This is awesome! What a fantastic idea.
May 2018 Challenge: Messenger Seals from the Duscan Empire
The realm of Duscany, previously a far-reaching empire and still a major trading power, features as background in my D&D campaign (actually not so much background at the moment, since Duscan ships are blockading a major trade route for political reasons, but I don't think any of the PCs really care yet). Each stamp will show a different island from the realm. I think I want to show the stamps as part of a messenger pouch, but I'm not sure I'll continue with the mock-up I'm posting now or if I'll shift to a different style. I will definitely photograph the coins and a different coin bag, I just need the weather to cooperate so that I can snap a good photo outside without shadows. I haven't played around with the drop shadow much because of that.
The "Post I" stamp is close to finished; I may play around with the doodads and wording in the border. Like 99% of my maps, this started with pencil and paper and then I shifted over to Photoshop.
### Latest WIP ###
Duscan Empire Envelope.jpg
This is awesome! What a fantastic idea.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams"
Wow! Thats really amazing looking.
Ooooh, I love your stamps so much !!
Thank you all! I was feeling a bit unsure about this entry but I'm glad to know you guys think it's good. I did a bunch of work on the Post II stamp last night and plan to finish that one up and post an updated WIP this evening.
now I want a medieval messenger bag
This is super cool- I think of paper and wax seals as intended to cover latches and straps to make tampering apparent, but if you lay them on top of the straps I suppose there would be big wrinkles, and then how do you enjoy those swell octagonal layouts? I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a creative and appealing way to present my own stamps... Stamps in a vacuum just don't seem RIGHT- they beg to be stuck on something, and that requires a whole different kind of creative work. I think this is great though and I like that you found that sweet leather pouch to work with.
The texturing on the stamps themselves is really something considering how nice they look affixed to the actually photographed (I think) bag - if it wasn't for the corner of the Post III stamp showing through the strap (I figure you'd probably catch that anyways but heads up just in case) I wouldn't have been completely sure you hadn't physically placed the stamps on the actual bag before taking a picture to do the further detail work on.
This presentation is some spectacular framing.
Thank you, Ben and AzureWings! Yes, the leather pouch is a photograph and I'm glad the stamps look like they're actually affixed. The photo isn't really high res enough so I'm contemplating taking a high quality photo of one of my existing leather bags and using that instead...but I love the look of this particular pouch. I do have something similar so I'll play around with it a bit.
AzureWings, thank you so much for catching the fact that a bit of Post III is showing through. I totally missed that. I'll be replacing that stamp anyway with the updated version but good eye! I also see that I need to make a tiny bit of the Post I stamp disappear under a strap.
Last edited by aeshnidae; 05-16-2018 at 09:12 PM.
I've spent the last 2 days containing floodwaters in my basement (first time ever we've had this much rain so quickly) and dealing with urgent work stuff, but I finally got some time to do a bit of work on this. I finished up Post II and photographed some coins and a coin purse for the setting. I'm concerned that the picture of the leather pouch is too low-res; shrinking the stamps to fit it mean I'm losing some of the details of the maps. I photographed some of my leather items but none are as cool looking as this pouch. Hmmm.
### Latest WIP ###
Duscan Empire Pouch v2.jpg
Here's a different leather "envelope" option. Which do you guys prefer?
### Latest WIP ###
Duscan Empire Leather Sleeve v1.jpg
