September Entry: A'Jhön Empire

[Badger]

Rise of the A'Jhön Empire and Fall of the Jhül-Gari -- a snap shot in time. The last remnants of the demon worshippers who plagued the land for a thousand years was beaten back into the jungle wilderness and all but forgotten. The A'Jhön arrived from across the sea of Dhamilla, conquering a long decadent society, whose very slaves revolted and turned on their cruel masters. The Jhül-Gari were a powerbase that held few, and controlled by fear. Once their hold crumbled on their enslaved subjects... they crumbled beneath the might boot of A'Jhön armies.
--

Well that was completely off the cuff... and it shows... bleh. Here is a hand drawn WiP I did last night. I'm sure the first thing you will notice is that yes... it is sideways... The land looked and placement pleased my eye more from this angle, I'm hoping I didn't take too liberal of a choice in this matter, I'm not sure I want to start it over again.. for a third time

I inked the whole thing by hand, labels and all, but i'm thinking I may take those out and do them digitally. I used dip pens for the costlines and outlines of the mountains, and it really shows on the scan. I had more shading to do with teh forest and jungles, but eventhe central forest shows up really light in contrast with the coast, rivers and mountains. I still have the water line to put around the coasts, among other things...

My tablet should finally arrive tomorrow or the next day!!! OMG its been hard living without one for a whole three weeks.... it was like losing an arm or a hand... or a precious human baby...

So I thought I would get some opinions first... I'm going to need them with so many great entries this month...

The original drawing was 8"x8" and scanned in at 200dpi ... (8 inches because that was about the maximum my scanner will scan at)

Thanks guys and gals...

### Latest WIP ###
septchallenge.jpg

[Gamerprinter]

Its good to see another hand-drawn entry, Del and a nice one at that!

I agree your "scrawl" kind of jars with the map. One suggestion would be to use light pencil guidelines, have some caligraphic or other letter style to reference, and take your time to hand draw your lettering with the same patience you have with the rest of your map. Do this on a separate sheet of paper.

Erase the pencil lines, scan them in, then rescale to fit and digitally place them on your map - as if they were hand-drawn on the same original scan at the same time.

I seriously considered to hand created text, but when I came up with the idea to use the slanted descriptive text, I thought - whoa that makes for lots of writing. So I chose to go digital.

You have few enough labels, that you could do it all by hand.

Something to consider, anyway.

GP

PS: oh, the challenge requires north to point a specific direction. Turning your map on its side works for me, but I think you still need a compass rose with north pointing about 2:00 - just to qualify with the challenge rules.

[Badger]

there is a light compass pointing in that direction .... in pencil... below the sea of dahmilla text...

That's the thing... since i basically have over twice the area digitally ... I could add more labels... I was all into naming things.... but as you can see, I started runnning out of room quickly. No matter how hard I try to slow down and carefully print my letters (the labels, are pretty much how I write everything, except... its neater on the map.. if you can believe that) I just end up forgetting and then remembering far too late that I wasn't just scrawling names randomly .... that and its actually a bit harder to write with a kohinoor .18mm pen and keep it neat, uniform and properly spaced.

I'm going to try that scanning tip right now... for my handwriting. I know you've probably even gave me that tip before in some manner or another... one day, I may even realize that we live in an age where you don't have to cramp your hand up drawing small thatched shadows for a better looking mountain .... (Oh... those mountains were inspired by the ones you changed up in your entry, GP... a random crosshatch to shade them with) ...

[Valarian]

I like how you've turned the map around. It does make the map stand out among the others as different, and the challenge is about individuality.

[Torq]

I think this map is great Del. Original, clever and striking in its look and feel. I love it.

Torq

[Steel General]

Cool idea rotating the map , looking forward to seeing more.

[jfrazierjr]

Damn.. You stole my idea! I guess I need to wait until I get an answer from the other thread on my other idea...

[Ascension]

All I can do is add another heaping helping of praise...sweet map!

[Badger]

Thanks to all of you, sorry jojo ... didn't mean to steal yer idea... you can steal any idea you want in the future

I took the map and got rid of my scrawl. I started scanning in some neater handwriting to put on it ... but after a while I realized it was going to take _way_ to long, a lot longer than I want or need to take, So I just started adding text via PS.

I fixed my scale and added a compass, as well as making the background pure white.

sept2.jpg

My Wacom didn't make it today but I noticed UPS called the house... so it means its here in town ... they were probably calling for directions (I live in the Boonies) So i'm thinking about adding some color and testing out my new tablet ... what do you guys think? Color? or no...

[Gamerprinter]

Try one in color, post it, and let us decide which you'd be better off with - its worth experimenting with your new tablet!

GP