I wrote a blog post about improving existing maze art, Maze Art: Advanced Tips to Creating Your Own Masterpiece. I wanted to use my own writing to see if I could improve one of my own mazes. The maze in question is Maze of the Week #69 of Bodiam Castle in England. It is my second maze of a castle in England and this one I made only in black and white. When I was finished with the maze I didn’t really feel finished. I wanted to do more but was frustrated because the last section of the maze I worked on was a complicated. The parts that I could add would not have any bearing on the actual maze or maze solving so I moved to my next maze. Now I go back and try to improve the maze. Will work ?
Here are my 8 advanced tips for making maze art:
Tip #1 - Make lots of experimental mazes - DONE
Tip #2 - Get feedback - need to do !
Tip #3 - Famous landmarks/locations/objects get more interest - DONE.
Tip #4 - Leverage your unique skills - DONE , I make many building mazes !
Tip #5 - Don’t worry about “fitting” the maze into a particular size - DONE
Tip #6 - Slow down and take your time - I was rushing onto the next project…thus the case study !
Tip #7 - Add as many small details in the maze as possible ( & Consider adding shadows) - What I need to do.
Tip #8 - Take lots of detailed pictures of your subject - I do not live nearby but will search for as many details as I can find.
So 4 of the 8 tips apply to this maze. I will work my way through these and see how things go.
Tip #2 - Get feedback - I am going to send this to 2 friends to get some feedback and see what they say and include that in my changes.
Tip #6 - Slow down and take your time. I will be done when I complete the details I want to try and not before !
Tip #7 - Add as many small details in the maze as possible - This will be the core of what I do based off of additional pictures I find (Tip #8)
Here is my own evaluation of the small details that are missing in the current maze:
You can’t tell that there is a moat around the castle. I can try a few things to potentially fix this.
What is behind the castle on the landscape (it is not nothing) ?
The island includes grass although that is not clear in black and white.
Different sections of the maze bricks have different colors.
The structure on the island blends into the castle just to the right of the door.
The boards on the walkway leading to the entrance have additional details that can be added (like nails)
How about adding some shadows to give the castle some shape
The sky is empty
Moss and small plants cover a portion of the structure
As I sat down to enhance this maze I decided to start in the center with the wooden walkway and work my way from there. Let’s look at the changes I made:
1 - Walkway - added color - different shades based on shadows; added shadow between the boards; added nails; added lines to show ‘grain’ in the wood. Made over a dozen small fixes to extend/shorten lines and clean up the picture.
2 - Dirt Walkway - directly behind the wooden walkway it appears to be made of dirt and small stones. I gave it some detail to reflect that and colored it. I used lines closer together in the center where people would walk more.
3 - Island Bricks - I noticed that the bricks that make up the island have grout that it light colored, so as I colored the bricks, I changed the black grout to the lighter color with black accents.
4 - Island Moss - added color, including dead grass on the edges in a lighter color. I added some moss over the bricks.
Here is a close-up of 2 of the changes I made, the new bricks and the new walkway:
5 - Island fix - I actually did not finish the portion of the island that goes behind the walkway. And this was not finished on either the left or right side, so I added the portion of the island in the background between the wood. I also colored them and added grout as appropriate. Here is the section on the left side with the island added. Go back and compare the before and after’s. Most people don’t notice the missing island in black and white !
6 - Door area - Added stone detail in front of the front door (and behind the pebbles) and colored it. Adjusted this from 2 sections to 1 and added shadow area near/under the door. Changed the door panels to be smaller with more accurate depiction based on the pieces of wood that make up the door. Added bolts that hold the panels together on both doors. Added a door handle on the left door. Changed the iron parts of the door to be a more accurate shape. Changed the color of the gate and added the bolts at the intersections that hold it together.
7 - Castle fixes - There are remnants of a building in front of the main castle on the right side. It has moss on the top and a door. I made the bricks the same as the island. There is a rock in front of the door. You’ll notice that later I made additional changes to this section (darker moss, doorway shadows).
The main castle has a shape that includes sections with some depth so I added color and shadows to account for that. The bricks were not as strong in the pictures I saw so I softened them just as I did on the island with the lighter cement color. The bottom stones near the boat were colored darker.
8 - Water fixes - I went for it on this section. I created relections of the castle and island in the water. Obviously I colored the water a nice blue color. I also added the reflection of the shore items (trees and grasses) after they were added.
9 - Shore fixes - Added some trees near the shore and some small hills in the background. Near the shore coming from the water I added reeds/grasses in the transition area. All items were later reflected into the water !
To show more detail I will only show the right side of the picture.
10 - Final touches - Added a sky. Changed the color of some moss (darker) to better reflect reality. Re-worked some layers to improve the maze. Enlarged the name of the castle in the bottom left corner larger than the location.
Considered but did not ultimately add: Clouds in the sky. I practice these often but have not perfected a good enough cloud yet. Ripples in the water. I experimented with this but decided it looked forced. Something to practice ofr future mazes. Ducks in the water and birds in the sky. Not needed, but if I could make it well enough it would be fun little added touch.
Here is the Before:
And here is the After: I had some trouble saving this as a PNG and keeping all the reflections, So I went with a screenshot. The full maze as intended is shown in the saved and downloadable pdf file.
How long did the changes take to add?
Changes took me almost 4 full days to complete, working on and off most of each day. I did not work on any other mazes during this time.
How much bigger is the new file than before ?
I added a lot of small details that really add up. The PDF file went from 149KB to 1,886 KB (12.6x larger) while the PNG file grew from 422 KB to 1,048 KB (2.5x larger).
Was it worth it ?
Yes, I think it was. But what do you think ?
