A Polar Map

[MistyBeee]

December is here again, and it's time to create a Finished thread for this map I drew last year for the December 2018 challenge. As the challenge ended in early January, I felt weird to post a Christmas map that late and promised myself I would post it in the next Holiday season. Here we are. Already !

No WIP thread, sadly, but the challenge thread is here if you want to check it for some reason.

The map was a study around old manuscripts and illuminations on parchment, experiments on calligraphy, knots, gold effects, parchment transparency, etc.

And here is a little reminder about it :

"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

(...)

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.

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 ?

APolarMap_by_MistyBeee.jpg

(And for those who would be interested, the Polar map is available as prints on my InPrnt here ! ).

Happy December !

PS : After some months of very hard, hard work, I think I'm back !! ^^

[Kellerica]

Absolutely beautiful. But then again, I don't expect any less from you. Gorgeous layout and typography. I hope you're doing alright despite the workload, and welcome back - I've missed you!

[arsheesh]

That is gorgeous MistyBee! What a treat. The map itself is quite inventive and the accompanying illustrations are wonderfully evocative. Excellent composition as well. All in all a beautiful piece.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[ThomasR]

It reminds me of the style of the Russian folktales I read to my daughter before she goes to sleep. It's gorgeous Beee !

[MistyBeee]

Absolutely beautiful. But then again, I don't expect any less from you. Gorgeous layout and typography. I hope you're doing alright despite the workload, and welcome back - I've missed you!

I've missed you too, Kell' ! So many new things on the forum, starting with your cute signature ! ^^
And thanks for the kind words, of course !!

That is gorgeous MistyBee! What a treat. The map itself is quite inventive and the accompanying illustrations are wonderfully evocative. Excellent composition as well. All in all a beautiful piece.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

So glad you love it, Arsheesh ! I enjoyed so much creating this one ! ^^

It reminds me of the style of the Russian folktales I read to my daughter before she goes to sleep. It's gorgeous Beee !

Thanks Thomas ! I'm happy if you can find some kind of inspiration from Northern parts of the world ^^

[DrWho42]

i love how intricate and ornate this looks. beautiful work! bravo~

[SoaringMoon]

The projection used on this map is absolutely amazing. My only disappointment comes from Australia getting peeled in half. But I mean it was either that or Africa AND South America. You should make a companion map from the other hemisphere.

[Greg]

Gorgeous stuff, but from you Bee, I expect nothing less!

I'm really pleased you reposted this. It has such a wonderful, vintage Christmas feeling and you really wouldn't be surprised to find it in an old fairy tale book!

[Ilanthar]

So "Christmas"! The red & white added to the illumination style are such clever choices.

[MistyBeee]

i love how intricate and ornate this looks. beautiful work! bravo~

Thanks a lot, DrWho ! There's a lot of hidden details I'm probably the only one to see ^^

The projection used on this map is absolutely amazing. My only disappointment comes from Australia getting peeled in half. But I mean it was either that or Africa AND South America. You should make a companion map from the other hemisphere.

Haha, yes, the projection was a tricky decision. Australia is partly why I finally abandoned the Berhaus Star projection, as it was just unrecognizable. On this one, Australia is still splitted, but at least you can see it and understand it.
However, no Southern hemisphere version : Santa starts and ends his night in North Pole, and that's what matters here. But this map is only a poor static imitation of the original gnomic one, which obviously moves and changes to put on the center the exact place the Red guy is, so when he's in Australia, Australia is on the center

Gorgeous stuff, but from you Bee, I expect nothing less!

I'm really pleased you reposted this. It has such a wonderful, vintage Christmas feeling and you really wouldn't be surprised to find it in an old fairy tale book!

Thanks Greg ! i do have a special love for this map, and am glad to see I still love it, even one year later. I tend to quickly hate my old maps... never good enough !

So "Christmas"! The red & white added to the illumination style are such clever choices.

Thanks Ilanthar ! I do have a kind of obession with white on parchment for some unidentified reason, and this red fascinated me as soon as I tried it !