Solo Put Your Hands Up For Ahnatep

[Trista]

Fall 44, 512 AV

Trista had been biding her time before making a further pursuit of the mystery of Eloab, and her more or less aimless journeys had led her at this moment to Ahnatep. It wasn't her first visit to the city, but its half-destroyed glory spoke to her each time she arrived.

As for what she was doing during her visit, it naturally included practicing her art. The Eypharians weren't overly fond of most other races -- indeed, Trista sometimes wondered whether they even really liked each other -- but given that Ahnatep was one of the closest cities to Abura, and that the Akvatari shared something of the Eypharians' love for art and culture, the Children of the Sea and Sky received something of a grudging tolerance here.

Certainly, it was enough of a tolerance for Trista to be able to set up her traveling easel at the side of one of the city's thoroughfares and work on some drawings. She had done a few sketches of nearby buildings, but she was hoping to be able to convince someone to sit for a portrait. Eypharians presented some interesting challenges in drawing -- the multiple arms and the subtle differences between their anatomy and a human's or an Akvatari's -- and Trista was always interested in an artistic challenge.

[Trista]

"Pardon me, ma'am -- would you like your portrait drawn?"

The person to whom Trista's inquiry was directed was a four-armed young woman, perhaps fifteen years old. She was, of course, elaborately made up and costumed, but not so elaborately as to mark her as a member of the local nobility. She stopped walking at Trista's question, and looked at the Akvatari with an expression that was half interest and half coldness.

She said something to Trista that the artist failed utterly to comprehend -- Trista spoke passable Konti, but that was her only foreign langugage, and she understood no Arumenic at all. After a pause to let Trista's ignorance of the local culture sink in, the girl spoke again, but this time in Common.

"Have you skills worthy of your subject?" Her tone was diffident, even bored.

"No skills could be truly worthy," Trista replied smoothly, "but mine would perhaps not do her violence." She reached into her satchel and produced three sketches that she had done during her recent stay in Yahebah. Two were architectural drawings, and one was a seascape into which she had added a visiting Konti. She was careful not to include any of her Benshira portraits, knowing how the Eypharians felt about those people.

The girl's eyes betrayed her interest -- she had not yet mastered the glaze of indifference with which nearly all adult Eypharians could mask their feelings -- but her voice remained the same as she said, "I suppose it will be sufficient, islander."

"I thank you humbly for your attentions," Trista said. That seemed to be the proper way to proceed. Her model gave the slightest possible nod, and then sat down on a nearby low stone wall. Trista made no attempt to pose her -- it would add to the challenge of the drawing to have to work with whatever her model chose, and Trista didn't really feel like negociating with the young woman anyway.

The model chose a seated pose turned forty-five degrees away from Trista, with two arms down, and the other two running through her artificially reddened hair. Trista took a moment to carefully observe the pose, and then took a relatively hard pencil from her case and got to work.

[Trista]

Trista was glad that the girl had chosen a pose that separated her upper and lower arms, as this made the task of sketching the outline of the torso easier. The second "shoulders" were plainly visible, at least on the left side. The curvature of the ribs in that area was not a perfect match for that of a human, and Trista tried as hard as possible to draw it exactly as she saw it. That, after all, was one of the first lessons she had learned in her earliest drawing lessons - draw what you see, not what you think you ought to see. Mental shortcuts were the enemy of realism, and since in this instance, realism was at least something of a consideration, this fact was important to keep in mind.

Once the general outline of her subject's body was in place, Trista began to fill in the clothing. Her model's ensemble was a sort of fringed skirt, with a top that seemed to be composed of four interwoven sashes. Although she was using a monochrome pencil, and so could not attempt to capture the brilliant reds and blues of the fabrics, she used tiny crosshatches and half-tones to try and convey the differences in shade.

The intricate folds of the top were difficult to capture accurately. They didn't lie in the same way that a standard shirt worn by someone with two arms would. The Akvatari gritted her teeth and examined her model more intently. Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

[Trista]

She erased her previous lines and started again. This time, she tried to remove all mental obstacles between her eye and her hand. Let the drawing take on the shape of what is seen, with no interpolations of what "should" be there.

