Solo Sava Chivan's Closet

(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy role play forums. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)

Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

Sava Chivan's Closet

Postby Rosela on May 31st, 2013, 12:56 pm

Image

Tmestamp: 54th of Spring, 513AV

”Where’s my… Ugh, where’s my blue pencil!” Frayed to her last nerve, Rosela shuffled her various design papers around in frustration.

Letting her search furiously for a few moments, the shadows only spoke up when she nearly in tears. ”In your hair.”

She stopped immediately and felt the back of her head. True enough, her hair was held up with two pencils, and the memory of putting her blue and purple ones up there came back to her. ”…Thank you.”

The shadow didn’t deign to respond.

It was one of her few off days from the shop, but she was toiling away in the backroom, and had been well before Syna had risen. Sava Chivan’s designs were due in a few days time, and she was still finalizing her portfolio. Putting together an entire custom wardrobe was more difficult than she thought, and crumpled pages littered the floor of the workroom. Even a few in the ‘keep’ pile had wrinkles on them, after discarded designs had been later revisited and made worthy.

Page corners were sticking out from between of a pair of books stacked at the side of the desk, pressed there to remove their own wrinkles. It wasn’t fool-proof, but it allowed the pages to be workable again. She had no intention of submitting her working copies to Sava Chivan anyway; specially drawn copies would be made and given in a proper portfolio of work. The books currently pressing pages had a secondary purpose, to practice her drawing of the lithe Konti figure. In casual design, a generic female figure sufficed, as she didn’t need much more for her personal use. However, for Sava Chivan, professionalism needed to be at its peak.

The competition could be her big break, her designs worn where the entire population of Riverfall would see them. Her only trouble was the competition itself, and the various hacks that had entered next to her. They were all from the Zhongjie, none of them with the gumption to get a formal building. It was a small stroke of luck that it was only Sava who was getting the new wardrobe instead of her husband; with the high population of men in the city, there were many more men’s tailors. Her work still outshone any of them, of course, but more competition was still more risk.

As it was, she was finishing up some autumn designs, with lovely maroons and purples to offset the pale Konti skin. She started out with her usual generic figure, adding flowing lines around the waist for the long dress she already knew she wanted. Tiny puffs were added for bell shoulder sleeves, and more loose lines went in for the shirt. It was fairly plain thus far, and after shading in the various parts with pale maroon, she sharpened her dark purple pencil and added some doodles around the edges for some flowery embroidery. Two black crescents under the dress for slippers, and the look was complete. Holding the black pencil over the neck area, Rosela closed one eye and squinted, imagining it with a flowing black scarf. It would be too bold, she decided finally, and put the design in the ‘keep’ pile.


Image
Last edited by Rosela on July 22nd, 2013, 9:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Image

Have a moment? Maybe drop by and leave a peer review?
User avatar
Rosela
Bring me pretty things.
 
Posts: 906
Words: 739794
Joined roleplay: August 24th, 2012, 7:54 pm
Location: Riverfall
Race: Eypharian
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 6
Featured Character (1) Featured Contributor (1)
Featured Thread (1) Trailblazer (1)
Overlored (1) 2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Sava Chivan's Closet

Postby Rosela on July 22nd, 2013, 9:18 pm

Image

Her designs were nearly finished and Rosela walked barefoot around the workroom, stretching. The shadows were mostly silent, though she could, as always, feel them watching her. After one great twist, her back finally popped, and she felt comfortable enough to sit down again. It was time to take a break and go over her drawing style.

She picked up one of her previous designs, a fluffy cloak and mittens ensemble, and looked it over. The body underneath the clothing was so familiarly drawn that it was awkward to focus on. The head was admittedly too small, and everything about the posture seemed…stilted. Unnatural. The hands were oblong extensions of the arms, though she knew she did add detail when doing long sleeve shirts or something that involved the wrist.

The paper fluttered back to the desk and she leaned back in her chair. They were probably better than those hacks down in Zhongjie, but still, presentation counted for a lot.

She pulled over the first book at her left, a heavy, old anthropology volume on the Konti race. Flipping over the cover, she wrinkled her nose at the smell of musty paper, but started to thumb through the pages. An enormous amount of text, but a few etchings of what looked like ancient artifacts were included. Huffing irritably, Rosela grabbed a bunch of pages and went nearly to the back. She didn’t want ancient Kontis, she wanted modern ones.

