June 2020 challenge: Where The Wild Things Are

[Dimension Door]

That very night in Max’s room a forest grew and grew..

Where the Wild Things Are is a book that sparked my imagination for a long time. First because of the story, the monsters and the courage of Max. Later because of the illustrations of Maurice Sendak. Now because I read the story to my daughter so many years later and it still is a great story.

My first enry for the challenge! I’ve chosen a wide eye perspective because dreams have distorted perspectives sometimes. And I plan on doing something with night and day as well as time behaves differently in dreams as well.

I will try to get as many story elements in the map as possible. Terrible roars, terrible teeth, terrible claws and terrible eyes and the such. I’ve nothing planned for the border yet but if there is time left I will do something with Max and the monsters.

This is my sketch and I’m almost ready for lining the map. I want the lines to be a little bit jagged as in the sketch as a nod to Sendak’s cross hatching. I got inspiration from a lot of sources but the most prominent would be the maps of J.Edwards Odyssey of the Dragon Lords maps. I loved the horizons on these maps. The palm trees are meant to stick out of the map as some sort of illusion as dreams and reality get mixed sometimes. The story never mentions Max dreaming so it is real to him as well.

I hope you like it!


### Latest WIP ###

[kacey]

I’m excited to see this one unfold! The sketch is really promising so far.

[MistyBeee]

Yep, yep... You have all my attention here. Just let me sit in this cozy corner with a bucket of popcorn for the show

[Wingshaw]

Holy WOW! Great start, and really fascinating concept!

I really like the exaggerated globe view, and might try it out myself some time

Keen to see the progress

Wingshaw

[Meshon]

Amazing drawing, I think the perspective is a brilliant choice and really expressive of your subject. I'm a big fan, of the book and your art!

Cheers,
Meshon

[Glenn]

The linework and the perspective are really good. I love how the palm trees include the immersion of the viewer.

Really awesome work!

[Dimension Door]

Yep, yep... You have all my attention here. Just let me sit in this cozy corner with a bucket of popcorn for the show

Still there? Hope you’re not asleep yet.

Holy WOW! Great start, and really fascinating concept!

I really like the exaggerated globe view, and might try it out myself some time

Keen to see the progress

Wingshaw

A holy thank you! The perspective is challinging but if you get into it actually pretty fun!

Amazing drawing, I think the perspective is a brilliant choice and really expressive of your subject. I'm a big fan, of the book and your art!

Cheers,
Meshon

Thanks! The book is amazing isn’t it? The art is gorgeous!

The linework and the perspective are really good. I love how the palm trees include the immersion of the viewer.

Really awesome work!

Thank you! I was hoping the palm tree thing would work!
====

The lining is done! I think. It is so much fun working on this because every angle is as challeging as it is rewarding. The leaves on the palm trees were a tedious thing but the’re all there now. Right now I’m struggeling with the labels in a vector program but we’re slowly getting there.

### Latest WIP ###

[MistyBeee]

Still there? Hope you’re not asleep yet.

Still there, with eyes wide open

[Dimension Door]

And when he came to the place
where the wild things are they roared
their terrible roars and gnashed their
terrible teeth and rolled their terrible
eyes and showed their terrible claws
till Max said “BE STILL!”

Where The Wild Things Are | Maurice Sendak

This is it! It was again a great adventure to do the colour and shading as I never know how to approach this step exactly and I ran out of layers I learned a lot, worked way too many hours on this but it was definitely worth it! Please share your feedback, and if anyone knows the secret of making mapmaking go any faster, please enlighten me!

I’ll look at it again tomorrow to see if I want to change things but for now it’s done.



### Winner ###

[Redrobes]

Wowee thats epic. I love the way the palms extend outside of the map border. Really great idea. I have read the book when very young but I forgot the story now. Good entry !