Shadows and Shapes

by **Toan Onox** on August 31st, 2014, 1:45 am

Shadows and Shapes
Summer 6th 514 AV, 11th Bell
Location: Toan's Room, The Safe Haven Hostel

It had to feel pretty warm outside considering the hostel building was no different, the very air had a interesting weight to it that could only be described as heat really, as the city as a whole had to be feeling the effects of a warm summer at this point. Toan had decided that he would spend a day taking it easy and complete a few sketches, in an attempt to gain some more form of experience as he familiarized himself with the ways of lighting and shading. Given that it'd been a while since he actually grew serious with drawing, he had to recollect the times he'd practiced before and what all he learned as a whole while he started from scratch. Most of the time he free handed his work and while it looked credible, it was still far from the ideal of perfection he somehow craved. Why he'd come to lose favor with such a wonderful talent was beyond him, but alas he wouldn't stop until he knew for sure he was capable of utilizing its true potential once more.

While he'd been focused on that Ven thought to take it easy for the day, his ideal of "taking it easy" being lazy and just laying about napping in the animal form he loved to take. It'd been a curious experience when he first saw the Kelvic shapeshift, but once he learned that Ven could materialize into the form of a fox, he knew then that he chose well in buying the slave the other day when summer began. "Heh, curious fellow." He mused quietly after he watched the creature sleep for only a moment, he then proceeded to take a look at the few sketches he'd fiddled around with came together. Seeing as how he wanted to get down the shapes of objects mostly he'd used up several of his pages just for practicing certain shapes, he'd used things like vases and cups that decorated his room for templates in how objects were constructed. All while that had been done he had to compare them with the real thing, and with each other given that certain aspects of the real thing were taken into consideration.

It was funny how it worked out really, most of the shapes were incomplete so that he could piece each template together, visually connect them to see just how alike the drawings could create the real thing. To his surprise there were quite a few similarities between these said shapes and the form of the things he viewed, however when it came to comparative standards his lines were still failed in terms of solid performance. Damn... He sighed as he let the papers go to fall down on the bed, a scattered pattern of drawings he deemed worthless at the center of his bed as he tried to recreate the image of his observation in his mind. There were lines and then there were shapes, shapes that connected and lost edges to remake the form of a vase or a mug. Shapes that had no real material form when they started, until he removed portions of lines that didn't matter and believed he had the form of the templates down as a whole. Except that was all in his head, so why was it that he failed to put it to paper so perfectly? It made little sense but he wasn't going to give up, not when this talent could very well make him a very reputable man in the future.

He took the papers before him once more, his eyes scanned for the corrections he would do well to make, and certainly he believed right then he knew where to start. All he would have to do is use these templates and once their mistakes were corrected, the real thing would most certainly be captured well by the artists mind. And in turn transferred to the blank space of the page next to him.

by **Toan Onox** on October 17th, 2014, 6:09 am

While his comparative thoughts took the templates he used and pieced them together, he decided to try and go over the areas of the shapes he'd created mistakes with and in turn use those corrections, so that he may better decide how the final outcome should look. Using the ovular shape made on a page to start with he went over a couple of areas where the lines looked squiggly, rather than straight, while the curvature of the shape seemed pretty good. It was the basic shape of the vase after all, now all that remained was to piece together the odd square that created the top, and in turn he could recreate it as one whole shape. As he focused on the square template he compared the shape to the actual top of the vase, its opening more rounded than he based it off of in the first comparison to begin with.

He went back over the shape and made the edges more rounded rather than squared, and overlooked the first made marks as they were no importance to him now. Comparison. It was by far one useful key that allowed him to piece things together, yet even so it didn't mean he'd make a perfect sketch as soon as the templates were put together. No the real perfection would come when he no longer needed the templates, the free handed expertise that most artists could do was a pursuit he aimed to achieve once more after all. He would get there eventually, as for now it all began with how shapes and shadows took form on his paper. With the blank sheet placed on the back of his sketchbook he placed the two pieces of the template for the vase together, and used them as his reference for the next step as he started on the whole thing to draw.

