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 Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2016 1:23 am
As much as Flo could create to her heart's content at home, there was a different feel to doing it with a group of other, like-minded people. At home, it was a solitary activity, where she started and stopped at her own whims and pursued whatever subject she wished, but in a classroom, it was so much more of a social thing. It was like being immersed in the activity, times and subjects dictated largely by the teacher, with critique and input coming from your fellows... It was why she participated in as many of these community run classes as she could fit into her schedule.
This class was Intermediate Painting, held Thursday nights in Meadowview's art room. It was nice of the school, she thought, to open it's doors to the community like it did. Art was something everyone could enjoy, and being able to create and express... she liked to think if everyone participated in something like this, the world would be a bit of a better place than it was. After all, any time she felt upset or stressed, some time wrist-deep in clay or with a brush in her fingers always set her to rights again.
"Alright, you're going to split into pairs and work on portraits of your partners." The teacher said, lifting a hand to point and begin counting off 1s and 2s to pair people off. "Remember, its about capturing the essence of a person. What makes them unique. The little details that, when added together, complete the picture... And don't be afraid to really dive into experimenting with color! Color can tell a story as much as shape and placement of the subject in the image. You've got the rest of class today and next week for this."
Portraits?
Flo turned the idea over in her mind as she turned to the girl in the seat next to her, the one assigned to be her partner. Partnering up with someone meant she was doing to have to interact with them, something Flo was decidedly not terribly good at, but there was really no choice to sit out of this assignment.
Bright blue eyes swept over the brunette with her faint smattering of freckles on pale skin. She looked older than the recent high school graduate, but not terribly so... It made Flo wonder what had brought her to this class, and what sort of life she returned to when she left at the end of the day. Did she work three jobs to support herself in her shabby apartment like a modern day Cinderella? Was she the pampered daughter of distant, neglectful parents who feared getting too close and interfering with her rise to greatness?
She looked a bit like a Cinderella, though there was certainly no soot smudges on her face. Maybe Belle would fit her better, but wasn't Belle more into books than painting? The thoughts and 'maybes' and 'what-ifs' turned round and round in Flo's head as she studied the other girl, entirely forgetting for a long moment that the best thing to do when meeting someone was... to say hello. Or even introduce yourself.
Neither seemed forthcoming any time soon.
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Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:07 pm
Painting had been something that she loved to do, something that she could do that let her go into her Zen mode, nice and comfortable and safe. Paintings never judged you. Kayden hadn’t so much as touched a brush since she had come to America and it was only through Anella’s…encouragement that she was even at this class now. It seemed sort of silly to be taking a painting class in a high school but…well.
She knew that Anella was just worried about her. She had been shut up in the bedroom that her cousin was letting her borrow and hardly came out for anything. Well…so maybe it wasn’t a healthy way to live…but there was nothing more she wanted to do with herself. It felt like there was a void in her chest where her heart was supposed to be…and she had no way to fill it with anything.
And why had her first class have to be portraits? She didn’t have anything against portraits, nothing at all…in fact…she had done several. All of the same person. All of the same short dark hair and warm brown eyes…all of the same smiling face with the slightly too large front teeth…all of her.
A bitter stab of pain went through Kayden as she thought of her once again and she sighed, looking at the one she was supposed to be painting. She looked young, and her glasses were kind of cute. Glasses were always something Kayden had secretly wished she had needed, but never did.
It didn’t seem like her partner here was in the mood to talk, so finally she held out a hand. “Hello. My name is Kayden…I suppose I’ll be painting you. It’s nice to meet you.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 2:52 pm
There was a blink as the stranger spoke and a moment's pause before Flo seemed to wake up and brought her hand to meet the one offered. She gripped it, but not too tightly, more focus coming into her eyes as she was drawn out of her thoughts.
"Hello. Florence Abigail Beaumont." She said, her name all in a string as though she had said it so often it simply rolled out of her mouth now. "Nice to meet you."
The greeting was standard, but it did what it needed to do, which is all Flo needed from it. Her own voice was neither hard, terse nor disinterested, but it certainly wasn't very... forthcoming. She pushed her glasses up her nose as she blinked again, giving the girl a once over with a curious tilt of her head.
"What colors do you like?" She offered after a long moment, her wide blue eyes intent in a friendly and open way. It wasn't part of the lesson to color with specific colors, but she'd already been through so many such classes that she sometimes combined lessons, or deviated from the set instructions. Playing with some colors sounded appealing today. Maybe she could paint the soul of this woman, rather than just her face. That would be nice. She bet it was a very pretty soul, though a little sad from the expression she had caught.