It wasn't easy, but this time, the folds began to take the proper shape. Once the lines of the folds were in place, she switched to a softer pencil and added shading. The Akvatari nodded to herself. That was better.

Now, it was on to the model's face. The shape of the facial features wasn't all that challenging-- what was critical was getting the girl's expression right. It was a strange mixture of uncertainty and haughtiness, a slight sneering curl of the lip, combined with something around the eyes that was hesitant, even nervous.

[Trista]

Since the facial structure of an Eypharian wasn't markedly different from that of the more common races, Trista was able to complete this section fairly quickly. The slightly widened eyes, the pridefully crooked mouth -- the artist spent time on these, but didn't find them overly difficult. When she had finished, she hoped that the model wouldn't find it uncomfortably accurate, and accuse Trista of being unflattering. That wasn't out of the question, unfortunately.

At any rate, it was now time for the finishing touches. The streaks of kohl on the model's face were added in with a heavier pencil, and the olivine skin was approximated using very light shading and a tortillion. Then, the bracelets on her arms, the rings around her neck, and pendants dangling from her ears. Fortunately, none of the jewelry was unorthodox enough to require extra work, as Trista could see her model growing impatient.

The sweep of her hair, the addition of the wall and a few other background features, and Trista was finished. "That's all," she said. "Would you like to take a look?"

[Trista]

The girl swept down from her perch on the wall and moved to have a look. As she did so, her face went through a complicated series of expressions -- surprise, embarrassment, and finally anger.

"Not do violence, islander?" Her voice was cold, but with a tremulous note that she could not fully control. "Is this what the Gods-forsaken consider a joke? I don't know why you've chosen to insult me this way, but this frightened, posturing child is no reflection of me."

Is too, Trista thought. "I apologize if I have offended," the artist said. "I am sorry to have wasted your time, and I shall not ask you to purchase the drawing." She took it from the easel and went to put it in her satchel.

"Wait!" Whether it was a simple desire not to have nothing to show for her sitting time, or whether she was afraid that Trista would try and sell the drawing here in Ahnatep to someone who might recognize the model, she clearly didn't want to let Trista keep the drawing. "I'll give you four silvers for it."

It was an insultingly lowball offer, and Trista knew that she was intended to feel it as a slap in the face. But the Akvatari had little interest in money -- what she wanted was practice, and she'd already achieved that. No amount of churlish negotiating on the Eypharian's part could take that away from her.

"Four silvers then," Trista said with a nod. She handed the drawing to the model, who was visibly taken aback by the fact that Trista hadn't taken the bait -- and was willing to part with the drawing for such a low price.

"Here," the Eypharian said, pressing the coins into Trista's hand. "Maybe use it to pay for some lessons." She flounced away, leaving Trista alone again on the side of the road.

[Trista]

It was well enough, Trista thought. She sat with her sketchbook for the next hour, trying to draw the model's face from memory, checking to see if she could, in fact, erase the nervous scowl and draw a more pleasant expression.

She could, she decided after her third try, but it was lacking an essential honesty. What it was she couldn't exactly say -- it seemed to be something that hid between the pencil lines rather than something inherently dishonest in the drawing -- but the more cheerful the girl in the drawing's expression became, the less Trista liked the results. It was so difficult to create great art and lie at the same time.

With a sigh, Trista packed her satchel again. The coins rattled in the side pocket, but they wouldn't stay there for long. Again, it was a good thing that Trista didn't need to have any money in order to eat and sleep, because she certainly couldn't handle her finances even a quarter as well as she could handle a pencil.

[Colombina]

The XP Wand Is Waved! I don't know how you managed it, but you made a thread about drawing something I wanted to read. I'd do a horrid job if the responsibility fell to me. There's a kind of contemplative stillness to the style you have for Trista that is soothing to read. Also, I appreciated the commentary on Eypharians (do they really like each other?) The sitter was a brief character but explained well enough for me to understand her on some level. Lovely work here. Trista's Loot 3 XP Drawing 2 XP Obseravtion 1 XP Negotiating Lore of Cross Hatching techniques Lore of how to draw Eypharian faces and figures Colombina is pleased.