The Forum's Art Museum

[Jitter]

Wow! That is so cool!

And it can be SSSS themed if you want (not that it wouldn’t be brilliant as a stand alone!). It can be someone’s fylgja, maybe one of Reynir’s sisters? Or Trond, for that matter.

[Alkia]

I saw your sneak peaks of this on Instagram, but gaH, that's so cool, Gaelle!!!!! You definitely met the "as much detail as possible" aspect

[wavewright62]

*rubs hand in sympathy*  (Who am I kidding, I've never put in that much detail in all of my drawings to date put together.)
I am stunned, and it certainly has a place in SSSS, as I know ravens were pivotal in that Norse myth involving the gods *mumble mumble* and *mumble mumble* when they *mumble mumble I shoulda looked this up*, as we all know.
People like you are why smart educators put together open-format arts assignments.  They know you will warm to the task.  Moments like this are why they wanted to teach.

[thegreyarea]

Hello friends! Anyone here loves maps? I do. I spent countless hours looking at Tolkien's Middle Earth maps, among many others, until I almost knew them by heart.
Now I was working in my next story, the third part of "A beginning", and felt that I needed a map of the space where things will happen to give more consistency to the narrative and help me see how the characters would move. So I decided to draw a map of the place, called Warehouse 13 (yes, it's a reference to that TV series).
Over that base map, done by one Archibald Grey (my ancestor, maybe? ) I added Sigrun's notes, because she's the main protagonist of the next part.
The idea is that she found the old map and used it to organize the space.
So I went and studied how caverns form in that area and got a few maps as inspiration and I really enjoyed doing it, and I thought that you may like it too.
Here it is. below I'll put the "original" map without notes.

[Keep Looking]

Ooh, Grey, that's a really cool map! And it's in a cavern as well - aah! I'm very curious about your story now.

And Gaelle, your raven and the knotwork behind it are so detailed, it's amazing! I've always admired those kinds of designs.

[Jitter]

Grey! Very cool!

[Vulpes]

Gaelle, that is beautiful! Very appropriate to the SSSS universe, no question. I wish I had a fraction of your discipline and talent.

Grey, the map is brilliant. I adore maps. My dad showed me a topo map of the area around the family cottage when I was... 7-ish? I was enthralled. Before long I was inventing my own places and drawing maps, quite often with very complex topography of double-peaked hills, lakes on mountains, deeply cut coastlines with steep headlands, and so on. My mum looked over my shoulder at one of these creations and said, "Nice, but mountains just don't look like that." Years later I was out exploring my new home in western Newfoundland and it struck me... Mum was wrong, this landscape is just the sort of thing I would have come up with as a kid! Looking forward to reading your story.

[Mebediel]

That's so much detail, Gaelle! And it's so pretty!

Maps are super cool, Grey! I love the annotations to the map...seeing it both with and without the notes highlights the different ways in which maps can be used/how spaces can mean different things in different contexts, I think.

[GaelleDragons]

Thank you everyone!

Jitter, yes, that could work! Though I think I prefer wavewright 's idea (I'm a bit rusty on Norse mythology too, but I think Odin had two ravens that acted kind of like his eyes or something like that...^^"). But let's leave it up to interpretation! x)

Keep Looking, thanks! I love this kind of knotwork, and I think it's kind of magic in the sense that it looks chaotic, but in reality it is incredibly logical. I had to draw from reference pictures for all the knotwork, because I just couldn't figure out how to make it look good without using references! ^^"

Grey, those maps are super cool! Another thing I never tried do draw but suddenly have the urge to!
I love all the details you put in them, and the research that must've gone into it. ^^

[Mariiii]

Gaelle, this is beautiful, I keep saying it but I love your art !

Grey, these maps are so cool ! They remind me of the maps that you can find at the beginning of some books (usually fantasy books), I always liked these maps because they really help to visualize the place like you said, and it helps you enter in the universe of the story. Your maps make me curious about what is inside the Maze, I'd like to read your story when it's finished !

[JoB]

(I'm a bit rusty on Norse mythology too, but I think Odin had two ravens that acted kind of like his eyes or something like that...^^").

Kinda, yes.Suffice to say that a number of people suspect(ed) Odin as a source of inspiration for Väinö and the other sentinel mages ... well, except Sointu maybe.

[Jitter]

Gaelle yes, Odin’s ravens are Hugin and Muninn (Thought and Memory) and they make him not quite as blind as he could otherwise be, having given his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

This means you must draw another one 

[thegreyarea]

Keep Looking, Jitter, Vulpes, Mebediel, Gaelle and Mari, thank you! I'm very happy to see that you liked my little map! I hope my story is up to your expectations...

Vulpes, I see that we share a passion for maps (and the topography ones are fantastic. The person that invented contour lines was a genius). I have the luck to use them all the time in my work The young Vulpes had a good chance to end up in Engineering or Architecture...

Gaelle, I tried to create a map once, before this, for a story (outside SSSS) that I didn't developed (yet?) but it was so huge and detailed that I got lost. It was a big island (NZ size) and soon I was creating roads, climate areas, vegetation, rivers, commercial routes (both by land and sea), cities, history... You see the picture
I'm sure that you will make an amazing map with your talent as soon as you try. And then please share it with us.

Mebediel, you're right. After all a map is a tool, and you can use a tool in different ways. The base map in informative, while Sigrun's notes are practical, from someone that doesn't care much for the details and want to solve the problem of organizing that space for a purpose.

Gaelle yes, Odin%u2019s ravens are Hugin and Muninn (Thought and Memory) and they make him not quite as blind as he could otherwise be, having given his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

This means you must draw another one 

I believe that Odin traded just one eye for wisdom... But the ravens did worked as his "spies", IIRC

[Vulpes]

The young Vulpes had a good chance to end up in Engineering or Architecture...

Indeed I could have! The pull was stronger towards understanding the living world, though. Dad was an electrical engineer, maybe that made the idea of engineering a bit stressful - he had very high standards. As an ecologist I often have to design and build my own equipment, because what I need either doesn't exist or is prohibitively expensive, and I really enjoy doing so. And I get to use topo maps when I do field research, so lots of opportunities to indulge those other interests.

[wavewright62]

I got another prompt on the outfit challenge on Tumblr, similar to the one I posted today with Onni & Tuuri.  This one came from topazpearl, and the request was "13D Nocturne with Chat Noir" - 13 being 'glitter', D being 'suit' and Nocturne being the requested palette.  The character comes from Miraculous Ladybug.
Chat Noir wows Ladybug with this tweak on his suit. 

This was fun, I learn more each time I work digitally.