November 2017 Challenge: The Glyphs of Kaylaric

[Mouse]

All change....

### Latest WIP ###
The Glyphs of Kaylaric NEW2.JPG

[Tenia]

There you go, Tenia - the full sandwich as it stands

I find that working this way can be a bit confusing sometimes. I end up with about 50 files with all different numbers and letters after the main title. There's the png files I export from GIMP to use as backgrounds in CC3, then there's the jpg files I've exported from CC3 to incorporate back into a different GIMP file at half the scale, and then there's the jpg export from that second GIMP file that I need to be able to identify from all the rest of them when I finally upload it here. The whole process takes about an hour! LOL!

Oh, png import/export, I know this !

I work with GIMP and CC3 because I can get the correct roof shading from CC3, while I can manipulate large blocks of text better in GIMP. But while its a lot easier doing the roads in CC3, GIMP is better for all the soft shading - the relief shading and the shading on the scroll. Mind you, the flowering bushes would be a bit difficult to reproduce so quickly in GIMP, because they are CC3 varicolour symbols I made for myself, and which I can change the flower colour on at the click of a button, meaning I only need 2 symbols to create flowering bushes of all the different colours of the rainbow. A similar versatility in GIMP would require at least 100 different brushes.

I'm interested to know why you use ArtRage and GIMP? I have ArtRage as well, but I find the uneven lighting across the canvas a little hard to work with on a map. How do you do it? Do you have the lighting switched on?

I like Artrage's interface and painting tools very much, very pleasant to use, the animated brushes (stickers) and stencils offer a lot of possibilities and I'm not particularly bothered by the lighting canvas (Yes I keep it switched on)... However Artrage really s...ks on selections, copy/paste and in the design of geometric shapes (and many others littles things) so on my map I did all the grids, lines, labels and counters with Gimp. I used Gimp also when I had to resize the map.
Btw, splendid map, Mouse

[Mouse]

Thanks Tenia

I know what you mean about selections in ArtRage!

Funny you should say that about geometric shapes being easier in GIMP! I use CC3 to do mine because I find GIMP rather awkward with anything more complicated than a square or a circle. I can do this (the compass in the patio) in CC3 in one object:

compass rose detail.JPG

[Mouse]

Colours aren't right, but...

### Latest WIP ###
The Glyphs of Kaylaric V8.JPG

[rdanhenry]

The text is missing a "to" in the last line of the fourth paragraph under "New Villages".

[Mouse]

Oh yes - so there is.

Thank you, rdanhenry

[Meshon]

Your map looks great! I love the magic circle/roads idea a lot, a really cool idea that I will definitely have to steal borrow emulate sometime! Maybe a slight shadow across the top of the parchment to keep it from sticking flat to the surface below?

Cheers,
Meshon

[Mouse]

Thank you, Meshon

The idea was partly inspired by the Demon Cycle by Peter V Brett (which I was reading when I became disillusioned with the pylon idea), though the place, the tale I've told, the design of the glyphs and the way I have arranged them are all my own creation

Thanks for the shadow tip - I will most definitely add a very subtle one, even though that is the direction from which the light is falling.

There won't be an update today. I've been having a lot of trouble with GIMP since the last big Win 10 update and the last three files have saved in a corrupted format - missing half the layers.

I'm working with bits and pieces of earlier versions right now to try and restore the map, and I may have to switch down to a much lower resolution if all else fails...

[Mouse]

Ok, I've no idea what Microsoft did to my machine with that last update of Win 10, but I'm thinking of going back to Win 8. There is so little working memory left over after all the OS programs are up and running in the so-called 'background' that its taking 3 times as long to open apps I actually want to use, they can't cope with files as big as before, and they freeze and crash all the time.

Doesn't matter what it is - GIMP, CC3, Word, Scrivener, Krita - the whole lot - everything.

After 5 corrupted versions I have rebuilt the GIMP background/foreground file, and while I had the opportunity I put a better background in. Otherwise I think I've more or less matched it fairly well with the previous version...

### Latest WIP ###
The Glyphs of Kaylaric V9.JPG

[ladiestorm]

I love what you've done with this, Mouse! I especially like that swirl of blue & green around the city. It really makes it look like there is magic going on there! Beautiful!