Gylden Valley

[Mike JW]

I visited this area back in August and noted the Gylden Valley whilst I was sketching Ptolemaeus and others. At the time I noted the valley. This visit was centred on Gylden Valley itself. It has been hard to find information about it other than it is about 47km wide and is part of the Imbrium Radial Structure. It must have been an enormous piece of rock flying at low altitude as it  gouged out this cleft. In the valley I caught site of longitudinal curving ridges. Crater Gylden, bottom left (southern) at the end of the valley. It must have occurred after the cleft was formed as it impinges on the valley. Gylden crater has been lava filled and interestingly so the central peaks are off centre. Crater Sporer impinges on the valley on the opposite side at the Northern end with no sign of a central peak. Below Sporer is Herschel  N and to its West is the the big imposing crater of Herschel. Noting all the impacts in the area it is a wonder this cleft survives at all. Part of Ptolemaeus just sneaks into my sketch.

Black is done in felt. Some of the white is gel pen. The rest is with a 4b graphite pencil and smoothed out with blending stump.

Mike

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by Mike JW

[Ruud]

That is a perfect sketch, Mike! And what a wonderful, poetic name for a valley.

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Ruud

[Lurcher]

Excellent sketch Mike. Nice use of the black pen and I like the granular appearance of the pencil shading.

I couldn't help noticing the "man in the crater"!. Could be a new obscurer effect . . . . better than the moon maiden which I can never see as a woman.

Could that be Herschel himself?

Nice use of tones and an interesting area Mike. I would like to have a look at that area myself sometime now having seen your sketch and description.

(Is it just me or does the moon maiden look more like a man in a hat smoking a pipe??).

[Mike JW]

Morning Martin, I too noticed the face in the crater, probably an accident of my artistic license. I was sorely tempted to add a mouth. Definitely male. I too cannot work out the moon maiden.

Black felt is OK. Next I am going to experiment with Black Indian ink and a fine paint brush, to try to get an even and true black. So many black felts dry and show the blue pigment in ink (remember chromatography at school with black ink).

Maybe we can start a new trend of "shadow shapes" look a likes or something. Your comments made me smile.

Mike

[happy-kat]

Really nice relief effect, quite 3d.

[Lurcher]

On 05/01/2020 at 09:23, Mike JW said:

I too noticed the face in the crater, probably an accident of my artistic license.

You're too precise for that Mike. If that's how you've represented it then I'm sure that's pretty much how the shadows appeared.

[acr_astro]

Hello Mike,

thanks for sharing this great sketch with us. The shadow on the crater floor indeed looks like a cutout of a man's head as mentioned as well by Martin!

Clear skies

Achim