[prp] Artistic integrity (Hellion and Bushido)

[cursedandwandering]

Hellion absolutely abhorred going to school. He wasn't really sure how or why he and his siblings ended up at the school house everyday without parents to force them there. Perhaps it was the offer of a free meal and supplies which they could easily steal that drew the siblings back every day. While he would never admit it to anyone's face, there was one part of the school day which the colt enjoyed.

Art class. Hellion lived and breathed for art class. He wanted to know everything there was about how to become the best artist. Plus Miss Glory had art supplies aplenty, including some he had a hard time finding on the streets. Phony threw out crayons when they broke, so they were an easy enough commodity to come by, but markers and paints that weren't dried out were rare.

Today they were covering the basics of phony anatomy, blind contour drawings, and gesture drawings. The pegasus was furiously scribbling images of each classmate's face he was partnered with before the group rotated.

Ruriska

I hope this works!

 

[Ruriska]

As far as Bushido was concerned, Hellion was Trouble with a capital T. He was the kind of dishonourable vagrant that you needed to guard against, capable of anything, disinclined towards dealing with others with any respect. He should be a natural enemy and Bushido certainly kept an eye on him.

However, credit where credit was due and she couldn’t deny that he was a great artist. Bushido plopped herself down across from him, her turn in the rotation and looked at his drawing. It was good. Far better than her scribblings. She had a steady hoof when it came to calligraphy (some days) but actually making things look like the things they were supposed to look like... not happening.

“That’s really good,” she told him, frowning, as if it hurt to admit.

cursedandwandering

 

[cursedandwandering]

Ruriska

The colt blinked, doing a double take at the filly across from him. It wasn't the compliment that surprised the pegasus, but rather whom it was coming from. Hellion was pretty sure Bushido hated him. Not that he cared, he didn't need anyone's approval. Suffering artists weren't meant to be liked or appreciated until they were dead and people could take advantage of their rotting corpses after all. If people were taking advantage of your death then your work must of been something special.

"I know," he snorted, peering over towards his classmates' paper. "Yours is..." The colt chewed his lip for a second, wondering whether he cared or not about the girl's feelings. He definitely didn't care about anyone! His siblings being the only exception, but...

"I could show you how i do it if you want? Not that i want to help you or anything, but since you're so pitiful and all." He didn't mind giving other people a few tips. It would show off how much of an 'expert' artist he was after all. Because the colt would never actually do anything so uncool as actually be nice to people of course. That would be totally lame.  

[Ruriska]

Well, he certainly wasn’t lacking in confidence, though Bushido was fairly sure he’d straight up skyrocketed out of confidence and into arrogance the moment he’d burst from his Blister Pack.

She bristled at his tone, waited with tense shoulders and a downturned mouth for his insult. She waited for it, mental shields up, ready to deflect. It didn’t arrive as expected. For a second, her guard fell when faced by the offer to teach her and hesitantly ready to accept - and then she was immediately hit by the sucker punch.

Pitiful.

“No thank you,” she said, sounding anything but thankful as she removed herself from his presence by moving herself and her artwork to another table.

cursedandwandering

great start A+

 

[cursedandwandering]

Ruriska

emotion_awesome

"Huh?" Blinking in surprise, the pegasus watched as the filly relocated herself. Ugh. Hellion groaned, did she really get upset by that? He'd always thought Bushido was too full of herself and her stupid morals to care what people thought of her.

Rubbing at his temples with a hoof he stared at the girl at her new location. Should he apologize? He didn't really care too much if Bushido liked him or not... It's not like she was going to help his siblings and him out if she didn't hate him. There was really no benefit he could see to apologizing.

But... He felt guilty. He didn't think she would actually get that offended by it. The colt had only intended it as a joke anyway.

With a sigh the batwing picked up his things and trudged towards Bushido's new seat. "Wait, I didn't really mean it like that, ok?" He glanced around the room, hoping no one was paying them any mind. "It's just. It's not cool or edgy or whatever to- to... You know." He gestured his hooves around vaguely. "Be a goody goody. Plus if other people see they might think..."  

