As the spectacular painting was being filled in, a light orange sunset cascading a dim light over the rocky stone peaks, Anemone became slightly entranced. The artwork was coming together quickly. The stone mountain located to the right of the painting had little to no light filling it in; meanwhile, the land on the left, which was low compared to the steep mountain, had lush greenery and had orange light bouncing back towards the viewer. The coast the viewer was standing on had large boulders and ferns sticking out of the ground, with a small dirt path near the bottom right.
Anemone watched as the masterpiece came to be. From little to no details, and within minutes, there were birds flying over the ravine, small animals sitting on the coast drinking from the flowing river. And at the end of the painting, the woman began to detail the clouds that created a floating blanket in the sky. In the sky, within an opening in the blanket, there was a small castle with white buildings on top.
"Wow…" Anemone muttered under her breath.
From a simple ravine to a detailed painting. Anemone wishes she were this good. Anemone was quite creative; she liked creative hobbies. She had been into art, carving figures into wood with rocks, maybe carving simple landscapes onto rocks, but she had never painted.
The artist stood up, backing up to look at the painting, and then sighed with relief, which Anemone couldn't hear. The woman then set down the palette and brush and took off a leather apron. The apron was covered in an assortment of colors, but it seemed to be well taken care of. The woman then turned around, going back behind her stall. Once behind the stall, the woman pulled out a small silver beaded chain. The artist then began to thread through a small opening located on a pendant. The pendant was empty, but had a small oval-shaped opening with a stem on the top that would hold the gem in place. At the end of the stem was a singular leaf.
Anemone was watching, deep down feeling like she was stalking, but she wanted to see more, so she stepped closer, to the side of the stall, so the woman would have to look right to see her.
The artist continued working, eventually pulling out a small, blue iridescent opal that seemed transparent. The artist took out a pair of tweezers, opening the small metal stem, then inserted the opal. The woman then closed back the stem, securing the opal in place. Her hands didn't seem to shake even for a moment during this work; it was intensive work that required a lot of dexterity.
The woman finished with the pendant, then shook it to ensure the opal was secure. The woman then turned the pendant over to look at the flat back of it, and she pulled out something similar to a chisel, called a graver, along with a small mallet that could be held in one hand. The woman then began to engrave something onto it, which Anemone couldn't make out.
Eventually, Anemone was standing right in front of the stall, admiring the middle-aged woman working, along with all her pieces. The woman did notice Anemone, but didn't raise her head. She finished the engraving, which spelled out, "Strength grows in silence."
'What does that even mean?' Anemone thought.
The woman then finished the necklace off by adding another pendant, which was in the shape of an octahedron (a 3-D diamond). Then, she connected the chains with a small hook, setting it down, then raising her head to look at Anemone.
"Hello, Dear. What can I do for you?"
"Oh. Sorry. I was just watching you paint and then create this necklace."
"Would you like to learn both?"
Anemone was taken aback; she refused to actually ask for this opportunity, as it could be seen as rude.
"Y-yes."
The woman smiled gently, standing up and walking to the front of the stall. In her hands were two small stools that were the height of Anemone's knees.
"Please, sit." She said as she put the seats down on the ground.
"Thank you."
The artist then came back with a fresh canvas, putting the old one out to dry and swapping it with a new one.
"What's your name, dear?"
"Anemone, what is yours?" Anemone said softly.
"I am Olivia. It is nice to meet you. It has been many years since I came across someone interested in art."
"It is nice to meet you as well. I have always loved carving stuff into stones or wood, but I have never painted before."
"Well, think of it similarly. You can't 'uncarve' something. Just like how you can't erase paint. You may cover it up, but you can't erase it. And now, there was a recent invention called the Pencil. It will help you plan by sketching on the canvas. After that, you would do the main shapes and colors of your painting, and then fill in. Does that make sense, dear?"
"Yes, ma'am. So sketch, fill in colors, then details."
"That's a simple way of putting it, but yes. Now think of what you would like to paint. I will be right back."
The woman then stood up, walking away into a nearby building as Anemone sat there, planning what to paint.
'How about a shallow river with rocks scattered around. That sounds too simple, though, Anemone. Hmm. Oh, I could add a waterfall in the background. Make the river flow towards me, maybe add a bridge in the foreground. What about a wooden wheel thingy that is on the river and turns from the flow? That sounds interesting.'
The woman eventually came back with a tiny piece of wood with another piece of a strange silver metal between.
'A pencil?'
"This is the pencil that I was talking about. It has graphite and a mix of clay in the middle, and two pieces of wood glued on."
"Yes, I saw it at another shop, but it had a rope tied around it."
