May 2018 Challenge: Mahere&Vanua Post

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Beautiful, and I love the ships! Amazing job on the water lines, elevation lines and shading, that's really impressive! It's also a very pretty stamp set; the coloring is wonderful.

Two incredibly minor comments: (1) The top left stamp feels slightly cramped, probably because it has a larger land mass. I think if you shifted the island just a tiny bit to the left, it would alleviate the cramped feel. That could just be me, though. (2) Bottom right stamp, it looks like a water line cuts across the sail. That could just be the crease line on the sail lining up perfectly with the water line.

Thanks a lot for your comments... For the top left stamp, it's cramped because I had to left some roome for the prices and labels. I have to try to shrink that big island a bit. For the bottom right stamp, the water line accidentally arrived where a line of stitches was drawn on the sail. I have made the correction.

Oh yes - I very much like the ships

Thanks Mouse ! Now I always think of you when I draw ships...

Once again, I'm sure I answered yesterday and I don't see my answer... there is something I'm doing wrong : 'sounds like if I'm unable to click on a button ^^'
I can't resist with ships on a map, and your color scheme is definitely perfect

PS : I prefer the abrupt edge, don't you ?

Thanks Misty ! You're right about these edges... What I'm not sure, now, it's if I should let the black contour line around those edges or if it's better without...

Your mountains are amazing! I have no idea how to draw a relief, so I'm always impressed to see it done as convincing as yours. I also love the coloring and the ships.

Thanks a lot Neyasha ! I think you should try to draw this kind of relief, because it's not really complicated : you can let you inspire by a real map, and then, with the level lines, it's very easy to see which part are in the shadow and which part are in the light

I like the ships, but I'm not sure that I like them being blended into the sea as if they belonged there. The ships are (roughly) side-on, while the islands/sea map is clearly seen from above, so they're separate elements that are combined on the stamp. I don't think that the ships belong on the maps, as maps. If you're going to detail the water they are sailing through, I would keep the contour lines out of that area to distinguish it from the sea of the map. A little break between the map sea and the ships would also fix the issue of the contour lines and sail creases coming together in the 4th stamp.

To me, it is the top-right stamp that seems a bit cramped, probably because the tops of the masts are nearly scraping against the islands.

I'm also not sure that the ships are quite as crisp as the map elements, which won't be a problem if they aren't blended so closely.

You should probably experiment with price and other labeling before deciding any design changes like aeshnidae's suggestion to move the island or making any adjustment based on my concerns over the upper right stamp.

Thanks for your developped comments : it helps a lot to read your advices... And you're right about the labels and prices issue : the only way to un-cramp those stamps, is to reduce the size of the island, but I'm not sure I want to do that, as the "map" part of the stamps seems to be the most important. I may try to reduce the size of the ships, but they are really small. So I'll try both solutions and see which one is the best... once I put the labels and prices.

Regarding the way the boats are blending with the sea, I tried to take of the waves and splashes, and I think it's better now : I think that the boats seems to be less sailing on those water. What do you think ?