First he started with the basic oval form by drawing the sides, the lines branched over in a curve almost like lashes while he paused for a moment to angle the sheet. When he worked on the bottom of the vase he made a curve that was more straighter than the first two, which created the middle and base of the vase he started to sketch. When the three lines were connected he finally straightened the sheet and looked at the second part of his template, there he could see the parts of the rounded tip where the vase had an outward curve from the body. Carefully he drew light lines to map out this shape and in turn connect both ends with a top line that slightly curved at an angle. Now that the shape had been made it was time to compare his actual form, and from there darken the lines if they were indeed correct with the real thing.

by **Toan Onox** on October 17th, 2014, 7:08 am

The shape of the vase looked to come together finally, granted he spent enough chimes making it look exact. Yet it was a dull comparison to the real thing, as the vase in reality had life while the drawing, that on the other hand didn't seem to be so. An ovular shaped object that had but a few changes to the ends, it craved the one thing that Toan sought give it which could only be done with the form of shading. Life. Yes, while the drawing had a form it didn't have any realism captured, no the only thing it really held was but an ideal for realism. With the help of shading though that ideal could be made reality, and with it the drawing would have captured the essence of life he sought to etch.

With the paper tilted once more he looked at the shapes he drew and then took a couple of chimes to stare at the vase, inspected the areas closely from where he sat as his eyes took note of where areas were brighter and darker. The way the light hit the object made the majority of the front left reaches less bright in comparison to the other areas, Toan started at the sides where he saw the shading to be most prominent and tilted the charcoal on its side, and used the tip to create dark lines that slightly curved upward as he moved on down along the shape of the vase. He started from top to bottom and made sure to check both sides and add any missing areas he neglected to shade in, the form of reality he aimed to capture just vaguely present as his drawing looked to have a bit of realism found at the edges. But he was far from finished yet, seeing as how he had to shade even the gray areas to make the principles of perspective conform. Shading was by far an important concept to bear in mind, as it added depth and perception when it had been applied correctly.

Once he started on the lighter areas of shading he made sure to lightly brush the charcoal over the surface, as the paper soon had gray lines that soon met with the black ones at the side. Next was to blend the shading together, and the only simple way Toan knew how to do this was with his finger. After one last look at the lighting found on the vase, he turned the paper over to where the vase was upside down towards him, and in turn pressed the tip of his index finger to smear the black into the gray. At the same time the gray would smudge over into the lighter area, all while he made sure to continually ease his index finger with each smear he did until he reached the brightest areas of the vase.

This continued until at last the vase itself had a the form and design he sought, yet there was something that seemed to be missing... when he looked at the vase he based the drawing off of, he found that they were both quite similar to look at which seemed to be the goal. Yet even so it still failed to capture that essence of realism he looked for, and thankfully he knew just the reason why too when he compared the two further. The background of his drawing didn't exist, and without some form of shading to create a proper background his drawn vase would hold no form of reality. With this noted Toan looked at not the vase, but the space surrounding it now. How did the background behind it look? Was it brighter or darker? What angles did the shadows conform with the light? These questions made him take into consideration how the background was too look, and with the concept in mind he stared at the drawing once more.

He started from the upper left reaches where he knew the shading to be the lightest, and rather than go with filling in the darker spots first he outlined where they began. In turn he took the side of the charcoal tip and lightly filled in only a small amount of space on the left side of the vase, while the whole page of the right side was filled instead. Once this was done he then filled in areas that looked to be darker, while the outer reaches of the right grew darker when he reached closer to the edge of the paper. With a gentle blow to remove the grain that collected on his piece, he used the same index finger from earlier and smoothed out the shadows to blend them all together. Finally. His drawing looked to have the form of realism he desired, and while he knew there could definitely be better ones drawn, this was by far one of his better recent works.