She found a section on families, and found an image of a mother and child. Pulling up her paper on top of the opposite page, Rosela attempted to copy the woman’s figure from the etching. Two curved lines for the shoulders sloped down into strong lines for the arms. Twisting her lip, Rosela erased the arm lines. A bit too strong. Her next lines were better, and as one arm disappeared behind the child, she concentrated on the other. The elbow was a small, pointed joint, with a small dimple just inside, and the forearm tapered down to the wrist. It took her another try to get the curve of the forearm right. The hand was another story completely, and after nearly half bell of trying to match the etching there, she gave up and made an approximate outline instead.

Refocusing on the face, it took her multiple tries to get the eyes the same size and on the same level, and the nose ended up as a small line and curve with no nostrils. For some reason, she found removing the nostrils to look classier. The mouth was a smiling curve that itself had to be redrawn a couple times, and though the chin came out smaller, she felt it was more attractive than in the etching.

Sitting back, she admired her work and found it…not bad. Not great, but not bad.


Image
Image

Have a moment? Maybe drop by and leave a peer review?
User avatar
Rosela
Bring me pretty things.
 
Posts: 906
Words: 739794
Joined roleplay: August 24th, 2012, 7:54 pm
Location: Riverfall
Race: Eypharian
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 6
Featured Character (1) Featured Contributor (1)
Featured Thread (1) Trailblazer (1)
Overlored (1) 2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Sava Chivan's Closet

Postby Rosela on July 22nd, 2013, 9:20 pm

Image

After finishing the drawing of the woman, Rosela still found her stiff and flat. Holding her pencil to match the slant of the woman’s shoulders and hips, she found mistakes in the posture of her drawn woman, and when corrected, made it look much better. Taking some artistic license, she erased the somewhat unflattering lines of her shawl and redrew the shoulders thinner. Realizing after a moment why it looked odd, she added a pair of horizontal lines for the collarbone.

Below that drawing, she started another, this time from her imagination. Glancing at the etching, she first started with a pair of slanting lines, to indicate the angles of the shoulders and hips. A curving line for the spine, and an oval for the head. The hips were drawn in next, with the first version erased for a less curvy style. The arms and legs were featureless, though she once again had to thin up the thighs a bit. Hands and feet were her general outlines, not far from her formless oblongs, but looking much better.

The design followed over the body it, a cream colored dress with a pale green cincher and a low neckline. On a whim, she added a large dark green shawl, thrown more flatteringly around the upper arms instead of over the shoulders.

The figure was marginally better than before, though the bulky shawl hid her work on the arms and hands.

Rosela stretched back and cracked her drawing hand, yawning widely. Her stomach loudly informed her it was time for lunch, and she sighed, remembering she hadn’t brought anything. She was loathe to leave her work, but no good could come from working on an empty stomach.

When she got outside, she realized it was much later than she thought, and hurried anxiously to a tavern for something to eat.


Image
Image

Have a moment? Maybe drop by and leave a peer review?
User avatar
Rosela
Bring me pretty things.
 
Posts: 906
Words: 739794
Joined roleplay: August 24th, 2012, 7:54 pm
Location: Riverfall
Race: Eypharian
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 6
Featured Character (1) Featured Contributor (1)
Featured Thread (1) Trailblazer (1)
Overlored (1) 2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Sava Chivan's Closet

Postby Rosela on July 22nd, 2013, 9:21 pm

Image

When she got back, she was full, and tired enough for a nap, but her work wasn’t going to do itself. She started in on drawing again, this time replicating a design she’d chosen to keep. Practicing could take forever, but she needed to settle on her skills and get the final pages done. She had hoped to do the final work in ink, but she didn’t trust herself to go straight to the very permanent lines. Pencils first, then ink over the major lines later.

Imagining a woman walking, she drew a smaller version of the body on the corner of the previous practice page. Head held high, shoulders straight, tilted hips, with one foot in front of the other. Still sitting, Rosela tilted her hips slightly, attempting to hold her hands up in a semi-natural position. It took her a few pseudo-poses to realize her shoulders were tilting as well, and even further, that it made her head tilt the other way to compensate. Erasing her doodle, she added the extra tilt to the shoulders and head, and found the result much more satisfying.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled up a clean sheet of paper, and began to slowly, painstakingly, redraw the figure. She kept the lines light, to be easily erased around the clothing design itself, and erased and redrew several areas. Finally, the base body was done, and she pulled up the design that would be layered on top of it. It was one of the crumpled papers, and she pressed at it uselessly to flatten it further. She held the design paper up in one hand, as she switched to her colored pencils and began slowly copying the design onto the sheet.

