Myriorama – Endless Landscape Cards
Key Words and Concepts – portmanteau words, the Romantic movement,
background, middle distance, foreground.
The myriorama was a 19
th
century game
made up of a sequence of cards that could
be rearranged into any order to still
produce a continuous scene.
The word "myriorama" reflects this, being a
composite of "myriad" and "panorama."
Words put together like this are sometimes called a portmanteau.
The art used in them has its roots in the Romantic movement that
was popular during the period, which gave landscapes a prestigious
place as examples of wild and natural beauty.
You can see an example of both a traditional and a modern day
myriorama on my website.
Go to http://archaeologicalillustration.weebly.com/victorian-parlour-games.html
You will need
•
A large sheet of
card (or several
smaller sheets of
card)
•
pen or pencil
•
colored pencils,
Think of an idea...
An ideal myriorama scene has several
horizontal bands that continue from card to
card. This is what allows the myriorama to
line up correctly no matter what order you
arrange the cards in.
paint, pastels,
crayons, whatever Often, this is a background, activity in the
you can think of
to colour in with.
•
1
Ruler
middle distance, activity in the foreground.
You could a create traditional rural scene
with sea, a river, or a continuous path full of interesting characters.
You can also create more modern scenes such as cityscapes, or
indoor scenes.
1.)Template
If you want to do a traditional rural scene, you might want to use
the template on the next page.
If you create your own, however, it has the advantage that you can
erase your guidelines later .
To make your own you need to measure out rectangles of equal size
on your sheet of card, and mark out the horizontal lines. You might
want to label the lines on the back or side so you remember what
they refer to.
Another idea – you could also make giant cards out of entire sheets
of card or canvasses! You will still have to measure out your lines
carefully.
2.) Draw details on the cards. Make sure that details are the same
at the edges. If you have a wall going off to the edge of one card, it
should keep going into all the other cards.
2
At this point if you have made your own template, you can erase
your guidelines.
3.) Color the Cards
You need to make sure that the horizontal bands of colour are the
same on all your cards. So, if you've got a sunset sky in one picture,
it has to be the same colour sunset in the other cards.
4. Carefully cut out the cards and enjoy!
If you would like, you can also stick magnets to the backs of your
cards to make them into fun fridge magnets. This lets you have a
different scene on your fridge any time you like!
Ideas Bank
Stuck for a theme for your cards? Here are some ideas you might want to
use.
Mad scientist's
Seaside
Street of houses
laboratory
School playground
Dinosaurs
Futuristic city
Magic woodland
Underwater
Space station
Fantasy castle
Fairground
Roman town
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