The Flower (Solo)

[Maya Frostfawn]

Timestamp: Fall 23, 523 AV The day was young, and the sun's rays should have been strong, vibrant. But they were nothing more than a pale yellow streak of sadness drifting lazily in through the dusty window. Even so, they were enough for Maya to see by, to work by, and she had decided that she would work on her drawing skills before heading out into the world for another day of work as the good doctor's assistant. She had already made herself comfortable at the table, set her empty book, quill, and vial of ink before her. Now it was time to begin. But what would she draw? For a moment she thought, before settling on a flower. She had seen hundreds if not thousands of those during the course of her lifetime; she could not imagine they would be particularly difficult to draw. So, with that idea in mind, she opened her book to the first blank page, patted it down with her hand so it would not flip out of place, opened her vial of ink, reached for her quill, dipped it into the ink, brushed it off on the vial so it would not drip, and prepared herself to draw. Another moment, and she had pulled her quill over to her blank page and drawn a delicately curving line from the base of her page toward its center. She stopped when it was a touch above what would be the center of the page. A moment later, and she had drawn another, slightly sloppier line to the right of the first, that followed its trajectory. Together, they would form the stem of the flower, and make it appear as though it were growing out of the bottom of the page, as though the soil lay somewhere beneath it. When she had finished adding the stem, she paused to survey her work, and realized that it looked rather sparse. Stems tended to have leaves, for example, and a mixture of light and shadow upon their body, which lent them a degree of depth her drawing sorely lacked. She wasn't entirely sure how to add the depth she desired to the stem itself, and decided that she would experiment a little and see what happened. After all, how else could she learn? Thus, she began scratching a series of lines into the pair she had already produced. They were short and swift scratches of quill against paper, as though she were trying to cast shadows against the stem with her quill. When she had finished making these lines in what she felt to be the most important portions of her flower's stem, the top, the middle, and the bottom, she stopped to survey her work and realized she had made it appear as though she had begun to color her drawing in and had done a terrible job of it. Perhaps, because she had run out of ink or something, but whatever the case, it didn't look quite right. Frowning, she added another series of lines to the open areas she had left earlier, similar to the first series of smaller lines she had added to fill in the stem earlier. This time, when she pulled away, it looked a tad more natural to her, as though the stem had a bit of texture, but there was still something off about it she could not quite place. Unsure as to what to do about it at the moment, she decided to move on to the leaves and perhaps, had she the time, come back to the issue of the flower's stem a little later. When Maya considered which leaves to add to her flower, she realized that they came in all different sizes, shapes, and colors. The color wasn't really an issue here, since all she had was black ink, they were going to be black. But the size and shape mattered; they should be in line with the nature of the flower she was attempting to depict. Since the page was small, and she liked delicate things, she decided she would make the leaves smaller to mirror the flower's delicate nature. But that left shape and whether or not they would have teeth. She never liked teeth, and decided she wouldn't try to depict them here, and since it seemed simplest, she would aim for more of a teardrop shape. With these things in mind, she refreshed the ink on her quill and set to work. Word Count: 744 Words

[Maya Frostfawn]

Maya began by drawing the leaf on the right side of the stem. She drew a curved line that made it seem as though she were beginning an oval, which stretched from the edge of the stem, roughly halfway up its length, to its right side. Then she drew another curving line beneath it, which created a rather anorexic-looking, slightly furled leaf. Unhappy with it, she proceeded to draw a second curving line beneath that one, to widen the leaf, convinced she could turn the original line she had created to mark the bottom of the leaf into the place from where its veins stemmed. When she was done, she stopped to survey her work, which she realized was not great, but had improved with the addition of that second line, if only a little. Smiling faintly, she created a mirror of this initial leaf on the opposite side of the flower's stem, with a few quick strokes of her quill against the paper. Feeling that wasn't enough however, she crafted the skeletal outline of a third leaf a bit above the leaf she had drawn on the right side of the stem, earlier. She did not draw another. Clearly, these leaves were not complete; they needed all of the little details, which clearly distinguished them as leaves, their veins and something to denote their texture, if she could figure out how to do it. She began by drawing what she felt would be easiest, the veins that coursed through each leaf. In two leaves she had not already added the line for, she added a line that roughly divided them in half. Then, she tilted her page a little with a quick flick of her wrist to make the next phase easier, and began to draw lines emanating out of the line she had just drawn, and the extra she had placed earlier during the course of her day. These lines stretched from that central, dividing line, to the end of the leaf. They were all diagonal in nature, and reached from a lower point on the central vein, to a higher point on the leaf. When she was finished, she stopped to survey her work and replenish the ink on her quill. As the nuit studied her drawing, she realized that the leaves looked rather juvenile, and as though they were missing something. Maybe she should add some smaller veins coming out of the larger? Maybe that would make it appear more natural? She wasn't sure, and for a moment, wished she had a leaf to study, any leaf would do, but she didn't have the time or inclination to go find one, and simply set to work with the idea that had popped into her mind. She began adding some uneven, wavering lines that stretched out of those veins she had drawn previously. Sometimes, they held hands at the end, or wove together. Some wove around each other. Some bled when she didn't raise her quill quickly enough. Some were too thick, while others were too thin, and seemed as ethereal as a spider's web. Some were hazy, others clear. But all of them were different shapes. And when she took a moment to survey the work she had done, she realized she had made a rather interesting... mess. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it to be honest; she wasn't even sure it was an improvement or if she liked it either. But it was something, an experiment meant to teach, and she was learning that drawing was far more difficult than she had anticipated, and would probably be far easier if she had a model. Something she endeavored to ensure she had the next time she went at the paper with ink and quill. But she had no time now, and had to press on, so she replenished the ink on her quill, quickly traced the outline of everything she had just done with fresh ink, and set her mind toward determining how she wanted to draw the flower and its petals, considering that they too, similar to the leaves, came in so many different sizes, shapes, and colors. Fortunately, color wasn't an issue here. All she had was black. But the size and shape was something she needed to consider before she could continue her drawing. Since she had kept the leaves and stem fairly small, a more delicate flower likely made the most sense. But what type of petals should she draw? The tiny clusters associated with wildflowers? Something as simple as a tulip's? Or a rose's? Or something more complex? Should she blend some different flowers together into something of her own making? Or should she try to keep it as basic as possible for now? Would that even be the best way to learn? She wasn't entirely sure, and ultimately, decided to see where her hand wanted to take her. Word Count: 821 Words

