Completed Sailing Adventures

[Lyra Nix]

The 20th of Winter 520

It was a day like any other at Tain’s Studio. Nat was fully immersed in a new painting, barely acknowledging Lyra’s presence when she arrived. Tain was nowhere to be seen, but could be heard in the pottery area as per usual, clearly engrossed in his own project. Lyra smiled to herself as she made her way to her station, simply falling into her place in the routine of things. She admired how easy it was to settle into her role there. It felt like she’d simply stumbled upon family working there, and it made her love what she does all that much more because of it.

Her commission for the day was waiting on the table, it’s usual place of rest if Nat and Tain were both busy. Her backpack with her kit still hung from one shoulder while she studied the note left for her.
Today’s piece was for a woman wanting to surprise her husband. She’d married a Svefra and he kept his casinor docked at Lhavit’s Tranquil Port. The note went on to explain that she wanted a portrait of his casinor docked in the port, with a little bit of the surrounding “beach” and coast, with room for Lyra to take a few liberties in how she put it all together.

The idea delighted Lyra, eagerly turning and heading out of the Studio. As a Lhavit native, she knew of the Port Tranquil, but she’d never been there. She’d never had a reason, until now. Her feet carried her along familiar paths while she formed a plan in her head. She’d cross Tenten and Sartu Peaks, make her way down to the Port, make a rough sketch in her notebook, and then head back to the Studio to transfer her ideas to the canvas. Sounded simple enough. Her unfamiliarity with Tenten and Sartu Peaks however might prove to make things slightly more difficult than anticipated.

Finding her way through Tenten Peak was a bit strange but not altogether hard, Lyra keeping her direction as straight as possible, knowing a bridge waited on the other side if she could just not wander too far off course. She kept her head mostly down, not allowing herself to get distracted by the new sights around her. She eventually made it to the bridge and crossed over to Sartu Peak. From here, finding the gates to Lhavit was fairly easy, and she knew there was a path down to the Port at the gates.

She could see some of the Port down below, but the path was steep and she suspected slippery down towards the bottom. She would need to take her time if she wanted to reach the bottom safely. Adjusting her backpack to a more secure position, Lyra took the first step down, followed by the next. She focused her attention on her feet, scanning the ground before taking each step, finding her footing and making sure it was solidly in place before taking the next. It was a slow pace, but one that would ensure her safety.


Word Count: 511

[Lyra Nix]

The sound of a bell rang through the air as Lyra continued her trek down to Port Tranquil. Guesstimating her progress, Lyra believed she was about halfway between the Amaranthine Gate and the Port at this point. As she suspected, the path was becoming more and more damp the further down she traveled. Even when she was sure her foot was securely in place, Lyra found that if she wasn’t careful shifting her weight, her foot would slip a little bit. This only grew worse as she neared the fog rolling off the water. Nothing was beyond the effect of the fog, its mist dampening Lyra’s hair and clothes as she traversed it.

Finally reaching the bottom, Lyra sighed with relief as she took in the sight of the Port. It was small and modest, Lhavit didn’t really need it all that much, with just a handful of docks stretching out into the water. The casinor the note had described was docked there, one of only two at the present. Pebbles crunched under foot as Lyra made her way along the edge of the water, eyes rabidly scanning for a good angle to start sketching her ideas from.

Once she found it, the artist removed her backpack, taking out her charcoal and notebook. She let her bag rest on the ground while she stood. Her notebook lay open, cradled and balanced between her ribs and her forearm, her free hand already going to work with the charcoal. Using light pressure, Lyra sketched the casinor in the middle of the page as it was the focal point of the whole piece. Alongside it went the vague shape of the dock and from the back end of that, the shoreline curving around it on both sides. A faint horizon line crossed the page behind all of it. It was a simple sketch, one almost unworthy of the trek down there, but it would serve its purpose when all this was done on canvas.

