ＧＡＢＲＩＥＬ ♫ ＭＯＮＴＧＯＭＥＲＹ
ＤＵＫＥ ＯＦ ＭＵＳＩＱＵＥ
ＤＵＫＥ ＯＦ ＭＵＳＩＱＵＥ
Scenery was the sort of thing Gabriel was never good with. When it came to writing, he would give the reader some sense of where people were. Say they were in a room or something. Give the room a name. Maybe, if he were feeling particularly descriptive, he'd throw in a detail or two. A chair there, a clock or something. But for the most part? He just sort of hoped people paid attention to the characters and the dialogue. It didn't help that he was supposed to be coming from a poor background and the only images that came to mind were of anything but. Ah yes, he was just your average Joe who happened to make everything sound like it could belong in the royal palace. He was just that much of a trailblazer; had to look straight for the top. Surely that wouldn't have gone wrong.
On the other hand, art was different. Each object you did or didn't put is on full display. If you look carefully enough, you can could probably find each stroke of paint that touched the canvas. While paintings might have specific points viewers are meant to view as most important, a critical eye didn't have to look long to find something to be amiss. Intent and skill, as far as Gabe could tell, were of grave importance. And even though he had no intention of making a living off of his art or anything like that, it was interesting to be able to gain that sort of clarity on the matter. Had this been even a couple of hours ago, he might not have given it a second thought at all. Now here he was trying to make...what was definitely still amateur work, but work that he was coming around to.
Speaking of which, the way he and Atropia were interacting with one another was a far cry from how his tutoring lesson started. It was such a delight to see that there were at least some decent people at this school; maybe his plans to build ties between Musique and other nations were more realistic than he'd been starting to think. Aside from little Lei, he hadn't exactly met the best of the best in Lomacht so far.
He hadn't been trying much either, though. After spending so many years with a false identity, he almost felt out of his comfort zone just being him. Not so much when he was with those he'd known for a long time, but that was only a handful of people. That being said, and maybe it was a bit too soon to say, but he felt fairly confident he could add an extra finger to that count.
“If only my brother picked this up as quickly as you.â€
And perhaps Pia's brother as well, if she ever felt so comfortable to introduce the two of them. He wasn't the probing type, though, so he decided to leave it be as she shifted her focus back to his painting skills. “If you’d like, you could try putting all the skills you’ve learned into one piece.†Turning to face her, an intrigued Gabriel brought one hand to his chin while taking the paper Atropia offered with the other. As she went on to describe her challenge to him, he astutely nodded along, absentmindedly tapping his foot in the air along to the cadence of her words. “If you’re up for the challenge, of course. No pressure—it’s just a suggestion.†As she arched her brow, Gabriel playfully gave a curious brow of his own back.
"Hm..." began Gabriel with a gentle smile, tapping his foot in the air again. By the time that stopped again, he had an answer in mind. "Well, if I'm being given the option...I think I might just give up on art altogether. Gave it a good try, though." He tried his best to give a serious expression as he joked, but that smile of his creaked its way out pretty quickly. "Joking, of course, sorry," he continued, pulling back a bit just in case his humor had been taken as anything other than friendly banter. Atropia cared a lot about art, so he'd feel bad if he made her feel like her work with him thus far was for naught. Landing on a reaffirming half-smile, he brought the paper against the canvas.
"Challenge accepted, Atropia. I'll give it my best shot."
As Gabriel began to work on bringing his tutor's description to life, he first marked a horizon across the middle of the sheet with pencil. From there, it was deciding on where to put a light source. Choosing the left on a whim, he made soft marks to remember where he wanted the sun to be. From there, he began making a bit of a roadmap: the path went right down the middle, and there would be forest to either side. Definitely not a unique framework, but one he at least felt comfortable trying to build off of.
Now for the hard part.
The golden-eyed duke began applying paint to the paper, starting with the road. Choosing a darker gray to start, he put in a few haphazard specks of lighter grays and whites. Certain bits of gravel had a bit of gleam to them, right? Or would that even be visible from this viewpoint? Would the trees block that sort of thing out? Nervously stopping for a second, he quickly took himself out of it and went on to work on the trees. Applying the same shading techniques as before, he made sure to put the darker portions opposite of where the light was coming from.
After completing that process, he went on to the sky. An even light blue was applied across the empty space above the road and trees, going over a few spots with white to make very round and uniform clouds. Finally, he went for a basic yellow hue for the sun. Making a quarter circle, he then placed some yellow lines along the circumference to imply light coming out. That made sense, right? Going over his work, he had concerns about a few things. He probably went overboard when it came to shading the trees, for example. The size of them compared to the road also didn't completely line up with what he saw in his head, making for a path that could probably keep quite a few wagons along it at once. He was sure there were more to be critiqued, and he anticipated that Atropia wouldn't hold anything back on the matter.
But Gabriel was looking forward to the prospect. After all, he wanted to get better. And even if he hated how critical his editors were with his writing, he also knew that some of his best work was produced under those conditions. Aside from Bats: The Musical, anyway. This just seemed like a far more cordial version of that, so who was he to complain? Putting down his paint brush, he took a deep breath and faced Atropia once again. There was a glimmer of nervousness in his gaze, but also anticipation.
"Now this piece...probably won't win any awards either, but I think I can say I'm proud of it. What do you think?"
Location: Art Room
Company: Atropia
OOC: Outfit
