Open [The Art Studio] Life In Color

[Lenalia Sabriel]

17th Day of Winter, 512 AV Lena stared at the canvas in front of her with a critical eye, cautiously drawing a stroke of pale blue across it. Her frown deepened, and she dipped her brush in a darker color of blue, attempting to shade it so it looked like the colors were fading into one another. The effect made her purse her lips in frustration. She had been attempting to paint the sea, but instead of the carefully blended blues, grays, and whites that she had envisioned in her mind, the effect looked like a messy collection of streaks. She wiped at her nose with one hand, leaving a streak of blue across her skin as she frowned down at her painting. What was especially frustrating was how much she had liked the initial sketch. The first pencil lines on the canvas had shown a sea tossed in storm, the waves beating against Zeltiva's harbor. She'd been proud of her creation, had thought that the final painting would be something she could turn in for her latest assignment. But she was quickly learning that sketching in black and white with charcoal and painting in color were two completely different animals. Calm down... she told herself, resisting the sudden unreasonable urge to throw the painting into the fire and be done with it. She forced herself to remember how it had been when she was first learning to draw, the constant missteps and all of her best clothes stained with soot. But it had been different then. She hadn't known what it was supposed to look like. Lena sighed, dipping her brush into paint and drawing it across the outline of the waves. Her eyes took on a determined set, and she tried to focus on the brushstrokes,, on the techniques she had been taught. That was how it always was, wasn't it? She would have to learn the techniques, and learn how to get them right, before it would start to feel like art again. Besides, there was no point in throwing out all of this work. She just had to finish the painting. One stroke at a time.