Painted to Life

SHD 302- May

It should have been easy. So many things came to mind when his class of two was told to create something from their minds using shadows such as bear traps, crossbows, and canons. Other, less dangerous things had also come to mind such as paint pallets and brushes. He had a bad habit of snapping or breaking things when he got frustrated, and his regular attempts at art were constant sources of frustration. Easily replaced tools would be great.

Right after class, he'd gone back to his dorm and actually taken a shot at making some of those shadow art supplies he'd been thinking about.  The paint pallet had been easy enough to make. It was just a flat surface with a hole it in to make it easier to hold. It took more than one try, of course, but he'd managed to twist a shadow tendril into a donut shape and flatten it evenly on the forth or fifth try. Shaping it into a pallet rather than a bagel chip just took a minute or two longer. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as MDrake had made it sound. Kichi sat cross legged on the dorm room floor, holding his shadow pallet in his hands, just staring at it. This had been too easy. It had only taken him about ten minutes to form a paint pallet. Keeping it together was taking a little more concentration than his shadow tendrils did, but not that much. He let the pallet just break apart into shadows again and retreat to their original places. This was no good as a final result. He needed to make something more impressive and complex than a flat shadow with a hole in it. 

He decided to go with one of his original ideas for a bear trap, but was quickly overwhelmed by the moving parts and details involved in making a working one. The blades weren't too difficult, though they were more challenging than the pallet had been. At the end, he gave up. The springs were too hard to keep in shape while also trying to keep the blades together. He hadn't even put the pieces together yet. A frustrated scream probably startled his neighbors and he punted the shadow pieces, though they just broke apart again before they were even halfway across the room. Steaming, he marched over to his desk and sat down, pulling his hair for a minute or two before sitting back and letting out an angry sigh. Kichi took a few deep breaths before picking up a loose piece of paper and a pencil, then just started sketching on it. 

He sketched a picture of the Grim Reaper standing on a hill. He liked drawing flowing cloaks and scytches, so there were quite a few grim reaper doodles around his room. Most of them were only half colored since he tended to lose interest in things rather quickly. As he was shading the blade of the scythe, he remembered MDrake said something about drawing a reference to help visualize the object. A scythe was definitely more detailed than a pallet, but no where near as complicated as a bear trap. All he needed to do was flatten some shadows into the blade and make the edge narrow enough that it was sharp, then stiffen a tendril into the handle. Yes, this would be easier, but not basic.

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"Professor!" Kichi cheered eagerly as he ran into class the following day, carrying his shadow scythe with him. He'd been tempted to sew a robe to actually have a complete reaper costume, but the humor would have been lost on his teacher. That, and he'd already finished his stitching assignment and he didn't want to sew anything else. Sewing sucked. 
He presented his weapon by hooking it around the unamused teacher's neck. "It's really sharp! You can feel it, right?"

Word Count- 648

Kichi adds a new chapter to his book How to Piss Off Your Teacher in Five Easy Steps.

Kichi (c) Kittrex
MDrake (c) viralremix