Trisa watched the woman struggle beside her without offering any advice. In her own experience, she found that the best advice one could get came from oneself. The young artist had always been stubborn, and, as such, would always take her own word over the words of others. Even if that meant struggling through a totally impractical process, Trisa was all for it. If that process was nonsensical, then at least she could say she tried and bettered herself for it.
Instead, Trisa allowed Kaie to direct her own experience. As the woman next to her fidgeted with her charcoal, Trisa took her own charcoal and got back to work. At this point, the dusty pile she had created earlier had blown away. Fortunately, this hadn't left too drastic of a mark on the page. Once again she scribbled in a tight circle at the tip of the flower petal. From there, she began to blend the charcoal towards the center of the flower. Once satisfied with this petal, she moved onto the next. Trisa made sure not to blend too far into the center, as she had to draw any detail there yet.
Beside her, Trisa heard the harsh sound of crumpling paper. She kept her head down, though. Even though Kaie didn't appear to be the type of person who was easily embarrassed, Trisa didn't want to risk it. Learning something new was difficult and, from the young artist's experiences, it was easy to fracture the fragile confidence of a novice. As Kaie spoke, Trisa raised her head and was reminded that not very much looked fragile about her company.
"When I first began, I did like to do simple doodles." Trisa shrugged. What could she say to help the woman? Teaching was for the patient and skilled, and Trisa was neither of those things. "Swirls, squares, clouds. I would just try to have a feeling for the charcoal first. I would see what shapes and shades charcoal will make before I would try to draw a thing." The girl watched Kaie's reactions carefully as she tried to gauge whether or not the Myrian understood her advice. "Take the charcoal and press as hard as you can with it." Trisa tapped the upper corner of the page. "Then take the charcoal and press more lightly." From there, Trisa dragged her finger down the page as she said: "More lightly, more lightly, more lightly, and then as lightly as you can do." She raised her hand from the page and deposited it into her own lap. She watched carefully, waiting for either another question or for Kaie to be done with the task.
Tukant Common