Studying the casinor for any particular details she’d need to include, Lyra noted that the owner must’ve seen the beauty in simplicity for the casinor was a beautiful but otherwise plain vessel. It was wooden in its construction with a basic white sail hanging from the mast. It held a very serene presence as it rested silently beside the dock. Lyra had never been one who was into boats or the ocean outside of an artist’s perspective, but she enjoyed the feeling warming her as she studied the casinor.

Pulling her focus back to the task at hand, Lyra packed her notebook and charcoal back into her backpack, securing it on both shoulders before heading back to the path she’d come from. She would now have to carefully make her way back up to the Amaranthine Gate and back across the Peaks to the Studio to begin painting. Taking a deep breath, Lyra steeled herself for the climb. One foot in front of the other, she began the journey home.


Word Count: 501

[Lyra Nix]

Making her way back to the Studio had gone about the same as making her way to the Port had, with the mild difference that she could pick her route and direction with much more ease on the return trip. Having just traversed the area that morning, the sights and roads were still fresh in Lyra’s mind. After this commission was completed though, she’d have no real use for venturing back into Tenten or Sartu Peaks, so she’d surely forget them again. She’d made decent time climbing the path from the docks to the gates and made even better time getting back to the Studio.

Heading to her station, Lyra placed her backpack on the table, removing her notebook and art kit and setting them alongside. She retrieved an easel next and once it was set up, went to peruse the available canvases. Most were too large for what she had in mind and a few were even too small, but she eventually found one that would do well for her purpose. Lyra placed it on the easel and ventured over to the paints. She had a visual in her mind of the finished product and now needed to gather the necessary colors and materials to bring that visual to life.

She would need brown for the casinor, white for its sail and the clouds above it, blue for the water and the sky once she mixed the appropriate shade, grey for the dock and shoreline, and black for detail and depth. Carrying all the colors to her station took several trips but Lyra soon had all she needed. She laid out an assortment of bowls and added a color to each one, leaving one empty for mixing. In that bowl, Lyra first added blue, judging the amount based on adding more to it with the next color. Next, she added in white, putting only a few drops in at a time and mixing them together in between until she had her desired shade.

Retrieving her brushes from her kit, Lyra laid them out next to the bowls of paint for easy access when she reached that stage of her process. Before she could paint however, she’d need to first re-sketch the scene from her notebook onto the canvas. Pulling her charcoal pieces from her kit, Lyra selected a medium sized piece from her collection to place her guidelines with.

Visualizing the scene on the canvas, Lyra began in much the same way as she had with her notebook. Near the middle of the workspace, she used mild pressure to glide the charcoal across the area and began sketching the shape of the casinor’s hull. From there she drew the tall mast stretching for the sky above. This put the main subject as the focus point and would allow her to tailor the rest of the painting and the perspective to support that focus. Hands steady from practice, Lyra added in the dock beside the ship and the curving shoreline around it. Lastly, she drew the horizon line behind it all to divide the areas for the sky and the water. Stepping back to make sure it all looked appropriate, Lyra was satisfied and ready to begin painting.


Word Count: 538

[Lyra Nix]

First grabbing her medium sized brush, Lyra dipped it into the brown paint and collected a small amount to paint the casinor first. While she normally started with her large brush in the larger areas and worked her way down to the details, this piece was a little different. Due to the subject matter, she was going to be better off painting the casinor and the dock first, followed by the surrounding areas. So, using small direct strokes all going in one direction, Lyra filled in the hull of the casinor, careful to stay within the confines of her guidelines.

With the main part of the casinor done, Lyra rinsed her brush and readied for the next section. Switching to her small brush, Lyra picked up a little bit of grey paint and started painting the dock beside the casinor. She painted a series of vertical strokes perpendicular to the strokes of the casinor for the planks of the dock, periodically adding in the vertical posts for the supports. When the dock was done, Lyra continued the grey in an arching shape with matching brush strokes for the shoreline surrounding the dock and ship. For the moment it appeared as a grey blob on a decent chunk of the canvas, but it would be brought to life later on when she was ready to add detailing.

