This maze was originally commissioned for an adult activity book. I made it for a client in the way they preferred, in black and white and they picked the subject. One of the great things about commissions is I make mazes of subjects I wouldn’t normally make. A dragon tree actually makes a wonderful subject for a maze because of its internal branch structure, something I never realized before. Now, it becomes Maze of the Week #189 - the Dragon Tree Maze.

Today I get a chance to update the maze and try to improve the maze. The original maze is not available for download, but the updated maze is !

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

1. Added Color - Adding color to the maze was an easy choice since my original work had to be in greyscale.

2. Added Shadows - This took the most amount of time. I added the shadows to the internal branch structure of the main tree. This actually might make the maze easier since many dead ends and false paths are now a different color.

3. Thickened border - I made the outside border more prominent and put in the the background to give the maze a 3D look. Now some of the rocks and the leaves of the second tree “overhang” the border.

4. Rock changes - I gave half of the rocks a bit of texture to give more interest and variety to the ground area.

Let’s see the before and after: