Welcome to the weekly round-up, a summary of what’s happened at the Guild over the past seven days.
Challenge News
April/May 2018 Lite Challenge : Create a book cover
Entries are coming in for Bogie’s latest Lite Challenge, where you’re tasked with making a book cover that includes a map of a shape provided. There’s more info in the intro thread, and the current entries are here. There’s still two weeks to go on this challenge, so plenty of time to enter.
April 2018 Challenge : Map a Realm
The April challenge, Map a Realm, finishes today, so finish up your maps and get them submitted! Voting will start soon.
We’ve got some amazing maps this month. Have a peek here. Thanks to all who entered!
Challenge Suggestions
Here's a suggestion for a future challenge from ChickPea. If you like the idea, go vote for it.
Create a set of map-themed postage stamps
The challenge is simply to create your own set of stamps with a map theme. I'd suggest four stamps in the set, but it's up you. It should be more than one, anyway. The stamps can be of a real world place, or they can be of a fictional/imaginary realm, but they should be of different monetary values, and look like they're part of the same set.
For example, each stamp could show a different region within a country. Or, you could have one stamp showing a country map, then another with a city map, and perhaps a third with a famous building. Bonus points for working in some world-building info, like who's the current ruler, or what trade/exports the area has etc etc.
The challenge is simply to create your own set of stamps with a map theme. I'd suggest four stamps in the set, but it's up you. It should be more than one, anyway. The stamps can be of a real world place, or they can be of a fictional/imaginary realm, but they should be of different monetary values, and look like they're part of the same set.
For example, each stamp could show a different region within a country. Or, you could have one stamp showing a country map, then another with a city map, and perhaps a third with a famous building. Bonus points for working in some world-building info, like who's the current ruler, or what trade/exports the area has etc etc.
If you like the idea, go vote for it here.
Remember, you're welcome to look back through old challenge suggestions and if you like an idea, leave a comment to bump the thread. You can see them all here (use the 'Thread Display Options' near the bottom of the page to show older posts).
Five threads to check out
The latest work-in-progress threads, interesting discussions, new tutorials etc etc. It's all here.
- Guild member aeshnidae posted another update in his 'Contracts 101 - Resource Guide for Artists' thread. This thread is a goldmine for artists who do commissions and are struggling with the legal aspects. Thanks so much, aeshnidae, for sharing this info with us!
- Naima alerted us to a cool planet generator site.
- Ramah started a thread showing his 'Unfinished-Test-Practice Maps'
- 'Anzorae', by HeatherB Work in progress regional map.
- 'The Marsh-Palace', by SteffenBrand. Mansion plan created for Heroic Adventures.
Five finished maps
Check out our latest completed maps from the last week.
- 'The Heart of the Fjord', by FrancescaBaerald
- 'Guildia - A Map of This Place', by nopkin. Winner of last month's Lite Challenge
- 'Domhantyr Cosmology', by Ilanthar
- 'Border Tower 21', by Larb
- 'Tolsta city map', by ruthiewhy
Around the web
Some links for your reading/viewing pleasure.
- A great little vid showing the power of Inkscape's Live Path Effects for typography (the Inkscape version used is in Spanish, but if you're familiar with the interface, you should be able to follow what's happening no problem).
- "This is what the earth will look like 250 million years from now." Short little vide from Tech Insider.
- Gimp 2.10.0 is out. This is a major release for Gimp. Check out the new features here.
- Via the Guardian, 'Quiz: can you guess the world city from its cold war Soviet spy map?'
- From Quartz, 'This is the most accurate map of the sky to date, showing 1.7 billion stars'
- From the LOC blog, 'The First Isothermic World Maps'
- Nice topographic art map of Africa
- From Geoawesomeness, 'Top 7 maps that ultimately explain map projections'. And speaking of projections, map-projections.net has a nice round up of a ton of different projections.
- From The Public Domain Review, 'The Maps of Matrakçı Nasuh, Ottoman Polymath'
- From Mapporn blog, 'Where to find quality maps'. Tragically, we are not on this list!
- This isn't mapping, but it's an interesting article nonetheless. From Bloomberg, 'The Quest for the next billion-dollar color', a longish read on paint pigment technology.
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