Now with the casinor and shoreline areas established on the canvas, Lyra rinsed and cleaned her small brush and returned to her medium brush. With it, she picked up a good amount of blue paint and began filling in the water all around the ship and dock. For this area, she used mismatched brush strokes in all kinds of directions to represent the unruly and unpredictable water. Small bits rose up the side of the casinor, showing the lapping of the small waves against the bottom of the hull. Behind the ship, her brush strokes reached the horizon line she’d drawn earlier, marking the divide between sky and sea.

Rinsing her medium brush for a new section, Lyra then dipped it into the lighter blue she’d mixed before. Moving back to the painting, Lyra began at the top of the canvas with horizontal strokes. She worked from left to right, carefully going around the guidelines for the mast of the casinor when she reached that area. She continued down to the horizon line, slowly and deftly meeting the edge of the water she’d already completed. With the sky in place, Lyra cleaned her brush again, and this time grabbed her small brush. A few smaller areas needed filled in still, and then she would be free to begin detailing and finishing the painting.

She first dipped her small brush into the brown again, this time using small gentle brush strokes in a vertical direction to paint the frame of the tall mast. In many places of it, Lyra had to use just the very tip of the brush so that her strokes weren’t too wide or spread out.


Word Count: 504

[Lyra Nix]

When it was finished, she cleaned her brush and dipped it next into the white. She began back at the mast, filling in the area for the sail. She used mostly vertical brush strokes for it as well, with some horizontal ones along the bottom of the shape to bring it all together. When she was finished with the sail, she moved back to the top of the canvas and added a few small clouds sporadically placed in the sky.

Satisfied with the bulk of the painting completed, Lyra cleaned her brush and set it aside. Picking up her tiny detail brush, Lyra dipped just the tip of it into the black paint. It was time to start adding detail and depth to this piece. Beginning with the shoreline area, Lyra used the end of the bristles to start adding randomly shaped rocks and pebbles all over the whole of the section. A few larger ones broke up the monotony of the smaller shapes and finally began making the grey blob look like the stone filled shoreline she’d witnessed at the Port.

Next, she continued with the same technique and began outlining the vertical support posts of the dock, matching the direction of its brush strokes to do so. When the posts were done, Lyra began outlining the planks of the dock, again matching the direction of the brush strokes so everything flowed the way it was supposed to. Stepping back to gauge how well it was coming together, Lyra was pleased to see that both grey areas that appeared as plain blobs before, now appeared as a rocky shoreline and a dock as they were intended to be.

Cleaning her detail brush, Lyra dipped the tip of it into the white and began painting the various ropes that hung across the side of the casinor’s hull and wound their way up and down the mast. These seemingly small but significant lines really brought the casinor to a new level of realism and gave it some depth it didn’t have before. With those details finished, Lyra felt the painting was complete.

Stepping back to look at the finished product, Lyra was immensely pleased with her creation. She dearly hoped the woman it was for would be happy with it too. While the painting dried, Lyra began cleaning up her work station. She rinsed her brush and returned them all to her kit and put the kit away in her backpack. Then she carried each of the paint bowls in turn to the wash basin and cleaned them out, returning them to where she’d gotten them once they were clean. Retrieving her notebook from the table, Lyra grabbed a piece of charcoal and wrote a note to leave with the painting. 'Piece is finished and ready to go once it’s dry. Had an adventure painting this one,' it read. Leaving the painting on the easel, Lyra placed the note near it where it would be seen. Then she picked up her backpack and headed out to go home.


Word Count: 507, 2561 total

[Oralie]

grade award!

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Lyra

Skills

• Land Navigation: 1
• Observation: 2
• Drawing: 2
• Painting: 2
• Cleaning: 1

Lores

• Lhavit Location: Port Tranquil
• Painting: Using white to lighten colours
• Drawing: Transferring a sketch to a canvas
• Painting: Using the tip of a brush for tiny details
• Painting: Painting from memory

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