She moved quicker with the clothing, as she was much more familiar expressing the fold of a dress and the fall of a sleeve than the limbs underneath them. A pale blue skirt materialized on the now-erased penciled hips, with rows of ruffles that would create the illusion of curvier hips. With her hand beginning to grow sore, she made small shadows under each ruffle, making the design much more lively.

Erasing the lines of the waist, a sleeveless shirt of paler blue was drawn in on the torso, with matching ruffles across the bottom hem. In her original design, she’d included smaller ruffles at the neck, but a hair before she put her pencil down to create them, she shied off. There was a lot of movement with the lower ruffles, and leaving the neck ruffles off made it seem less busy.

A pair of white shoes at the base completed the look, and with an anxious breath, Rosela put down the pencils and picked up the ink and quill.


Image
Image

Have a moment? Maybe drop by and leave a peer review?
User avatar
Rosela
Bring me pretty things.
 
Posts: 906
Words: 739794
Joined roleplay: August 24th, 2012, 7:54 pm
Location: Riverfall
Race: Eypharian
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 6
Featured Character (1) Featured Contributor (1)
Featured Thread (1) Trailblazer (1)
Overlored (1) 2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Sava Chivan's Closet

Postby Rosela on July 22nd, 2013, 9:25 pm

Image

She tested the ink on her doodle sheet, making line after line until she found the right speed to move her hand that took away the small trembles in the line. As an additional practice with the ink, she signed her name in expressive Arumenic script. It showed her how much ink could be held in the nib before it needed to be dipped, but the bells were wearing on and she needed to get moving.

The first stroke around the head was too thin and trembling, but another pass thickened up the line and hide it nicely. Two dark almonds became the eyes, and Rosela made a mental note not to use so much ink on them in the next one. They were slightly larger than she intended as the ink soaked into the paper and spread. They weren’t an outrageous size, however, so she continued. The shoulders and arms were easier, with long sweeps of the quill, though an errant dot next to the hand had to be turned into an impromptu pinky.

Continuing down the body, she found the ruffles easy and the ink flowed nicely with the design. Though she’d included small crescent lines under the knees in her sketch, she opted to leave them out of the ink, feeling they’d be too dark and odd-looking. A traitorous twitch of her fingers as she was rounding the feet – in the home stretch – made the line for slightly astray. Growling at herself, she went back over the bottoms of the feet with slightly thicker lines, and told herself to do it on all the designs, so it looked more natural.

It seemed impossible that one design be finished and pure, but as she sat back and looked at the bold image in front of her, a smile twitched at her lips. One down…only her entire portfolio left to go.

~

By the end of the day, all three of Rosela's right hands were sore from the painstaking detail of drawing, but the majority of her designs were laid out around the workroom for the ink to dry. The maroon portfolio was laid atop the pair of library books, waiting to receive design pages into each of its sections: meticulously labelled Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Fall. Back, arms, and shoulders also sore, Rosela trudged out of the shop at dinner time, disappointed she hadn't finished it all already. She was already planning how many more evenings it would take to finish after the shop closed each day, aiming to finish well before the deadline.


Image
Image

Have a moment? Maybe drop by and leave a peer review?
User avatar
Rosela
Bring me pretty things.
 
Posts: 906
Words: 739794
Joined roleplay: August 24th, 2012, 7:54 pm
Location: Riverfall
Race: Eypharian
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 6
Featured Character (1) Featured Contributor (1)
Featured Thread (1) Trailblazer (1)
Overlored (1) 2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

Sava Chivan's Closet

Postby Banickle on August 4th, 2013, 6:34 pm

Image
And the Mozcar for Best PC in a Leading Role goes to... :
YOU!

Greetings Rosela,

I have reviewed your fashionable thread and awarded you the following
Experience and Lore:

  • 4 Points in Drawing
  • 3 Points in Fashion Design
  • 1 Point in Observation
  • 1 Point in Planning
  • A Little Competition Never Killed Anyone…Right?
  • Researching Your Subject Matter Certainly Helps

If you have any questions or concerns, in regard to these awards, do not hesitate to send me a Private Message. Also, remember to update your Character Sheet, as soon as possible, so that everyone can see the fruits of your labor!

Happy Writing,
Image

"May I swing you a lullaby? Shall I slay you a tune? It will be fun, I promise, to fear my croon!"
User avatar
Banickle
Shall I slay you a tune?
 
Posts: 340
Words: 138636
Joined roleplay: April 23rd, 2013, 12:36 am
Location: Kenash, Cyphrus Region
Race: Staff account
Office
Medals: 1
Featured Contributor (1)


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests