May 2018 Challenge: Messenger Seals from the Duscan Empire

[aeshnidae]

I love your whole setup, but the stamps itself are also stunning. The towns definitely have a medieval feeling.

Thanks, Neyasha! My one concern is that the presentation takes away from the stamps themselves (because of resolution issues). But I also love having the stamps on the leather pouch, which was how I originally envisioned them.

[Weery]

Looking really good. I love the colour palette you've used, it's muted but really effective and consistent.

I'd echo MistyBeee regarding the water lines, too.

These are great Aeshnidae Well done!

[aeshnidae]

Thanks, Weery! I've changed the water lines on the stamp set and agree with you and MistyBeee, it's definitely better this way. I'm still torn on whether I should keep the leather pouch presentation or just have the stamp set. I love the presentation but wish I didn't have to shrink the stamps down so much (or that I could post a higher res image).

The stamps were hand-drawn in Photoshop on an Intuous tablet. For the city icons, I wanted a medieval illumination feel (I didn't quite get there but I'm satisfied for now). I drew the some of the doodads in the frame thanks to various internet tutorials and the profile picture from a coin. The font is Castellar, available at dafont.com.

In my present-day D&D world of Ehalia (for which this is purely background color), these stamps were issued 265 years ago by Empress Alexia III, ruler of the Duscan Empire. In order to give back to the people (primarily merchants) who had been an instrumental part of ushering in an era of immense prosperity and growth, Alexia spent her last years secretly putting in place the foundations of the Republic of Duscany. She transferred power to the Senate shortly before her death. Duscany continues to dominate commerce and banking throughout Ehalia and its merchant companies enjoy a monopoly on trade with spice-rich Kashgar.

### Latest WIP ###
Duscan Empire Pouch v6.jpg

Just the stamps:

Duscan Stamp Set Final (sm).jpg

[MistyBeee]

The more I see them, the more I love them !
Happy to see why one corner was green and not blue : that was the mystery of my week

[aeshnidae]

The more I see them, the more I love them !
Happy to see why one corner was green and not blue : that was the mystery of my week

Thanks, MistyBee! Yes, the one corner is green because that part of Duscany is attached to the rest of a continent, while all of the other parts are islands. I figured that would probably not be obvious, but I went with it anyway.

Hmmm...I'm seeing that the picture grabber picked the stamp set only, not the stamps on the leather pouch. But last time it picked up the leather pouch. I guess I will have to fiddle with the WIP marker.

[aeshnidae]

I made a few minor corrections.

The stamps (which I will post on their own below) were hand-drawn in Photoshop on an Intuous tablet. For the city icons, I wanted a medieval illumination feel (I didn't quite get there but I'm satisfied for now). I drew the some of the doodads in the frame thanks to various internet tutorials and the profile picture from a coin. The font is Castellar, available at dafont.com.

In my present-day D&D world of Ehalia (for which this is purely background color), these stamps were issued 265 years ago by Empress Alexia III, ruler of the Duscan Empire. In order to give back to the people (primarily merchants) who had been an instrumental part of ushering in an era of immense prosperity and growth, Alexia spent her last years secretly putting in place the foundations of the Republic of Duscany. She transferred power to the Senate shortly before her death. Duscany continues to dominate commerce and banking throughout Ehalia and its merchant companies enjoy a monopoly on trade with spice-rich Kashgar.

### Latest WIP ###
Duscan Empire Pouch v7.jpg

[aeshnidae]

Just the stamps:

Duscan Stamp Set Final (sm).jpg

[Neyasha]

This is one of my favorite entries for the challenge. Beautiful stamps (and a lovely layout with the octagon) and a very nice setup.

I don't know if you want to/have the time to correct just one little detail, but I noticed a little white border on the coin bag (on the left, just above the cord and also a little bit on the right cord). Now this is really nitpicking on an otherwise flawless picture.

[aeshnidae]

Ack, you're right, Neyasha! Hopefully I will have time to correct it tonight, before the challenge ends. Thanks for picking up on it!

[aeshnidae]

Thanks to Neyasha's keen eyes, I've made a few last corrections. Now it's final!

Info:

The stamps (which I will post on their own below) were hand-drawn in Photoshop on an Intuous tablet. For the city icons, I wanted a medieval illumination feel (I didn't quite get there but I'm satisfied for now). I drew the some of the doodads in the frame thanks to various internet tutorials and the profile picture from a coin. The font is Castellar, available at dafont.com.

In my present-day D&D world of Ehalia (for which this is purely background color), these stamps were issued 265 years ago by Empress Alexia III, ruler of the Duscan Empire. In order to give back to the people (primarily merchants) who had been an instrumental part of ushering in an era of immense prosperity and growth, Alexia spent her last years secretly putting in place the foundations of the Republic of Duscany. She transferred power to the Senate shortly before her death. Duscany continues to dominate commerce and banking throughout Ehalia and its merchant companies enjoy a monopoly on trade with spice-rich Kashgar.

### Latest WIP ###
Duscan Empire Pouch v8.jpg