[Maya Frostfawn]

Maya began by scratching an oval atop the stem she had drawn earlier. It was so wide that it appeared nearly circular, even though one side was a tad flat in appearance. The oval was perhaps a half inch in diameter. A tad shorter than that high. When she was done drawing that, she began drawing small circles inside it. Filling it in in its entirety with iddy biddy circles. It made the area seem crowded, so she colored some of them in with straight lines, running up and down, to see if it would help. It didn't. It just seemed like she had done a bad coloring job. Perplexed, she added a few lines to some of the circles she had left open, and speckles to others. Which just made everything appear worse. Unsure how to fix it now, she decided to move on. This mess of an oval would be the place from which all of the petals of her flower emanated. After replenishing her quill with fresh ink, the nuit proceeded to draw slender, oblong petals, which stretched out of the oval she had just drawn. As she drew each petal, she turned the page in various directions to make it easier for her to work. When she was done, she realized that the petals looked a lot of those on daisies, but weren't quite right, because if she remembered correctly, the side closest to that central circle, from which the petals emanated, should have been flatter and less round, as though they had had their bottoms cut off simply so they could grow out of that central circular point. Thus, her drawing appeared even more juvenile than it had previously. She wondered if she could amend the issue by adding more details to the drawing and began to add what more experienced artists may refer to as "shading." Out of that central point from whence her petals grew, she drew a series of short lines. Although roughly the same length, some were a bit longer than others. Lending them a slightly bumpy appearance as she drew line after line, right next to one another, shoulder to shoulder, until every petal's connective tissue was bound to the central point with a series of lines of slightly varying length. Although a bit crude in their delivery, Maya liked how they looked, and decided to try a similar effect with the petal's opposite end. Thus, she replenished the ink on her quill once again, and drew a similar series of lines on the outer edge of a single one of her petals, drawing them from the edge in, in a relatively straight series of lines. It was as though a wavering shadow rested there, she realized, when she pulled her quill back and studied her work. There was something pretty and natural about it, even though some of her lines were too thick and others too thin, and it was clear she seriously needed to improve her technique. To give herself more time to practice, and the chance to continue adding a feature to her drawing that she enjoyed the appearance of, Maya continued to draw these lines in each of the remaining petals, when she was finished, she decided that she wanted to continue experimenting with the appearance of the flower's petals. Simply to see what she liked best, since this drawing was experimental in nature and meant to be a learning experience more than anything else. After all, she had no intentions of showing her art to anybody, or trying to sell it. So, experimenting to improve her art was not only a good learning experience, but also a spot of fun for the nuit, who liked learning new things and acquiring new skills. Word Count: 627 Words

[Maya Frostfawn]

