[The Quill's Rest] Art to Art [Wart]

[Gale Austin McCenry]

30th of Summer, 512 A.V.
The Quill's Rest
Miday

It was quiet here...

Gale liked it. He should come here more often. In a busy city like Zeltiva, it was rather difficult to find a place that was quiet that was beyond his home. Even then it sometimes wasn't as quiet as he would hope. It was the World's End Grotto though. It's not going to be the most peaceful place, so coming here more wouldn't be a bad idea. It would also get him that much further away from his daily habits.

Sitting in a chair, Gale was drawing once again. His left ankle crossed over his right thigh. His beloved sketch book was placed on his legs, a sheet of paper ontop of it's cover. Gale looked up from his picture to the view of the bay through the window in front of him. He was almost done with the picture, only having a few spots that had yet to be drawn. He had started the sketch a few days ago and decided to come back and finish it off. He just might be able to sell this one.

Brushing his blonde hair out of his face, the artist's blue eyes watched as his left hand made faint lines in the bottom right corner of the page to try and replicate the moving waves. No one would be able to catch the magnificence of the ocean. Not he, not the best artist in the world, Gale didn't even think the Gods would be able to do it just right. But Gale wasn't a real religious man in the first place. He knew they were there but he didn't ever go and pray or anything.

Gale lifted his head again and looked out the window. Observing the horizon for a bit, Gale added the rest of the gaps in the picture. Now he would have to just add some details and the drawing was done.

The ocean was calm in his sketch. A few small figures on the docks. They were little more than blobs but they did have a slouch of sorts. The buildings in the distance had dark shadows casting on one another. The sky was mostly clouded. In general, Gale's picture had a sad look to it. The ocean seemed to have lost its liveliness, the buildings worn down, and the weather seemed to show signs of a storm rolling in. Gale wasn't aware of the depressing look to his work though, since all of them seemed to have this sad and lonely look to it. It was just what was in his heart so that showed in his work.

[Wart]

When it came to anywhere that had even the remotest connection the University, Wart would usually be staying far, far away. The Quill's rest was one of such places, being so frequented (or tainted, as she saw it) by students. Regardless of this even she couldn't deny its usefulness in being quiet, and Gods did she need somewhere quiet to work.

Since being employed at The Equinox, Wart had realized she was going to need quite a lot of practice in tattooing. Unfortunately she didn't have the money for a tattooing kit and Lewd was too stingy to let her take one out of the shop. So, she resigned herself to use a more primitive, rough way of practicing.

Her biggest issue was keeping true to the design while applying the tattoo. She was just fine when it came to sketching it and applying it to the skin with Lewd's special "mix," but the tap tap tap part was where things seemed to go off. Though it was a very basic method, she chose to use a piece of charcoal and paper and draw out a tattoo design, but instead of actually drawing she would carefully tap tap tap the drawing as if she were doing a tattoo.

She'd started trying it out at home, but didn't get far. Some of her neighbors were rude enough to decide to get sick and couldn't shut up their stupid coughing long enough to let her get any work done. And well, her usual spots of interest, aka bars, weren't exactly any quieter.

So there she was, walking into the little cafe with a few papers (she'd at least convinced Lewd to let her take some from her station) and a stick of charcoal.

Looking around she saw that there were indeed quite a few students there. Which probably made sense, it was the middle of the day after all. She would have nothing to do with them and chose to disregard any tables or chairs close by. Over to one side she noticed a man sitting alone near a window, it looked like he was drawing. And close to him was one of the few open tables. Gods why.... Well, if he was drawing something, perhaps he was an artist of sorts, which at least made him bearable in her book. With a sigh she headed over to the table and sat down.

She spread out her papers and decided to look up and take a glance at what the man was working on. Her view from her angle was limited, being able to see what he held in his lap from the side. It looked like a sketch, a rather good one from what she could tell. She watched him for a moment, not really having much shame in so blatantly doing so. Lackin' a bit o' color though 'n my opinion.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale used his charcoal piece to fill in some shades in different spots. He didn't notice that a women was looking at his work until he lifted his head to look up out the window again. Gale's eyes only spared a glance at the Vantha mix before looking at the scene. He watched the waves for a moment to try and memorize the shadow and reflection patterns of the water. Looking back down, Gale attempted to fill the shadows in.

He spared another glance at the girl, then back down at his dominant hand as it drew. Did she want something or was she just watching? He supposed even in a quiet place like this you won't get away from people looking over your shoulder. Gale was fine with that as long as they didn't try and mess him up. But after a while and her not seeming to turn away he had to ask.

Not looking up, he questioned,"May I help you?"

It wasn't often that someone actually needed his assistance but if it was needed he wouldn't hesitate to lend a hand. But she probably didn't need anything though. His page probably just caught her wondering eyes. It happens.

[Wart]

She watched how he'd glance up and replicate what he saw on the paper. So he was that kind of artist. She'd preferred doing her work based on images in her mind as apposed to taken directly from surroundings but hell, to each his own.

Wart ignored the man's question. If anything she simply took it as an indication that speaking wouldn't terribly interrupt him. (She could be rude and inconsiderate but she knew the feeling of being interrupted in the middle of a piece and refused to do it herself.)

"Y'know, 'f you're goin for makin' it depressing, it'd go far with some col' colors." She didn't normal give help or critique on a piece unless reasonably prompted to do so. If it was good then it was good, if it wasn't oh well sucks. But when it came to colors she couldn't stop herself from voicing her opinion. She didn't even know if the man had access to colors or if he wanted them. It was her opinion, he could take it or leave it but now that it was out there she took out her paper and started doing a light outline of the tattoo she'd planned to practice.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

"Depressing?"Gale raised an eyebrow, stopped filling in his work to just look at it.

