The Apprentice: A Short Story

The apprentice: a short story

The apprentice slowly backed away from her work, putting her spatula down and eyeing the sculpture thoughtfully. She had been working on it for weeks on end, almost obsessive in her dedication to form the clay just right, to stay true to her reference material; down to the subtle bend of each little eyelash.

They were delicate enough to snap in half with the most minuscule application of force, and had drawn many curses from her lips during the tedious sculpting process.

She knew very well that she could have used a wire armature to spare herself the trouble, but she was nothing if not stubborn in her approach, and real eyelashes didn't have any armatures.

Shifting her gaze from the delicate things, her eyes settled on the area where the sculpture's nose meets it's mouth, admiring the elegant curve of the cupid's bow which had taken her countless attempts to get just right. Every prior attempt perfectly decent, yet still inferior to the next.

Nodding approvingly, her gaze shifted further yet, settling on the juncture where the sculpture's jaw meets it's neck. It was well executed, - anyone could see that, it was plain as day. It didn't take a master to point it out. -

Except for one thing,

The neck was too short.

The apprentice clenched her fists at the discovery, cursing herself as she reached for her previously abandoned spatula. With a calm, yet almost frenzied look in her eyes, she began to separate the sculpted head from the neck of it's static body, taking diligent care in avoiding any and all unnecessary damage.

She would of course have mended any such damage with the same level of precision that had been applied to every other step in this tedious journey, but it would have been a waste of precious effort to sculpt what had already been sculpted to perfection, so she focused back on the task at hand; to fix the mistake she had already - foolishly - made.

Setting the head down on a small table to her right, she picked up some clay and got to work.

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Once satisfied with her performance, she carefully retrieved the head from her right, scored and coated both it and the top of the neck in slip, and painstakingly joined them together as if they never had been separated in the first place.

Once again, she set her spatula aside and examined her work, her scrutinizing gaze unforgiving of even the tiniest inaccuracy.

Finally content with her handicraft, she breathed an appeased sigh before turning her gaze to her left, where her master sat as model for her ambitious project. It had taken quite a bit of convincing on her part, but she had eventually gotten her way, just like she knew she would.

Smiling at her master, she approached him, a fond look on her face as she spoke, her left hand resting gently on his stoic face:

"You sat so patiently for me, master. I hope I've done you justice."

Her hand reluctantly left his face, it's gaze unmoving from it's spot on the sculpture that depicted it's likeness, as it had been for the last few weeks.

Even in death, his piercing gaze betrayed not even the shallowest of thoughts that hid behind those eyes.

My prompts for this short story were:

Perfect, Separate, Sculpture, and Learn ^-^

I have decided to give my good friend Pothead Larry (A plastic halloween candy container that once housed a singular hemp plant which I found had sprouted in the yard) a realistic make-over

Painting away those angry eyesockets is definetly a challenge lmao :']

Making said eyesockets - as well as the nasal cavity - look like they aren't just shallow indents has also been a journey to say the least, and why is the cheekbone so long???? And why are the teeth so small?????? 😭

Definetly turning this into a flower pot once again after this, gotta get me some plant lights though since my window doesn't get enough light TTvTT

UPDATE!! He has an official name now!!! :D

I was looking at the wikipedia page for the Goliath stick insect for inspiration, and I scrolled down to the many different scientific names it's been given by different people throughout the years. One word that popped up in three of the names was "Acheron", which is the name of a river in classical mythology. The word itself means both -death- and -hell-

I wasn't completely sold on this word as his name for that reason, since the meanings don't exactly suit his character, but I wanted to include it somehow to tie his name to the actual insect!

So, I decided to combine the word 'Acheron' with my own name, 'Robynn', which gave me 'Acherynn' ^-^

I think this name has a much softer feeling to it, which suits him much better! And as a bonus, it's really easy for me to remember since it was easy to come up with :]

He no longer has to go by strictly 'bug boy' bahahahaha

Alright, that's my rant over lmao

Stickbug (and Acherynn!!) out 🪲

He's finished!

Or well, his base concept bahahaha

And as promised, I'm also including his colour palette! The shadow colours aren't set in stone of course, that 100% depends on the style and lighting one chooses to use - should they want to doodle my bug boy -, but I wanted to include them because - why not? -

Nothing is set in stone tbh, if you wanna up the saturation, darken/lighten some colours, change a hue or two to make him fit your style a little better, you're more than welcome to do so ^-^

I haven't worked out a name for him just yet, but I tend to call him "Stick", "Bug", or "Bug boy", so I guess those are his nicknames so far! ^-^

And just to be clear, there are no set pronouns for this buggy dude! I tend to use he/him because it comes naturally to me, but this character is in fact genderfluid, with a majority of the time spent more on either the agender or masculine side of the spectrum

He basically shares my gender identity (and my eye colour, a fun little detail), which makes sense since he is my persona after all bahahaha

His height, which I now realise I should have included in one of the pictures :'], is 7'8". Yes, this is very tall. Yes, he is based on an absolutely massive insect lmao

Clothes are honestly up to whoever is doodling him, I drew him without them here since I wanted to clearly display his build (and he technically doesn't need to wear any clothes unless he's cold, since there isn't really anything to cover up lmao)

All of that said, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

(and Stickbug's bug boy)

Heyo, friends!!

Here is yet another awesome character I've made art of for ArtFight: Sol, owned by @citrispace here on tumblr ^-^

They were depicted both as a child and a young adult, so I decided to lean more towards the latter for the actual appearance, while I took inspiration from both of them for the expression and over-all vibe of the character :]

The hair was so incredibly fun to draw! I just love this lava-lamp vibe so much, and the floaty bits were a blast to add in the end!

I'm really happy with how they came out looking almost like a paper doll in some of the detailing, I shade my line-art *as well as* the actual flat colours, which might be why that happens from time to time bahahahaha

I'm also extremely satisfied with how their expression turned out! They seemed like a really fun-loving character, so I wanted to draw them laughing at a good joke ^-^

Awesome character #4 aside, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

We've got art!! (Long-ish post ahead, friends)

Poorly photographed art, but art nonetheless bahahaha

I was listening to Epic: The Musical a lot while working on this, and 'Thunder Bringer' definetly influenced the sky a lot during the painting process! I'll include a picture of the sky about half-way through the process after the close-ups, so you can see what I mean :]

I've edited the first image -to the best of my ability- since my phone camera couldn't quite capture it accurately (it looked really de-saturated, and a lot of the detail was lost to the lack of contrast TTvTT), but the close-ups are un-edited since they're more true to life ^-^

I'm really proud of how the water turned out, I've never painted water before so it was a fun process to figure out!! :D

And I don't usually name my art since there usually isn't any meaning behind it, but this painting is directly inspired by The Odyssey through Epic: The Musical, and I've decided to name it "Six hundred men"

Why I've decided to name it this, you'll have to figure out yourself! (although, the name is pretty self-explanatory lmao)

A little hint is in the flowers I've painted, specifically the meaning behind those flowers, and their use in Greek and Roman myths. The colour of the flower isn't essential here, only the type of flower

Here are some pictures of the sky early in the painting process, and half-way through, as promised :]

This is essentially what I picture in my mind when I think of the term 'rolling thunder'

I spent a total of about four workdays on this (in hours, that is)

Paintings with hidden meanings and flower language aside, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day ^-^ 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

Have this mindless doodle!

I was very bored •>