Siroos Pasdar

地图在导航中起着重要作用。詹姆斯·尼休斯用他独特的艺术手法绘制出一幅幅滑雪地图。

A map is a tool to help you navigate somewhere. But James Niehues takes a different approach to the maps he creates. Niehues is an artist who has sketched and painted more than 430 ski resort maps. He sees maps not only as a guide through the mountain， but also as a way to depict or represent the mountain to the individual who skis on it.

Niehues got into his career after being inspired by Bill Brown， another artist who painted ski maps. Brown， who liked Niehuess paintings， eventually turned his company over to him. Niehues grew up painting the scenic environment around him. In his maps， he sketches and paints every tree， shadow， slope， and car. Instead of using a computer， he sketches and paints in every detail by hand. “Most computer images remind you of the office instead of the great outdoors. The freedom that you have in hand⁃painting them is that you have a much freer expression. Your paint flows freely instead of being put there by a combination of numbers，” Niehues said.

Sketching every detail also makes his paintings more believable. Including the accurate type of tree， putting a tree in the middle of a slope， or even adding shadows to all of the trees helps viewers believe the map more and recreates their ski experience.

Typically， Niehues skis on the mountain that he will paint. He then flies around it， photographing the various slopes and valleys. The most challenging part of painting ski⁃resort maps is portraying all of the surfaces of a slope for him. As an artistic mapmaker， Niehues enjoys helping viewers not only navigate the mountain， but also understand their ski adventure.

What is the most challenging part of painting ski?resort maps for Niehues？