December 2018 Challenge: A Polar Map
"If I say 'December', what pops into your mind?"
Winter and snow, Christmas and my birthday, my grand parents old house and the smell of Christmas cookies. It would be too long (and probably boring too ^^) to explain all the memories, but December is always special to me.
My grandparents had this old globe in their house. Not a precious one, just a school globe I loved a lot : the countries in different colors, the mysterious lines from the poles... I loved to look at it, imagine all the people living on all the countries, thinking about all the mysteries there, and when December came, the mystery, of course : how can the red guy distribute all the presents to all the children in the world in just one night ? Magic is the answer, of course, as we all know once we're adult, but as a kid, with millions of questions in my mind, I loved to imagine his travel all around the world on the old globe of my grandparents' house
And here we are. One more December, and with that old globe which is now in my office came to my mind the idea of this map.
I was not sure if I would be able to find the time, and I'm sorry to show the map without a WIP this time. The fact is I finished it in 3 crazy sessions of work in the middle of the night, ending around 3am, too tired to post or even to remember how to write in English. Maybe it's why the map is in French this time.
This map is not exactly my usual style, 'cause as always, I tend to think challenges are here to explore new techniques and different concepts. In this specific case, I tried to restitute the feeling of old manuscripts and illuminations on real parchment, with the lovely blurr, the unique transparency... this kind of thing. And... experiments on calligraphy, knots, gold effects ('cause after the light effects of Tirasea, gold was my next challenge), parchment effect... random doodles, etc. There's a couple of things I would like to edit or change, but I challenged myself to finish the map in 15 hours and with the 23th as a deadline, and... guys... we're the 23th already (and I have so much to do tomorrow to prepare the house and the Christmas dinner I just want to cry) ^^
So here is a page of the Book of the Gnomes, roughtly 1530, treasured in the North Pole Monument and still in use for every Christmas Eve. If you're a gnome, you know why, uh ?
If you're curious...
... here is the translation of the title : "A Chart showing the Meridians, Gnomic Hours, South-Directions and General Positions, and following the moves and elevations throughout the Christmas Night".
... the map is largely inspired by Jaques Devaulx's 16th century work (one of the pages of his book is used in the background for the "other side of the page" effect, 'cause I was too lazy to draw something myself ^^).
... for start, I tried to use the fun Berghaus Star projection which would have been really perfect for the concept here, but I finally ended with the Peterman Star which worked better for what I had in mind. A star projection was obviously required here.
... the map is full of personal easter eggs related to my December memories : some Tolkien references, some reminder of birthday gifs I got and birthday travels I made, the directions I imagined for my own fantasy world, a reference to a dear friend I lost a couple of weeks ago, my grandparent's globe, the Christmas tree, my grandfather disguised in Santa Claus, the bredele we use to eat, my father's old bell, something from an old children book I loved... and... and... oh, so many other things everywhere.
### Winner ###
APolarMap_by_MistyBeee.jpg
Finally, guys, I just have to wish you a Merry Christmas, hoping it will be quiet and bright, full of smiles, joy, magic, and new memories for next year's challenge