Maybe some ultramarine blue and burnt umber.
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 3:27 pm
She had such a long name! But it was a pretty name. All of the names were. Florence, that wasn’t a very common name, and that made it all the more beautiful. Though, the question about her favorite colors confused her and she gave Florence a quizzical look. “I’m afraid I don’t know why you’d need them, but they are earthy tones…greens and browns, um…I’m afraid I’m pretty boring when it comes to colors, to be honest. I don’t like things very bright or very…”
Kayden shrugged.
“I mean, it’s just a portrait…so what I’m wearing is fine if that’s what you’re worried about…or if you don’t like the idea of painting a white shirt, brown will be fine…”
It was still a strange question…but she was starting to get the overall impression that this was a strange girl. A nice one…but a strange one.
“…what are your favorite colors?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 3:23 pm
Flo's eyes crinkled when a smile spread beneath her long nose and she nodded emphatically, already reaching for some of the tubes of paint she kept close at hand. They made rich blobs of color on her plastic palette when she squeezed them out.
Ultramine Blue and Raw Umber were certainly among the colors, but there were dollops of Phthalo Green, Titanium White and even Cadmium Red. With a round 2 brush, she mixed some of the red with the green to dull the color, and only then did she blink and remember she had been asked a question.
Blue eyes rose up as she tapped the end of her brush against her chin, thinking it carefully over.
"I like... Cerulean Blue and sometimes Leaf Green." She said with a firm nod. Was Kayden going to a monochromatic piece as well? That was interesting. She liked to see people trying new and unusual things, and she didn't mind being inspiration, if it sparked their muse. Inspiration was vital, in her mind. Wherever it came from.
Tongue pinched between her teeth, Flo mixed white into her green and began to block in shapes on her canvas, glancing often at her partner. Despite how often she studied Kayden, the personal nature of it seemed to have faded. She was a shape made up of colors now, and that is what Flo was putting to her canvas.
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 5:32 pm
Kaden watched Florence for a long moment, and finally drew her eyes away. Well…those were lovely colors, she was sure she could work with that.
This girl was interesting. And she seemed…shy…or just socially awkward, which fit in well to Kayden’s own tendencies nowadays.
Maybe painting wasn’t the right way to do a portrait for Florence. Maybe…some paint but…only some. It wasn’t as though she was being graded on this, right? This may have been a class, but it was a class for fun, not for judgment. Reaching down, Kayden pulled up a set of charcoal pencils and began sketching.
She had a pretty good idea of what the girl in front of her looked like, but for something like this, she didn’t want it to be to exact, she wanted her vision of Florence.
This was…almost nice. Someone to spend time with, and at the same time, someone who she didn’t have to talk to.
As the minutes passed, her portrait started coming together, an almost completely black and white piece, with two bright blue eyes. Hopefully it would show that there was more to someone then what they showed the world…but mostly, it was just the spot of color that the piece really needed.
With a sigh, Kayden put her brush down and finally allowed a glance around the classroom, wondering if she had to stay until the end of the class, or if she could leave now.
Socializing was exhausting sometimes.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 8:30 pm
Once focused in on her work, Flo seemed to forget what was going on around her. Kayden was a subject; a lovely form to represent on the canvas. She worked with energetic and sweeping strokes, roughing things in before she refined them. She focused more on giving the feel of them than on anything picture perfect. Standing back, one could see the person in the colors and shapes, and probably even recognize key features.
The colors themselves were umber and olive around the edges, dark and desaturated. The warmth came towards the center, but only in the form of a more ochre tone, earth yellow in tone. She saved the brightest areas for the face and the eyes staring out soul-full and dark from the center. The mouth was a sweeping line, soft and expressive... and by the time she was done, there was a brown smudge on her chin, her fingers dark with paint she'd managed to get on the over-sized shirt she was wearing. Luckily, by the look of it, this was not the first time she had done so, since some of it was old and dried.
It was only once the teacher called a halt and people began to pack that Flo came blinking out of whatever headspace she had been in, glancing about surprised everyone was leaving. A look to the clock gave the explanation and she dropped her brush into her water with embarrassment.
"Thank you." The young woman said with feeling, finally seeming to remember that her model was a human. She picked the painting up to turn it for her to see, politely waiting for her to finish before she did any of her clean up.
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