[Ruriska]

The very last thing Bushido expected, as she sat down in front of her drawing and stared at the wobbly lines, was for Hellion to follow her. She stiffened, shoulders tensing as she waited for some new insult to fall from his mouth.

Instead she received an apology. Not that ‘sorry’ was ever uttered but his halted explanation was clear enough. Bushido narrowed her eyes and said nothing for quite a while. It didn’t seem in his nature to be at all apologetic, however, she didn’t really know him enough to make that judgement.

Maybe he wasn’t as bad as she’d thought.

So she gave a sharp nod of her head and tapped the paper before her with her hoof. “So,” she sighed, “how do you make things look like what you want them to?” There didn’t seem to be any point in making a fuss over his change of heart. It wasn’t her way. Instead she would remember the moment and quietly offer her friendship, if he chose to accept it.

cursedandwandering

<3

 

[cursedandwandering]

Ruriska

I THOUGHT I TAGGED THIS. D8 Sorry.

She- she didn't seem so upset about it anymore. That was a relief. What was it with girls and feelings? They were so confusing and it was too easy to make them mad or cry. Obviously they needed to toughen up and turn their feelings into dark masterpieces.

Hellion brightened as the subject returned to art. It was something he could really get into talking about.

"Well," He smirked. "First you have to throw away your preconceptions of what you should do to make a good drawing." He held up his sketchbook and turned it to a perfect clean slate. He held the blank page up and then looked around the classroom. "Let's say you want to draw... My sister over there. You might think you would draw a circle with two football shaped eyes and then a wiggly worm for a body, but she's actually much more irregular shapes." The colt nods to himself, pointing at his sibling across the room for reference.

"If you want to draw well, you gotta forget about what you think things look like and actually look at them. In fact you should look at them a lot more than you look at the paper! You've got to really focus on looking at all the different shapes and planes."  

[Ruriska]

Bushido listened, she really did. She listened intently, gaze flicking between him and the paper and although his words made sense, she wasn’t sure they made sense. She looked across at his sister. “Okay,” she said, even if she was still uncertain how this information was going to help.

“Look at all the different shapes and planes,” she repeated. If she stared at what she was drawing and didn't look at the paper, how was she supposed to know how it was looking? Or maybe this was like doing kata. You needed to feel the movements, let them flow, focus on inside instead of out.

cursedandwandering

 

[cursedandwandering]

Ruriska

The pegasus chewed the inside of his cheek, trying to figure out how to explain it better to someone who wasn't used to thinking that way. He didn't really do sports, but it seemed like it might be an ok comparison.

"Well... You know how when you're playing catch, you look at the ball and your hoof follows to catch it? You don't have to look at your hoof to tell it what to do, you look at the ball and your hoof follows. It's kind of like that."  

[Ruriska]

That made a bit more sense. Bushido nodded. “I think... I understand,” she said, but she hesitated to pick up the pencil and try again. “When I do my calligraphy, I am always very focused on my lines. It is important to never look away, to flow with the movement. I think that is where I am going wrong.”

She sighed, just a little puff of air, but it was followed by a smile. “Thank you for your advice. I’m going to try and become a better artist.” It would take practice, but she wasn't afraid of hard work.

cursedandwandering

 

[cursedandwandering]

Ruriska

I think we can end this here?

Hellion shrugged and gave a small smile. "Art is about feeling, about seeing. You can't draw something you aren't looking at and you can't make someone feel something with your work unless you felt it first yourself."

"It was no problem. As long as you keep trying you should improve."  

[Ruriska]

Hearing his words, Bushido set down her pencil. “Then I will do no more today, but I will practice and learn how to put my feelings into my work, just like you do.” Even if she was never quite as good, at least she could improve and be proud of her achievement.

Hellion wasn’t the phony she’d thought he was and she smiled at him in newfound respect. “You are good teacher,” she declared. It had been wrong of her to judge him. Yes, he wasn't the most well-behaved or friendly at times but clearly she'd been judging the surface.

"And," she added, ready to take that next step, "I think we will make good friends."

cursedandwandering

good with me! 8D