Salutations! My name is Darryl, but you can call me Shadow. It makes me sound mysterious...right? *cue cricket noises* I'm a 16-year-old high school student with a fiery passion for all things creative. I'm big into writing (working on a novel and have written tons of short stories and poetry) and music (I play piano, viola, sing, and compose pieces with Finale). The one thing that has saddened me is that I seem to have zero talent in the visual arts. My hand is completely unsteady, and I have absolutely no idea how to turn lines, shapes, and colors into something beautiful and wondrous like several people can.

As a spin-off of my mentioned interests, I have an intense interest in world building. The idea of creating a world of my own is just amazing. Like I said, I love creativity and this is just pure creation.

So you see, I pretty much have the writing and imagination part down. I can even compose haunting melodies and folk songs for the various races and civilizations that I craft. What would make this awesome would be for me to be able to create beautiful maps and possibly (eventually, though i won't hold my breath) landscapes, scenes, or pictures of people and races. Don't know if I'll be able to find help with all of that here, but from what I've seen, map-making should not be a problem.

So, if you could all help me out and possibly be a mentor to me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Shadow