For her first artistic experiment, Maya drew a line through the center of one of her petals. She wanted to see what would happen if she tried to give it a veinier appearance, as she had the leaves. After drawing this initial, divisive line, she drew several smaller branching lines growing out of it. These lines had a strange sort of flow, for on one side of the petal, they stretched diagonally downward, and on the other, diagonally upward, so it was though they were flowing in an endless current around the length of the petal. It looked a little strange, but she felt as though she could make it better if she added a few more details with some carefully placed lines. Maya did this by recreating what she had done with the little shadows earlier, like the ones that stretched out of the place the petal came from. When she added these short lines, her quill scratching against the paper, she created them on alternating sides of the tiny veins. So, if one set of lines were crafted on the right side of a vein, the next set was crafted on the left side of the following tiny vein. The lines were relatively straight in nature, but they had a bit of a slant to them to work better with the trajectory of the line they stemmed from. When she was done adding in all of these tiny lines, Maya set her quill into the vial of ink and studied her work. It was messy, and appeared as though that petal had a peculiar pattern or a strange way of showing shadow. She squinted. Or maybe it was just a little fuzzy? It could be a number of things, but whatever the case, it wasn't the most attractive. Back to the drawing board, Maya thought as she took her quill in hand again, and brushed the extra ink off its tip. She watched the black droplet slide down the side of the glass, back into the pool of ink waiting below, before returning to her work. For this next petal, she decided to simply add the little shadow lines at random to its body. Some of the lines wouldn't stretch from one side of the petal to the other, and some would come out shorter than others, but she still wanted to keep them all relatively the same length. Thus, she set to work scratching more lines into the paper. When she was done making these little lines all over her petal's length, she took a moment to study her work, and realized it looked like it had just been colored in peculiarly again, or its shadow was just a bit off or something. No matter, she would try something else next. Something simple. This time, Maya followed the length of the line she had created to represent the outer edge of a petal, drawing another line just beside it. Then she drew another line just beside that one, which followed its length from one end of the petal to the other. She repeated this process over and over and over again, her quill's point scratching against the paper as she filled in the petal with a series of long lines, stretching from the top to the bottom of the petal. Carefully lain one after the other, although several brushed and interwove. This, she realized, more than anything, made it seem as though she had colored it in for the sake of coloring it in. Although, she liked the even tone of its coat. Perhaps, if she incorporated aspects of what she had done before, she'd come out with something beautiful. So, for her next petal, Maya repeated the process she had just used with her last petal, filling in this one with long lines. Then, she went back over the shorter lines she had put in place earlier, darkening them and leaving an occasional wide bead of ink in the places she had pressed down too hard. When she was done with that, she added a few more thinner patches of lines toward the center of the petal, spanning outwards at what she felt were key points. Another moment, and she went over all the lines again, before studying her work. It needed something. Delicately, she traced some of the longer lines with her quill again, stopped to study her work again. Yes, this is something. A good direction to go in, although I'm not entirely sure why that is. She repeated this process with the next petal she had drawn for additional practice. That left two more petals for her to work with. Again, she repeated the process with the next petal, improving on her technique but not by much, some of her lines were too thin, others too thick. Some were just sloppy because they wavered so much. And there were drops of ink on the paper from when there had been too much on her quill or she had pressed too hard and when she squinted, she realized she had bent the paper too with her hurried strokes, somehow. No matter, this was all practice anyway. And practice made perfect. Word Count: 868 Words

[Maya Frostfawn]

With the final petal, Maya wanted to try something different simply because she could. Instead of drawing long lines that followed the length of the first two she had created to outline her petal, she decided she would make a series of short lines that curved like the top of a bunny's ear, decalitely over the length of the petal. So it would have these tiny, rounded lines spanning from the top of the petal, all the way toward its base, until it was covered in its entirety. But the lines themselves would only run from one side of the petal to the other. Maya began adding these lines, running her quill back and forth, letting it bounce off one side of the quill before moving it back in the opposite direction, over and over and over again, until she had made her way all the way down the length of the petal. When she was finished, she paused to survey her work and realized that the lines were a touch lighter than she would have liked. So, she went back over them with her quill, both thickening and darkening the lines, and adding a few extras when her tracery wasn't the finest. When she was done, she realized she had just made a bit of a mess of her work, and the petal seemed oddly fuzzy for some reason she could not quite discern. And when she took it all in, she realized that it looked even sloppier because some petals were more uniform while others were entirely different, but that was to be expected given how she had approached this particular project. Now, she just needed to add a final touch or two to finish off her drawing. She decided she would add the sun in the upper right-hand corner of the page and call it a day. Since she didn't want it to dominate the image and take the focus away from the flower, she decided she would have a portion of the sun off the page, leaving only a small portion of it to show on the page. After replenishing her quill with some fresh ink, she began to draw the sun by drawing a cut-off half circle around the edge of the page. From there, she filled it in a little with some wispy, swirling lines, which gave the illusion of wind. Not exactly what she had been going for, so she just colored the sun in, making it black as night. When she was done, she refilled her quill with ink again before moving onto the final phase of her sun's creation, its rays. For these, she figured she'd draw lines of varying length emanating from the sun she had already drawn. A moment and she had added the lines to her drawing. It looked like the work of a child. In an attempt to make it better, she drew several smaller lines beside the original, longer rays she had drawn. These lines filled in all the space between the longer rays, and made things look a little better, but still not great. To experiment, she decided to add a similar series of lines farther down between the longer rays to see how it would look... it didn't look right. In fact, it looked pretty stupid and out of place. But she didn't know how to fix it any more than she had the time. She had to start getting ready for work, had to get a disguise together before heading out to be the good doctor's assistant. So, she set her quill down on the table, closed up her vial of ink, and shut the book with a small thud, smearing the ink that had yet to dry, although she would not know as much until she opened to that page again some time in the future. A moment and she had begun to gather all the things she would need for her disguise onto the table. And again, she set to work, this time, painting herself as opposed to the page. Word Count: 679 Words