. Not that it happened, but it happened 3 times now, lol. I am always moving layers by accident, especially bump maps. I was working on the undergrowth and deleting areas that are too heavy in the path, and cutting in ferns in the deep areas, and somehow I must have shrank a layer, or moved a layer which is weird as I thought I locked them all. I compared the older version with the messed up one, and its like either the entire map got enlarged, or a certain layer got shrunk exposing a layers edges beneath. But I can't find it.

I will give it another go today. I was never sold on the last outcome anyway. I found my erasure was on 38% capacity and left ghosting images, which worked in some areas but not others. Maybe I will go back to a save before that incident.

But thanks again.

[Kier]

I was finally able to get through it. Not sure I completely love the path, I feel I might have lost my way a little bit by adding too many ferns. But this weekend when I was walking in the back forty, it seemed more natural this way.

I keep thinking I want to add more rocks, or dead tress, etc. But every time I do, its not looking right for me. So will give it a couple days before I revisit. Also wanted to peak some dead/birch trees up through the foliage, but do not really want to mess with that aspect as I finally like the trees.(Except I have experimented on some new versions I am liking for future maps.)

I think for the main part, she is pretty set, but may still tinker with the main path a bit.

### Latest WIP ###
DryadsDeep_6V_Kier.jpg

[Kier]

I normally don't add titles and borders but couldn't help myself with this one. Wanted a fairly simple one that would play in with the Celtic theme of Dryad's Forest.

Still working on the map portion but throwing this up for now.
### Latest WIP ###
DryadsDeepV7_Kier.jpg

[Bogie]

Excellent, the simple border and cool font work well together.

[Kier]

Alright. I think I am calling this one as done. Added some shadow depth in the ravine, or highlighting the path and rock outcroppings. Some rocks, and dead trees. Added some bump to the ferns to give them some added dimension.

I still want to tinker, but really, I must have spent 30 minutes on 1 rock, lol. So at this point I think I best call it quits. But who knows …

I am really pleased with the depth of it all. I still see some work to do on future versions of my trees, when I shrunk them they lost a lot detail. But there is always something to work on for future maps.

But I believe I got where I wanted to go. A magical pool in a deep forest. Now I just have to decide how dark is the path of magic that Kier actually walks.

### Latest WIP ###
DryadsDeepV8.jpg

[Bogie]

The map has great depth.