Why didn't he see the depressing look to it? It look completely normal to him. Exactly how he saw it. Was it actually depressing looking or was it just her opinion? He knew people saw different things in art and maybe she just thought it was depressing. But Gale was curious. He new he was a rather lonely guy but did his sadness show that much in his work? That wasn't what he going for at all. He just wanted it to look like the bay. He didn't mean to dishearten the picture. Gale sighed in disappointment.

Colors? He might make his accidental mood work with some, now that she brought it up. He had colors too but he rarely used them when he sketched since the colors often covered up a lot of his details. But if he was going to try and turn the picture around then color might do the trick.

But depressing?

[Wart]

"Depressing?"

Wart looked up to see the man looking at his drawing. Confused? She double checked by looking out the window, then back to what he'd drawn. "Oh Gods." She scoffed and walked over to him, shaking her head.

"Look 'ere, you got the clouds all o'er like its gonna petchin' rain. See buildin's messed up and oceans all calm, tha's alright, but 'f you're not tryin for somethin sad you gotta fix that sky n' it turns it around. Get some sun in ere maybe - " She gestured towards the corner "o'er here or somethin, sunbeams even, give it like, hope y'know?" She wasn't trying for anything deep or metaphorical here. It was just that back in Avanthal a lot of her paintings and drawings had that sort of emotion, the longing and hope in them. It was something she knew fairly well, even if she would deny knowledge or care for what she considered emotions that conveyed weakness.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale listened to her as she gave him advise of sorts. She seemed slightly upset but Gale didn't know why or really cared. He just drew what the weather was like last time her was her.Last time he was here, it looked like it was about to rain.

Gale nodded anyway. "Yeah, I know it looks like rain. But that was what the weather was like last time I was here. I just came back to finish up the details I missed."

It was rather weird for him, this advise thing. No one ever really paid attention long enough to his drawings or paintings to give him advice. Now that someone actually did care to share some it was a strange feeling. But it was good type of strange. Any advice to help him with his job was appreciated, even if it was just a small piece. He needed the help, even though he didn't often show it.

[Wart]

oocIt kind of scared the crap out of me at first to open the page and see blinding orange, but I love it! Very nice frame!

Wart scoffed, violet eyes letting in a little red. Her mood was considerably more calm when discussing art, but she was starting to get irritated. "Well 'en why're you lookin' o'er here all petchin' confused?? 'Nless you got somethin in there sayin' otherwise, rain's usually gonna mean depressing."

The woman knew there were paintings like that, simply for the sake of the landscape or what a certain area looked like. But she wasn't a fan of that kind of art. To her every piece needed to have some sort of message in it, some meaning, conveying something. Whether it was subtle or obvious. And if there wasn't one, chances were, an onlooker will find one somehow whether it was intended or not.

"You migh' be paintin' what you see takin' in the scenery, but someone else, they're not gonna know that. They're gonna say 'looks like 'e was tryin' ta make it sad,' or 'e painted this place cause it looks sad.'"

Wart moved over to where her stuff was and brought it closer on the table to where the man was sitting. She narrowed her eyes, mentally beating herself over for having bothered to say something in the first place. It was out of place for her to say anything that wasn't a long stream of chewing out or insults, let alone give advice like this. It almost felt kind... of gross. To cover it she convinced herself that she was only doing this because she didn't want some artist petchin' up and giving the rest of them a bad name. This had nothing to do with emotion, and she was most certainly not being "nice."

Whatever the reason for this was, if she was going to continue talking to this guy she was going to have to at least get some work done doing it. So as she waited for some response or another, she laid her papers out again and sat down to finish the faint outline of the tattoo design she'd started.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

OOCHaha! Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya. I changed it though so it is better on everyone's eyes. It's shocking everyone. Now I'm sticking to it. Haha!

Gale raised an eyebrow as he saw her eyes change color. Was she actually getting upset about this? He wasn't. Did he seem upset? He gave her a smirk to try and show her that he wasn't upset.

"It just startled me is all. I don't particularly realize what my work looks like until after I complete it fully." Gale tried to explain.

He took in what she said though. If she was trying to help or is giving advice, it wouldn't be any good to just ignore it. Just a waste of time and of breath. So, he took it. After she moved her stuff closer to him, he then said sincerely.

"I appreciate the advice though."

He looked back down at his work and looked at the clouds and ocean. He knew he wouldn't get the ocean right but maybe he could fix the cloud to lighten up the mood slightly? He just had to figure out how to do that without ruining it

[Wart]

Wart sighed. That sort of made sense to her, she sometimes did the same thing where she'd just go on drawing and let herself be surprised by whatever outcome it brought. The guy seemed nice enough, so she ruled out that he was petching with her and let herself sit down. When he said the word "advice" though, she went a little rigid. Not enough that it would be very noticeable, but enough that she stopped outlining. She didn't like the word advice. She gave an opinion, she gave corrections, she gave critiques. Advice was for a teacher helping out children.

Biting her lip she kept herself from reacting or saying anything more, instead finishing up the outline on the paper. It was a fish, not unlike the one she'd been aiming to tattoo the day she applied at the shop. That first time it had ended up warped, too long, more like a weird, chubby, short snake. This time however she was under much less pressure and stress, and would take the time to do it right.

Her piece of charcoal was soft, so as she started tapping along the outline of the picture, it made a dull thudding noise that wasn't much louder than a pencil scratching on paper. She might hate the university students here but she was not about to become the kind of people she hated who went somewhere quiet only to interrupt everyone with a bunch of loud obnoxious noise. Not without good cause, anyway.