Sketch 1: My dear Arramatapo...

[kacey]

I'm definitely liking this second version, I always loved those mountains, it's looking good so far.

[Mouse]

Thanks Kacey

I'm a closet Herwin Wielink junky. I just try to hide it for most of the time, by doing the kind of maps where its just not possible to use them. They kind of just popped up in this one unexpectedly! LOL!

As a point of curiosity, I'm often a hit stunned by the completely opposing nature of the reactions I get on this site, and the reactions I get on my home forum - the Profantasy forum. Back at PF I already have two members preferring version 01.

I know - go figure, eh? :shrug:

[Cartography Dragon]

I'm torn. While version 02 looks amazing, it really doesn't convey the desperate feel of version 01, it looks too... vivid. Those mountains look awesome, for example, but they don't look like they were drawn in a hurry by someone with few tools.

[Mouse]

Thank you for your comment Cartography Dragon

I think the 'over-polished' look in Version 02 is possibly why my PF friends prefer Version 01 (even though I really love Version 02)

Just to add to the confusion, I am currently attempting to separate the three sections into three separate maps, sent with the four surviving carrier pigeons (one of them never reaches Arramatapo - the one showing the first leg of the journey across the sea)

I'm hoping to do something along the lines of the work of the 17th century Scottish cartographer, John Ogilby, only far more primitive and less refined, as if it was drawn by a man living in the middle ages - and who was of course, trapped at the back of a dragon's cave in some unknown land.

Now that I've got the Herwin Wielink thing out of the way for a few more weeks, I should be able to draw all the subsequent versions myself

[Meshon]

I love this, I barely care what the art looks like, I love annotated maps, and maps that are made by someone in the story the map is telling. Keep rocking it!

cheers,
Meshon

[Mouse]

I'm glad you are enjoying the tale so far, Meshon.

I have to keep the story the same on both sites, and things have been developing a lot faster over on the PF forum today.

One of my friends pointed out that Arramatapo was a bit of a mooch if he was a grown man perfectly capable of making the treacherous journey to find his father and possibly slaying a dragon, but had not gone with him on this adventure in the first place...

I replied:

Ahem... There now follows a slight plot adjustment...

Arramatapo is indeed a full grown man of 16 ('full grown' as it was in the middle ages anyway, when 30 was old, 40 was ancient, and most of the lowlier folk were dead before they reached 50). He already has a wife and a household of his own - a life of his own, but the pigeons go home to his father's house where they were raised, and where his mother, Doranaya, and his younger brother, 13 year old Chetamak (Tam for short), still live.

Although the letters are addressed to Arramatapo, the elder son is away on business travelling by camel train to a distant port on the other side of the continent. There is no way to reach him, since carrier pigeon's only work one way - homeward bound.

And so despite Dorranaya's fears and concerns for her younger son, it is Tam who will set off on the voyage to rescue his father, and because he is only still a child, none of the men who might have accompanied Arramatapo are prepared go with him - not with a 13 year old boy as the expedition leader. Instead he manages to get a couple of his young friends to go with him, and together they 'borrow' one of his father's sailing ships to set off across the ocean in search of the mouth of the great river Orranar... the first part of the map having never arrived.

Well. Since I've bothered to name everyone else, I think I should probably name Arramatapo's father, but I can't do that right now because my neighbours have just started to cheer at some football game next door and I can't even think straight with them making such a racket!

And not being able to think any more until the game is over, I'll leave it to you to decide if this makes the story better, or worse.

There! same on both sites again now

[Cartography Dragon]

Oh, fascinating. That is certainly a good story development!


Edit: I just read my post, and it sounds very sarcastic. It was not intended that way!

[Mouse]

That angle never occurred to me, so it was never taken that way

I'm ok with it either way, and anyway. I already know that I am considerably better at telling stories, than I will ever be at cartography! LOL!!!

[Mouse]

Been kept up most of the night by the other neighbours

Up-side...?

I finished the first third of the map

[kacey]

It just keeps on changing! One thing I know for sure in following this thread is I'll get a surprise every day. It's interesting to see you're process while developing this idea. Again, good job, I like all the versions, and I'm curious what it might look like tommorow