This particular scene is meant to be a romantic reimagining of Kalim using Oasis Maker in the desert during Book 4.
Originally, I hadn't intended to paint this scene. I had a few different ideas that felt appropriate for the Romantic Era - though not initially this. But after doing a number of painting studies, the idea to recreate this scene hit me like a truck. The Romantic Era truly focused on evoking an emotion and showcasing pastoral imagery, of which I felt this scene in Book 4 - the shock of Kalim being able to just create a solution out of thin air and in a desert no less- really demonstrated with ease.
I'll break down each piece I studied; the notes I made; what I noticed about the themes and motifs of the era; and how we got to this final piece under the cut.
The first piece I examined was "the Lady of Shalott" by John William Waterhouse. (If you look it up without my notes and scribblings all over it, you'll find it's a PHENOMENAL piece.) I actually spent a lot of time with this piece - a whopping 45 minutes when I was live on stream. You can see here in my notes, I examined his usage of the rule of 3rds; when he used thick brush strokes; how he used light to draw our attention to the woman in the boat; and of course the usage of warm and cool tones contrasted with lights and shadows. And you'll actually find that all of these things are motifs throughout almost every Romantic era painting that I studied prior to doing this piece. The cool shadows are used in such a way that they almost frame the warm oranges and pure white of the woman on the boat. It really draws your eye into its off-center, focusing almost solely on the woman. But as you look out beyond her, hidden in the shadow, there is so much detail. And I really tried to capture that in this painting with Kalim.
The next painting I examined was "the Bard" by John Martin. Here again, we see the usage of the rule of thirds, but we especially see a fibonacci spiral here dictating the movement of the piece. Our eye is drawn first from the vibrant sun, down to the lamenting bard, all while the shadows again frame the man and bring him into focus. We again see an image where there is a MYRIAD of detail hidden in the landscape. And both of these elements, I tried to intentionally capture in the piece above. I also especially loved the whimsical oranges and yellows captured in the sky here, especially as they contrast with the darkness off to the right. Though my painting in particular doesn't have much in the way of light, I tried to use this color theme to create the illusion of an oncoming rainstorm.
The last and most messy of my study notes comes from the painting "The Voyage of Life" by Thomas Cole. If you were to look at the actual painting, you would once again notice the angelic, all white figure in the boat, framed by shadows as light pierces over the mountain tops. Once again, we have the fibonacci spiral directing our line of focus, and the rule of thirds indicating the placement of our subject.
In all three pieces, we see a lot of the same placement, coloration, and movement, of which I tried to evoke in my depiction of Kalim. And here is a comparison of my thumbnail, mapping out my painting versus the final once again:
I'm not going to lie, I found this collab and this self-study to be extremely enriching as an artist. And I genuinely feel as though I have grown so much from it. I hope you enjoy! And if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
What’s your opinion on Kalim’s UM (Oasis Maker)? I always wondered how his RSA friends would react when they hear about the full extent of his magic?
I personally LOVE Oasis Maker, it's such a powerful and interesting UM and I WISH it was explored more because it is so OP and I feel like that was completely accidental and I am deciding to read it a "Kalim doesn't really realize how insanely powerful he is" But it is a perfect UM for Kalim and his generousity, of course he'd get a power to make it rain pure, clean water in the middle of the desert. Of course he'd get water control living in said desert... I choose to see it as symbolism of Kalim not realizing the power he holds, not just because of his magic, but also his status...
I... I care a lot about Kalim and Oasis Maker and may write more about it at some point (it will be just me ranting) and I do use my views on Oasis Maker as a base for thinking about new UM for my OCs (I may also explain this in the future)
Now... How will his friends react in the fic?
They are going to be impressed at the very least, that's for sure. They are gonna have questions about how it works and what he can do because it is SO COOL. And also, again, I don't think Kalim realizes just how powerful his UM is, considering how little magic it consumes, so he could take it as a chance to test it and see what he can really do.
Depending on how they find out, they may make a beach episode at the Oasis out of it.
The reactions will probably go from Rielle being STATIC that Kalim has a water-based Unique Magic to Marion being slightly annoyed that it's water-based (the cat doesn't like water)
so, technically, couldnt kalim drown someone with his unique magic? yes ik he could obv cuz oasis but, could he train his magic to go into the persons lungs and just...drown them?
he does this during an assassination attempt and jamil is like
"ok, first, are you ok? and second, that was hot."
