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elemtilas — Star Map
#fantasyastronomy #fantasyastrology #astronomy #fantasy #fantasyworld #theworld #astrologyart
Published: 2018-12-24 04:57:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 511; Favourites: 35; Downloads: 0
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Description
This is a map of the night sky over the Eastlands of Yeola. Taking some advice from commenters, I touched up the main features (reddening the Chasm, blurring the nebula, whitening the stars). Hopefully it looks a little better now!The map is oriented such that if you lay down with your head towards the East (top of the map) and your feet towards the West (bottom of the map) and at the appropriate time of year, these are the stars & other interesting bits of astronomy that you'll see on a clear night.
In the eastern sky (at the top) you can see Yeola's twin planet, Camay. Heading roughly anticlockwise, in the eastsouthern sky, we see three main asterisms. The Hunter is the tall fellow with an atlatl in hand; his Flail Hammer is off to the side. Below him is the Great Whale and at his feet are The Broom and The Cross. I wonder if this veritable Herklen is hunting the great starry whale, or is he after some other game?
In the westsouthern sky, we find The Owl and The Raptor. The Owl I think is pretty cool on account of his eyes comprising two colliding spiral galaxies. Almost as if they were on the hunt, below them is The Rabbit. Around this tableau are the Rabbit Stick (a kind of non-returning boomerang) and The Whip. In the handle of The Whip is a jewel of the night sky, the Great Purple Star.
In the Western sky is the massive Stardeath Nebula, a huge roiling purple and red spasm of star corpses. Its baleful Red Eye and gaping maw make it look like it's on a hunt of its own! The Great Red Star and The Ladle are nearby. The Dragonfly and The Wolf seem to flying pell-mell into the West, away from the monstrous nebula!
Moving around to the westnorthern skies we find that the mighty Eagle has caught the hapless Serpent in his talons. Below the heavens-spanning wings are the Cleaver and the Scepter and The Fish (who appears to be every bit as long and snaky as the Great Whale!).
Coming around towards the north, we can see a great reddish gash in the sky. This is The Chasm. No one knows what is actually is, though some natural philosophers speculate that it is in fact a nice rent in the fabric of the cosmos and that the red is a patch or bandage put on by the Watchers from the outside. Towards the northern horizon we can see The Wain, which in modern times is often (somewhat humourously) called the Coach-and-Four.
Lastly, in the eastnorthern sky we can see the Drake and The Shepherd. At what appears to be the leading edge of The Chasm is the Lesser Red Star.
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Comments: 18
Hello! I’m here from with some constructive criticism.
First of all, I love the idea of making a star map out of constellations from a fantasy world. The twin world to the east is especially interesting, and a clear indication that this is not a map of the real night sky. All the constellations you drew have a very authentic look without directly mimicking any real-world patterns in the stars. It’s not immediately clear what each one is supposed to be, even though you’ve named them in the description, but such is the nature of constellations.
I like that you used a black background, which not only has an aesthetically pleasing chalkboard look (as someone else mentioned in the comments) but provides much needed contrast with the stars.
However, it is a little difficult to tell, in some places, exactly where one constellation ends and another begins. The southern area looks especially crowded. It also looks like you used brighter lines to draw out the constellations in the northern half of the map, which makes those much easier to see. I don’t know if you intentionally made the southern constellations fainter, but going over them again to make them brighter would be a small change that I think would make the map look a lot better.
Furthermore, it isn’t very clear just from looking at the piece what The Chasm and the Stardeath Nebula are supposed to be. The description helped me figure it out, but ideally the map should be able to stand on its own. It think it could be helpful to write the name of each constellation and feature on the map itself. But if you don’t want to do that, then you should add more detail so that each feature clearly resembles what it’s supposed to be. The Stardeath Nebula, for instance, looks too crisp and well-defined, where it should be more hazy, without distinct borders.
