October/November 2015 Lite Challenge Entry: The River Kingdom

[Pixie]

With frame, no doubt about that. I second everyone's words on colors and font choice. My only negative feeling about this is that the color for the land matches too much the color for the area outside the drawing, it's a bit overly monotonous, to my eyes.

Nevertheless, this is a great piece! And the cultural immersion we get for free is awesome

Not to mention, I wish I had a tenth of these drawing skills.

[Bogie]

Excellent! I like both versions, maybe the framed one a whisker better. One typo though,, in the upper right text, first word of the last line "Present" has an extraneous z, "zpresent-day"

[snodsy]

Thanks everyone, I'll definitely look at the border colors and maybe some tweaks on the border art. I might try taking the transparency out of the Teepees a little too.

[snodsy]

### LATEST WIP ### Tried a darker border, thought the map stood out, too much going on now?RiverKingdomDark_19-01.jpg

[ChickPea]

I like the darker border a lot. It does work well with the map colours, and I'd definitely go with that.

Can't decide about the decorations around the border. I like them, but I liked the simpler frame too. I would keep the new title box, as I think it's an improvement, but not sure about the arrows around the edge. It is starting to feel a bit 'busy'. Could you possibly post a version without them so we can compare side by side?

[Meshon]

Oh my, this has just gotten incredibler! Absolutely amazing work Snodsy.

I agree about the arrows being too much, particularly since arrows usually point to something and following them with my eyes just leads me on a merry chase around the border of your map. My other suggestions are to darken the mountains in the background (particularly in the upper right area) and possibly find some way to texture the blank area around Asopo Forest and Menominee. I'm not sure what you'd add there, and it's really not a big problem. Your map is terrific!

cheers,
Meshon

[snodsy]

### LATEST WIP ###RiverKingdom-01.jpg Think I'm about done, thanks for the comments, I think it's made it better.

[JefBT]

To frame indeed!

This map is amazing!! Astonishing!!

[ChickPea]

Have to echo JefBT. This is indeed amazing! You've got it just right with the decorations and title. It looks fantastic.

[Jaxilon]

Hey, I don't get in here enough lately but this is really looking good.

I think you may have some issues with the river police if they come thru. There are a couple places that look like the rivers join where they are flowing opposite directions based on the curvature of those rivers. In the bottom right for instance, it looks like you have 2 rivers joining that are coming straight at one another and then leaving in an entirely perpendicular direction. Something like that would probably not look as tranquil but would be a set of falls, a lake or else be more of a typical "Y" joining. When 2 rivers collide as opposed to smoothly flowing together exciting things happen.

Now I didn't read all the text so maybe you have a reason or these may be very slow moving rivers but even then erosion will do is work. This is still a beautiful piece and a clear front runner. I only said something because someone once did the same for me.

Love it.

PS. I totally get this would have been better to know towards the beginning of the project but like I said I don't get in here enough these days. That or all the river police are on hiatus or I am totally wrong and will never get a river police badge :-)