I don't know where this idea came from, but last week or something I was like, WHAT IF I MADE A MAP FOR THE SEAHORSE, WITH FAIRY TALE LOCALES?! And then as projects do, the idea wedged itself into my brain and I had to see it through. This is not what I had planned, I actually have no idea what I had planned, but this spiraled into something far more colorful and crazy. Which, obv, I love.
I googled Fairy Tale Maps for ideas, because they are in fact a thing, and they were all very flat. Which maps usually are. So I schemed to make my own. I made a list of all the places I wanted to include, and duhhhh a lot of them were Disney inspired. But there are also some classic tales thrown in too. After I had my list I sketched it all out, planning where each location should be in relation to the land mass/each other. Because if you're going to do something you ought to do it right. Then I bought a nice big piece of watercolor paper and drew this baby out. And then I colored it!
I haven't painted with watercolors since maybe freshman year of college? And that was like once. I swore up and down by oils back in my painter hey-days, but I really enjoyed using watercolors! They're more like drawing than painting. And gosh set up and clean up is so easy and so fast, something oils are definitely not. I haven't painted anything in a very long time, so this was a fun jump back into it!
Here are some rather poor quality close ups. I tried to take decent photos but my shadow kept getting in the way, also I was sleepy. That's a pregnant as hell excuse.
Can you guess all the locales? Here's what I included, in no particular order: The Emperor's Palace from Mulan, Agrabah, Eric's castle from the Little Mermaid, the Beast's castle from Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella's castle, Sleeping Beauty's castle, the Snow Queen's ice castle (yes, Elsa.), Rapunzel's tower, the Seven Dwarf's cottage, Jack's beanstalk, the Three Little Pig's homes, the Witch's gingerbread house, a troll bridge, a wishing well, the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe's... shoe, Wonderland, and Neverland. I think that's everything. My favorites are Rapunzel's tower and Neverland. It would be a blast just to do a map of Neverland.
There is like zero scale or logic involved here, perfection and crazy details are not something I'm good at. I just wanted it to flow decently and for it to be pretty, but not overly girly. I used the Disney versions of most everything as a reference, but they're not exact by any means. I decided to NOT label everything because I felt it would be visually obnoxious, and it gives the Seahorse a chance to use her imagination. Make up yo' own stories, girl!
I had WAY too much fun making this. Like, it was a blast. I sketched the main buildings out but a lot of the background just happened as I went. I mixed colors as I moved along and gosh, it was just FUN. It took me less than a week from plan to finish and actually drawing and painting it took me two days. It was a fantastic time waste, of the productive variety.
I'm pretty happy with it! I could nitpick little things that bug me about it, but that would make me crazy so I'm just calling it done! It will go somewhere in the Seahorse's tiny box of a room, but it will probably take some rearranging and help from a taller human like her dad. I hope she likes it! Obviously she wont even realize what it is for a while, but I wanted her to have something that I made for her, that she can keep for years!
God forbid she hates Disney. I'm not sure how any child of mine could, but that would be inconvenient to say the least. ;)
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