While the border around the map is neat, I don’t think the area outside the circle really adds anything to the piece overall. It makes the map itself look smaller, which in turn makes the constellations more difficult to see. While it’s probably clear enough at its actual size, it’s a lot more challenging to make out the details on DeviantArt, where it’s shrunk (and it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going on in the thumbnail). What I would suggest, for presentation purposes, is to crop it using a photo-editing program so that the entire piece is a circle slightly larger than the map itself. That way, there would be more of a clear focus on the map and less unnecessary negative space.
Overall, I really like what you did with this piece! It was nice to get a glimpse into the world of Yeola. Keep up the excellent work!
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Thank you so much for your comment -- I appreciate it a lot!
Re clarity: at the time of drawing, and even now, I was debating whether to label the map or not. Historical star charts were often labelled, and I may yet do that.
I was happy to find good quality, black paper that is not construction paper! It's harder to work with, because only a few colours show up well. Even gel inks don't work well. Turns out white, silver, gold and some light blues work well. Red gel on white gel works okay. (A potential fix for portraying the Chasm and the Nebula is to draw them on good white paper, cut them out and paste them onto the black paper.) I've drawn star charts on white paper but I think I like the effect of the black paper much better.
Re line weight: good catch! The eastern hemisphere (the one at the top) was drawn with a white pencil. Much less blobby, but doesn't really lay down a strong contrast. The western hemisphere was drawn with white gel ink. I kind of like the lighter pencil for line work, but I will probably go over the stars again with white ink.
Re constellations: Understandable how it's difficult to tell them apart. Of course, they're all unfamiliar! I also did not draw borders or label them. It think they would be much clearer when labelled. Agreed about clearer description vs on map labels.
Re the area outside the circle: that space is reserved should I decide to actually write something descriptive there, or illuminate with mythological allegories or at least provide a catalogue of star names. Most likely, I'll leave the original blank and edit in other matter. One thing that needs attention is degree markings around the outer ring. That at least won't be too difficult!
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You're welcome! Glad I could help!
Wow, I didn't even think about how getting colors to show up on a black background might be a challenge. I agree that the black backdrop works better than a white one for star charts, so cutting and pasting the Chasm and Nebula from white paper would probably be the best strategy if you do another piece like this. In my experience, watercolor paint works really well for recreating the layered, hazy look of nebulas.
Also, using the area outside the circle for description/world-building is a great idea!
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This piece is stunning to behold, the concept behind it is well thought out, the lines are crisp and bright, the constellations shine well from the night skies. I can easily imagine laying out one night and picking them out from the heavens above looking at this star chart 
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Thank you so much for your kind comments!
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You're very welcome
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Hi! I'm from Project Comment!
This is very impressive! The fact that you even went through all that trouble to make a star map is incredible! That must have taken a lot of research and hard work! I don't know much about star maps, but I can comment on the neatness of the circle and the lines surrounding it. They are really precise and it's nice to look at; it gives the viewer a nice, neat and serene tone to it. Another thing I want to comment on is the constellations! You did so well making the constellations accurate and I love how you even name them! It adds a really nice touch of creativity and imaginative thinking! The symbols you put in the map are also placed perfectly. Again, that sense of creativity and fantasy are extremely evident in the symbols.
May I suggest adding in a compass?(Unless if I'm blind and there's already one there) It's kind of hard from your description to tell east from west and north from south. So maybe adding a compass to be a bit more specific might help.
All in all, this is awesome! Your creativity sky rockets in this piece! Amazing job!
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Thank much for your comments!! I appreciate them greatly.
As for the compass, that is indeed already there! The cardinal directions, East and West, are traditionally marked "HR" and "NR" (rhromen and norostaran) while the subcardinal directions are arranged around the circle.
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Oh! Thanks for that!
Sorry, I'm not used to looking
at star maps!
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No worries!
I'm not used to drawing them!
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Definitely not flat!
Though I don't suppose that will stop the irrational believers...
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This is absolutely beautiful! I love the chalkboard look.
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