July / Aug 2016 Lite Challenge: Apprehension of Toah "Two-Steps"

[mixerbach]

After much lurking in the shadows, I've decided to step into the light and take the plunge into this month's challenge. Let's just hope the water's deep enough. It was hard to tell from the shadows and I didn't really give my eyes time to adjust... Is this why you're not supposed to mix metaphors? Moving on...

I'd be lying if I said that I feel I'm "ready" or "prepared" to post this thread today. I try my best, of course, but I am a new, new newbie to all of this. Honestly, outside of sketching up an world map to hand my players for a table-top RPG, I've only just begun in the last three or four months. I'm happy to say that, thanks in large part to the many tutorials I've found here, I've seen some big changes during that time! (The biggest change? People don't look at a map I've made and say, "what's that supposed to be?" At least not nearly as often. lol!)

About This Map
I've seen some really neat map introductions on the Lite challenge in the past. And while I do find it a little unfair that some people seem to be able to effortlessly create both beautiful maps and writings, I think my map would be pretty odd looking unless you had some idea what I was trying to accomplish.

While I considered what kind of map to make for this challenge, I remembered the emphasis Bogie put on being creative. So, I tried my best to think outside the box and give my map some context. Instead of doing a map for this month's challenge, I'm doing a journal entry! Not to worry, the person who owns this journal shares our love of cartography and will draw us a detailed map to better illustrate the notes written regarding the Apprehension of Toah "Two-Steps".

The idea is that the author of the journal is a specialist guard captain from the royal guards themselves, tasked with hunting down and capturing an incredibly gifted, elusive and infamous thief known as Toah "Two-Steps" Yerg. The captain has been put 'through the wringer' as she has chased the master thief from one side of her country, the Union of Trinobel, to the other. At last, however, all the hard work, sleepless nights, and saddles soars have paid off and she has cornered "Two-Steps" at last. The pictured journal entry and its detailed map are her account of the final moments of the chase and its (hopefully) memorable ending.


I'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts, advice and comments, and I hope to do a good job of supporting my fellow challengers (who both have really cool maps already)!


### Latest WIP ###
CG_Lite_July-Aug_WIP1.jpg

[fol2dol]

Nice map!
I like your journal idea!
Looking forward to see your next steps.

[ladiestorm]

This is a really great idea! Very creative. Hand drawn maps are especially welcome and usually do.very well. Maps that look hand drawn, even if they aren't do very well too!

I like that yours actually looks like it's hand drawn. It's extremely simple....which for.a journal entry is the way it should be! Someone drawing. Map in a journal wouldn't have the complex rivers and such as I, and others have...they would use symbols that mean so.ething to them.

I also like the journal page. I notice you have blocks for illustrations. I hope you plan to do some thing with those! It would make everything more complete if you do.

[Bogie]

Welcome to the Challenge MB, you are off to a great start, with a great idea.

[7Sided]

Great start! I also am really liking the journal concept. I can see this being a very intriguing handout that you give to your players. They could have get a sense of what it would be like to be their characters picking up the journal and finding this map. And the paper texture already gives it a great feel. As far as advice, I'd suggest spending some quality time finding the correct typeface because that will sell the idea quicker than a lot of things. Also, consider adding some light and dark gray elements to add some extra dimensionality to the line work. Looking forward to seeing how you're going to develop it.

[- JO -]

Great Idea !

Not only a map, but the purpose of it, with a story to tell !
The aspect "sketch" of the map gives credit to the story, which explain the map...
That's thinking outside the box !
Looking forward to see the next step !

[mixerbach]

Thank you all for the wonderful comments on my original post. As I've pointed out, I'm a newbie to the guild. As is common among my ilk (i.e. newbies), I have yet to get my notification settings straight for this wonderful forum. So, instead of posting timely responses to your kind, thoughtful, generous posts, sadly, I am now playing 'Johnny Come Lately' of the forum and posting weeks later. Well, better late than never, right? Regardless, I genuinely appreciate all of your comments and suggestions and am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this post!

So, this is where I'm at on the Apprehension of Toah "Two-Steps" Yerg!

Left Page: I've got a bit of our brave Guard Captain's journal entry. I decided to go with this font, Bilius (courtesy of http://www.dafont.com), because it seemed informal without being comic (which, to me anyway, is what a lot of 'messy handwriting' fonts tend to look like). Given that it's Captain Ronisia's handwriting, I will also use it for the labels on the map (I only have one on the Right Page as of now). I've left open spaces for the two illustrations that I'm planning to add.

Right Page: The forests are done, roads and rivers are in, mountains are done-ish (I'm constantly picking at them). Next up, I want to add hills around the mountains and coming down across the road. Also, I have some big elevation changes via two ridges that run roughly East to West. The northern of the two ridges will cross the river creating a waterfall which I hope to show in my first illustration back on the Left Page. Also, I plan on showing a line of sorts that details "Two Steps" path as he flees Captain Ronisia.

Looking forward to hearing any feedback and advice you would like to share!

### Latest WIP ###
CG_Lite_July-Aug_WIP2.jpg

[Bogie]

Coming along nice, I do like the font.

[mixerbach]

Thanks, Bogie!

I do believe that makes TWO "yes" votes for the Bilius font, for those of you playing along at home.

[Abu Lafia]

I can only echo the others, i love the journal idea! The top down forests look really great in my view. Only the river's edges look a bit blurred compared to the other linework and i personally think the blue is too saturated. Have you considered testing out different layermodes like overlay or multiply (not sure which program you use) or lower the opacity a bit, to let the parchment background come through more? I imagine, it'd give the journal/map a more "worn parchmenty" feel. Anyway, looking forward to see this coming together.