forum Pheasant Brook School for Academically Gifted Boys // OxO // CLOSED

Started December 08, 2019 by @GoblinKing

tune

Claude sat in art, staring down at his closed sketchbook and pencils. This class was really the only reason why he had pencils- he hated the feel of using lead instead of ink. The art class was one of the few classrooms that used table instead of singular desks, meaning that students had more room to work.

Kalen eventually found the classroom and stumbled his way inside, looking around nervously before making his way over to an empty table. He began to lay his things out on the table and waited in silence for the lesson to begin. He seemed a little shaken from the previous lesson, tired almost…

The class was working on a project they had started the day before- landscapes. Today was the rough draft— no color just yet, only blocking out shapes and plans. Claude was fairly proud of his work so far, an autumn scene inspired by the surrounding lands around the school. He hadn’t really noticed Kalen come in; he was too busy trying to mentally plan out his piece.

Kalen felt rather out of place in the silent room, but put his head down and looked at the blank page of his sketch book. Nothing had come to mind yet, which was rather unusual since he was known at home for his wild imagination. Then it hit him. The perfect scene he wanted to create. He picked up a pencil and began working, completely unaware that they were only supposed to be blocking shapes. While there was no colour to the page, the amount of detail he had put onto paper made up for the monochrome.

Claude was no doubt a perfectionist. He certainly had a vision in mind, abd luckily for him, his landscapes were fairly decent. His piece was pretty far along in terms of the sketch- after adding a little more detail, he would go up to the teacher and get it approved, making sure that it fit the criteria well enough. As Claude added the fine details to his tree, he grimaced, noticing the small chunk of dead space on the page.

Kalen stared at the page he had sketched on, feeling that something wasn't quite right. He flipped onto the next page and began drawing his image again, changing a few of the components this time. He did this again and again, until at least six pages had been filled with this one piece. Finally, on the seventh page, he got it exactly how he'd pictured it in his mind. A winter forest edge at the lakeside, with the trees reflecting in the water, and a great sunset in the background. Hopefully it would meet the criteria the teacher had set for them, though at this point he couldn't even remember what that criteria was.

Claude stared at his piece for a bit, rubbing his eyes and pushing it away from him. An autumn piece, supposed to be filled with rich, warm tones. His focal piece was a small pond lined with fallen leaves. A few large trees stood tall in the background, although he wasn’t sure quite what kind. The page before it was a basic blocking, and the page before that was full of notes- color palette, mood, the criteria, and objects to include. He had nothing to fill the blank area with, though. Possibly a tree stump? After all, it was in a bottom corner, some kind of plant should be there.

Kalen noticed that Claude was having a moment of blockage, which obviously struck up some concern. He pulled a spare piece of paper from his bag and started scribbling a note onto it. 'I don't know what you're drawing, but perhaps a holly plant?'
He folded it in half and discreetly leaned over, sliding it onto Claude's desk before quickly going back to his own work.

Claude took a moment before he noticed the note. He unfolded it, looking over at Kalen for a moment before reading it. Claude seemed to ponder the idea for a bit, lightly sketching the holly plant into the scenery. It would work, as long as he added a bit more greenery later on. He nodded to himself, adding a couple more plants here and there into the drawing.

(yeah, of course!)

Claude got up from his seat, walking over to the teacher’s desk in short strides. They talked for a few minutes, although their voices were too quiet to hear easily. He nodded every so often, finally returning to his desk and flipping to the next page. This particular sketchbook had incredibly thick paper, similar to bristol board, so Claude had taken to painting directly in there instead of on a separate surface. He dug in his bag, pulling out a few small tubes of gouache and a couple brushes.

Kalen, too, went up to talk to the teacher about his composition. And while the answers the teacher gave were ridiculously vague, the impression was that his composition fit the criteria and he was good to go with painting it. Kalen turned to the next page of his sketch book, and began lightly mapping out objects with his pencil. He rummaged around one of the inside pockets of his bag, pulling out a couple of brushes, and three metal tins——inside of which were a mixture of water based and oil paints. After finding a small pot for water and some tissues, he set to work on the under-painting.

Claude did only a very simple sketch, mapping out the basic shapes. He knew the details well enough in his head, and had a small sheet of notes right beside him, so that was enough. Claude barely looked up from his piece as he worked on his underpainting.

The under-painting took a litle longer than Kalen had anticipated, but soon enough he was ready to begin the first layer. It was always difficult judging what part of the painting would be on which layer, but with a careful eye, even if mistakes were made, the painting would work in the end. The minor details were what Kalen was looking forward to, he always loved putting the finishing features on a piece.

Claude’s underpainting, was finished quickly- he was never one to have underpaintings take longer than 10 minutes, and this one was no different. He continued to make notes and little adjustments on his note sheet as the paint dried. Claude hated adding the tiny details. His hand was always just a little too shaky, and so he tried to create the impression of detail without actually needing to add it.

Kalen sat back to inspect his finished painting, nodding firmly in satisfaction. The reflection, the ombré sunset, the snow—everything was just like the image inside his head. While it was people he preferred to paint and sketch, landscapes were something of a guilty pleasure. He turned to look at Claude, who was concentrating harder than he had ever seen him before, however he didn't get a good look at what the Dutch was painting.

Claude stopped painting for a moment to push his hair out of his face and tuck it behind his ears. It was coming along well enough- even if it wasn’t as clear as some of the other paintings, that was the intent. The main thing he wanted to get across was the warm, earthy palette with shocks of green woven in. His notes page was a bit of a mess now, full of scrawlings, paint smudges, and ticked-off boxes.

Kalen's eyes grew heavy, and soon enough he found it difficult to even hold his head up. Slowly, very discreetly, his arm lay across the table and his head rested on top of it. His painting sat beside him, but not in a position where he would end up bumping into it should he move. He didn't want to sleep, but he physically couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

Claude finally looked up from his work, taking a moment to glance around the room. Kalen caught his attention, and he honestly had half a mind to try and wake him up. He drummed his paint-stained fingers on the desk, giving his eyes a small break before going back to work.