Living in Grey

He sat there looking at his finest piece of work yet. The just completed pencil art was exactly what you’d expect from a 7 year old. A cottage stood next to two hills, the sun coming up between them. The sky was peppered by clouds and some nondescript birds. A lone tree was all the company the cottage had. One could also spot the vestiges of an attempted dog on the paper. The dog was erased away as the boy wasn’t thrilled with how the dog looked. Nonetheless, he couldn’t have been more pleased, as he sat admiring his creation. Just then he had an idea. Reaching for his pencil, he filled the cottage door completely with a dark colour, after repeated pencil strokes. He did the same for the windows and the trunk of the tree. The deep black contrasting against the white paper, he was delighted with the effect one shade of black had given.

A few years later, he revisited the drawing. Deciding to recreate it, he drew the cottage and the tree and the hills. He was skilled enough to add the dog that he always wanted. And even a stream was now flowing through the hills and next to the tree. The sun was still rising between the hills, and now it cast shadows of the tree and the cottage. While the cottage door and windows retained the deep black shade, the tree trunk took on a lighter shade, and the shadows were even lighter. The dog, too, had her shadow. The sketch, he thought, was now closer to reality.

The attempt of the same scene looked a lot different, now nearly a full-grown man. His skills much upgraded, the clouds were rippling through the sky, the birds looked more distinct, and one could also put a name to the tree. The cottage roof was thatched with straw and leaves. Different pencil types had allowed him to shade with more intricacy, and the stream seemed as though it was glimmering in the sunlight. The fully risen sun cast shadows with an umbra and penumbra too. The sketch looked full of life with all the shades of grey.

Years passed, and he never tired of revisiting the same scenery, always adding more details, shading the picture in different ways. Now he sat back and looked at these past attempts. The more greys in the picture, the better he seemed to like it. As he got started on his latest iteration, he was able to put into words what he felt in that moment. Black and white hadn’t created grey; a very dark grey created black, a very light grey created white.