Maze of the Week #100 - Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán

November 27, 2023

I am very excited to present Maze of the Week #100 ! This maze took me a long time to complete. I started it on March 15 and completed it on September 10. I took a break from it for a few months while I worked on other projects (and over 30 different other mazes). In the end I finished the maze and hope you enjoy the result. Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán is located in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. This church was a 10 minute walk from where I lived in the Winter and I visited it often. I have over 50 pictures on my camera of the church to prove this !

The groundbreaking of this church began in 1572 and was completed in 1724. You can read about the history here. The architecture of the church is amazing and it is worth a visit if you are in the area. This is my 4th maze from Oaxaca, and 2nd church (the other church is only 1 block away !):

Monte Alban

Templo de Sangre de Cristo

Mexican Door

YouTube: While there are videos showing just the church, since I lived in the city, I wanted to include a longer form video about the entire city.

Photo: taken by me

The Maze: Mostly black and white with a bit of color where I felt it would help define the shape. This is a very large scale maze and the bigger the better. I designed it at 35 x 73 inches, so a 3x6 foot poster is how it is meant to be viewed and printed.

Laberinto de Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán

And after a month I went back and made a color version ! I love how it turned it

Laberinto de Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán en color

I hope you enjoy the maze. Maze download of the black and white version is available on the homepage. Please check out my YouTube channel where you can watch this maze being made and solved!!

Coming in December:

Holiday themed mazes in a new style !

Mazes of the Week 1 - 100 - A Review

November 26, 2023

I wanted to update a blog post I ended 2022 with when I reviewed every maze from 2022 and commemorate the unveiling of my Maze of the week #100 on Monday.

Some statistics about the 100 mazes I featured:

It includes 42 building mazes, 25 sign mazes, 14 monument mazes, 4 landscape mazes, 4 sculpture mazes and 11 “other” mazes.
61 were based on locations in the USA, 9 in Mexico, 4 India, 4 England, 2 Germany and 2 Canada. 10 other countries had 1 maze.
25 were made in black and white, 17 in color and black and white versions, and 58 in full color !

Here are the 100 weekly mazes in order (with links to their downloads):

For 2022 I allowed people to vote on the maze of the year and my maze of the Rock n Roll HOF Museum in Cleveland won. You can read about the final voting here, and watch the video of the best below. I mention all of this so you will come back and vote for the 2023 mazes of the year which opens in December !

Case Study#10 - Improving a Maze - Templo de Sangre de Cristo

November 23, 2023

Welcome back for another case study. Case study #8 (all case study links are below) looked at adding color to 6 mazes that were previously black in and white. Case study #9 went into a larger re-vamp of the Taj Mahal. Today in Case Study #10 I will take you through the re-imagining of the maze of Templo de Sangre de Cristo. It was one of my favorite mazes but I knew I could make it better.

Let’s look at that original maze, also known as the ‘before’:

Templo de Sangre de Cristo laberinto in black and white — Templo de Sangre de Cristo in black and white

I put a lot of detail into this maze. I went back to the site and took many pictures to catch as many details as I could.

And here are the changes I made to (hopefully) improve the maze:

1. Color - I added color everywhere. I even did the far wall of the building next door (the church is set back from the street while the next door building is not). I added a clear blue sky.

2. Stones - The church is made of stones that are a variety of colors as some have been replaced over the years. I picked about 30 stones which had the largest color differences, mostly on the corners, and made them accurate. I declined to do every stone a different color.

3. Shadows - The shadows on this church really set it apart. There is a ridge on the left side of the building that always has a shadow on it - might look weird, but I assure you it is accurate !

4. Minor Fixes - When I color a maze I see some details I miss along the way which I fixed.

And now the “After”. The new maze:

Laberinto del Templo de Sangre de Cristo en color

I think this is a huge improvement. I liked this maze before. Now I think it is much better !

If you want to read the previous 9 case studies:

Case Study#1 - How to Improve a Bad Maze - Tiki Totem Maze

Case Study#2 - How to Improve a Bad Maze - Danzante Conchero Chichimeca Maze

Case Study#3 - How to Improve a Bad Maze - Red Rocks Amphitheatre Maze

Case Study#4 - How to Improve a Bad Maze - The Hollywood Sign

Case Study #5 - How to Improve a Bad Maze - Severance Hall

Case Study#6 - How to Improve a Maze - Uxmal

Case Study#7 - How to Improve a Bad Maze - Ship

Case Study#8 - Improving Previous Mazes

Case Study#9 - Improving a Maze - Taj Mahal

November 21, 2023

In my first 7 case studies I took half finished mazes or completed mazes that weren’t very good and improved them. Case study #8 looked at adding color to mazes that were previously black in and white. If you want to read those case studies the links are at the end of the post. Today I want to take you through a maze I was happy with, but still thought it could be improved and challenged myself to do the slow work of improving it.

My thought was, if you are going to make a maze of something iconic, make the best version of it you can. Basically, I think this Taj Mahal maze deserves the extra attention to detail needed to make it better.

And let’s look at that original maze, also known as the ‘before’:

The maze is black and white, and even when solving it on a screen you cannot see all the details I added. It needs to be printed very large (poster size) to get the full effect. It actually includes 2 mazes - the first between the 2 farthest towers and the second located in the center dome. Let’s see what I did to improve it.

And here are the changes I made to (hopefully) improve the maze:

1. Color - Even though the Taj Mahal is basically white, it is 2 slightly different shades. An off white and a slighty browner white for the 3 central domes. The background sky in blue help the building pop more. The bushes and grass and water also give the maze more interest.

2. Points - The points on top of the domes are mostly a gold color (when clean). They were changed.

3. Spaces - The open spaces at the top of 6 domes were colored to correctly show the sky behind and given shadows to give the space more shape.

4. Railing - The front railing is a pinkish color includes an ornamental design that includes holes that can be seen through. They were colored based on what is behind them (either the sky or the Taj Mahal)

5. Front Steps - I did not have a good picture of the front steps before. With some research I changed the design to be a more accurate presentation of what is actually there !

6. Arch design - Above the center arch (previously blank) I added a colorful design of flowers and vines based on new picture I found. I also added this to above the 8 side arches.

7. Minor Fixes - When I color a maze I see some details I miss along the way which I fixed.

And now the “After”. The new maze: