October/November 2014 Entry: Bogie's RedThorn by Jaxilon

[Deadshade]

Why did you do the sea darker on shore than over the depths ?

[Jaxilon]

Thanks guys.
@Bogie, I'm glad you are liking it because after all you are the client

Why did you do the sea darker on shore than over the depths ?

I looked around at a bunch of watercolor work and while most of them have it lighter near shore they have a dark ink line running along the edge. Then I saw some that were painted darker near the shore and quickly faded out to nothing. I thought it was an interesting look and figured to try it. Admittedly, it was against my first inclination and in the end I may have carried the Color out too far but now that everything is in digital I can tweak the colors if I choose or even fade the depths back. I just scanned it in yesterday and will doing the labels and further work in Photoshop at this point so things can still change.

[Jaxilon]

Did some more work on this today adding highlights and painting in shadows and lighting. Really reworked the shorelines and ocean areas.

Must stop messing and get onto labels.

### Latest WIP ###
RedThorn v5.jpg

[Bogie]

It's looking great!

[Jaxilon]

Made some more progress on this today. Labels and first illustration image. As usual I have to taper my "head vision" with what I have time for.

On the bright side I'm ironing out some kinks in my workflow so that will help moving forward.

I may need to do something to the illustration since it's being painted digitally. I'll sleep on it for now and if you have an idea let me know.

And thanks again to everyone who's been involved in this challenge so far, it's been a lot of fun seeing all these entries take shape, plus it makes me work harder, LOL.

### Latest WIP ###
ReadThorn wip5.jpg

[Bogie]

The labels look great!

[foremost]

Really liking this so far; the "REDTHORN" branch, the whale, and the coastline look great. Nice touches.

I'm not so sure the labels fit the style of the map, though. It seems like they are too clean for the watercolor background. Obviously, it's just as important to keep them legible as it is make them fit into the map, but I can't help but think you could roughen them up a bit and make it look better.

[Edit: Bogie posted 1 minute before I did. Better listen to the client!]

[Chick]

I also think the lettering is too clean. I would like something more like the second compass-rose-on-the-back-of-the-business-card letters much better.

[Jaxilon]

I see what you mean. Oddly enough I did these by hand but was really careful which probably came out way to clean. Readable though

So, I went back through and added some flourishes to the letters which I hope will help this a little bit. Also, Bogie, if you liked it better the way it was let me know since I saved the layer.

I put in the city/town/village(s) as tiny areas of buildings.

I also added some more illustrations. I keep going back and forth on the strength of these. I crank em up, I tune em down. I can try to match them more closely to the existing illustrations which I'm thinking is what I will need to do but for now here they are.

I want to do one for Kezar but I'm not sure if that's going to fit in the location of the label. I may just have to move it...and then I think maybe I should just chuck all the illustrations. LOL

Until next update. I'm taking a break now.

### Latest WIP ###
ReadThorn wip6.jpg

[Jaxilon]

nuther illo done & minor tweaks.

### Latest WIP ###
ReadThorn wip7.jpg