"Oh, dear, that was an old type of pencil; it had a rope being used as the handle. This one, on the other hand, is all one item, and you use a blade to sharpen it to show more of the graphite. Now, dear, please use this pencil to draw out what you would like to paint. The paint will cover the, what we artists like to call, the outline."
"Okay, well, thank you."
Anemone received the pencil and then began to sketch the main features of her vision. A cliff in the background with the sun setting on top of it, and a large waterfall that flows into a river below it. The river then flows towards the foreground with a bridge directly beneath. Anemone then placed small rocks along the riverbed with larger ones along the riverbank. The last piece of the puzzle she added was a large object in the middle of the river. It was in the shape of a wheel and was placed into the water, as she thought that if this were a real object, it would be spinning due to the flow of the water.
"What is that thing in the middle, dear?"
"Oh, um. I don't know."
"It looks like a wheel."
"I'm thinking it would be spinning due to the water if it were real, so I will call it a water wheel."
"That's a great idea! Now the next step is to start painting the main objects, and then lastly, produce more details."
"Where is the paint?" Anemone said, noticing she was never given a palette.
The woman left and soon returned with a palette and small buckets of paint that she sat down on the ground.
"As you need more paint, put it on the palette, dear. And mix new colors on your palette."
Anemone nodded and began to paint, putting brush to canvas, blue paint onto the empty canvas. Anemone began to draw in the river first, and eventually the waterfall. Next came the land, both to the sides of the river, and the land from which the waterfall was raining down. Next was the rocky stone wall to the sides of the waterfall, and some of the larger rocks lying on the riverbed and bank. The last focus was the waterwheel and the bridge, which were both completely made from wood, the wheel being brown and the bridge being red.
'Now all the main parts are done. Now I must detail.'
The woman watched, intrigued as Anemone began.
'She is quite skilled for someone so young. She is naturally talented and creative.' The artist thought.
"You are doing great, don't forget about the sky though."
Anemone transformed her palette into one with many shades of green and blue, and red, choosing to get rid of yellow completely. This was meant to be used to detail the grass, the river, and the waterfall, along with any drops of water that may fly through the air from the water splashing upon the river below. Anemone began with the river, using the red and green to draw in colorful fish that would be living in the rushing water, then she began to detail the river, showing the streaks to indicate which direction it was flowing, along with water that would be jumping past the riverbank. After the river and waterfall was the grassy area, she detailed the tall grass to be arched to indicate the wind that causes the grass to sway and dance.
Upon clearing her palette once more of blue and green, instead of filling it with black and white, Anemone began to paint in the rocky surface that was to the sides of the waterfall, detailing small cracks that may have formed and then shading in the deep gashes. Anemone then focused on lighting. She grabbed a small bit of yellow paint and began to paint in the sunset, a shift from yellow to orange as the light dispersed into the open sky.
The last parts were the clouds, bridge, small rocks, and waterwheel. Anemone decided to finish the sky completely, thus choosing the clouds first, detailing the clouds with a subtle orange to white gradient. Next were the small rocks that would be lying in the grass, riverbed, and riverbank.
'Now the bridge, the waterwheel will take a while.'
The bridge stood in the foreground, right below where the viewer took place, with the railing and flooring being all that would show; it covered the bottom portion of the painting, helping develop the sense of depth that Anemone wanted to produce.
'She is doing excellent. Part of me wants to buy it. She is making me feel young again.' The woman thought, then chuckled silently.
Anemone laid the brush and palette down and shook her hands as they began to become stiff from the painting, which was taking longer than expected.
Anemone, after a few moments, picked back up where she left off, finishing the red and brown bridge, thus focusing on the waterwheel. It stood upon two wooden beams, which were placed on each riverbank; the wheel was partially in the water, not fully submerged. She imagined it to be spinning, so she used white streaks of paint to show it rotating from the water, along with water that would probably stick to the waterwheel as it rotated. After a few moments, she finished, ending the painting off by adding small details here and there.
Anemone set down her tools, then stood up, shaking her stiff legs and arms as the woman to her left admired the painting.
"Thank you for teaching me this; it was very enjoyable." Anemone bowed slightly and smiled, then looked up at the sky and saw the sun about to set.
'I have to meet with Astrape, then Father!' She thought.
"May I buy this from you?" The lady inquired.
"Oh, um, yes, but I need to get going. I am sorry for wasting your time. Thank you for teaching me." Anemone turned around, ready to bolt off.
"Wait, here." The woman tossed Anemone five gold coins, which baffled her.
"Th-thank you?" Anemone said, but she had no right to complain, so she ran off to meet with Astrape.