Flashback 'Art is Magic'

[Anouk]

13th Summer, 487AV
The Pavarti Family Home

"Art is like magic, girls."

Her mother's spiritual statement was accompanied by a flourish of her paintbrush. Anouk leant leftwards, glimpsing around her own, smaller canvas to eye that of her mother's. A hiss from one of her sisters - it was probably bossy young Okanis - made the Konti girl stand up straight again.

Niva Parvati stood before her four daughters, and in front of her was positioned a canvas. Beyond her canvas was a table, on which stood an orchid plant with three delicate white and purple flowers, and several more buds that were yet to reveal the colours they protected. She turned away from her painting, those blue eyes watching each of her daughters in turn, trying to figure out who exactly had made the horribly distracting psst noise.

Eight pairs of eyes focused on their own canvases under the gaze of their mother, none of the girls wanting to be rightfully or wrongfully blamed. Eventually, after several silent chimes, Okanis snorted and broke into a helpless smile.

"Oka! It was you?"

The youngest girl - she appeared to be no more than seven - looked sheepishly to the floor. She knew her mother was not truly angry, but nevertheless her cheeks flushed hotly under the unwanted attention.

Niva eyed the other three of her girls; eldest Thalia, second eldest Euterpe and third born Anouk. The former stared at her canvas in intense concentration, though her paintbrush was pointed to the ceiling. A globule of pastel pink paint dropped to the floor, and Thalia did not seem to notice. Euterpe glanced to her elder sister before taking a similar pseudo-painting stance. Only Anouk, it seemed, appeared to be engrossed in her art.

"Perhaps we should take a break."

The girls all nodded, save for Anouk who looked up from her canvas in mild surprise. The other three left their canvases with some degree of relief, whilst Anouk remained where she was, frowning at her painting. After placing her art tools to the side, Niva approached her remaining daughter. "Engrossed in painting?"

Her mother ran a soft hand through Anouk's hair, and the child smiled in response to the affection before replying tiredly, "I just can't quite get it--" she waved her paintbrush towards the orchid plant that stood seven feet in front of her in a frustrated manner, "right." Niva tsked gently before peering at the girl's artwork

The painting was not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. Anouk had recreated the plant far shorter than it actually was, whilst the plant pot was disproportionately wide. Whilst it was obvious the painting was of an orchid, it looked... squashed.

"Oh Anouk, you're too hard on yourself." Niva knew all too well just how intensely self-critical her third born could be. Anouk was all too happy to compliment the work of her sisters, even if they were less pleasing to the eye than her own creation. But when it came to Anouk's art, she was her own harshest critic.

"Euterpe's is better." Anouk grumbled moodily, nodding to the canvas to the left of her own.

Niva sighed. "All of my daughters are equally talented." She murmured, but nevertheless the Konti woman was impressed with her other daughter's art. Euterpe was one of those individuals who seemed to seep natural talent. Painting, drawing, singing, pottery, dance; the girl could pick up almost all skills after receiving only the most basic of lessons. But she was incredibly flighty, and all too aware of her own abilities. Euterpe would no doubt grow to be a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. "Okanis' painting is--" her words faultered as Niva approached her youngest daughter's creation. There was no sign of an orchid anywhere on the canvas, but instead a collection of various coloured paint blobs splattered across the material. "interesting."

But Anouk was not satisfied. "That's because Oka is young." She muttered, pouting her bottom lip and eyes her older sister's painting enviously. She turned her attention back to her own canvas and, dipping her paintbrush into a soft pool of green paint on her pallet, started to correct her orchid. She started at the top of the plant, extending the main stem upwards and curving the thin green line to a soft 'c' shape at the top. Her blue eyes flashed from canvas to real-life plant. "I'll have to make the rest up." She whispered, thin brows furrowed in concentration. Off this extended main stem, Anouk painted three small stubs in a dark, dry-looking green. These stumps would feed into another mature flower, such as the three she had already painted, and two more premature buds.

Niva watched her daughter silently, knowing that it would be fruitless to give any word of encouragement or praise. Anouk could easily lose herself in art. Whether the girl was looking at a piece of artwork, or painting or drawing herself, it didn't matter. The colours enveloped her, wrapped the Konti girl in their soft world of pastels and shadows, making her deaf to those around her. All of Niva's girls - herself included - were great lovers of art, but only Anouk seemed to be fluent in the silent language of colours.

[Anouk]

Anouk added more green to the extended part of her stem: yellow-green on the top surface of the stem and a darker green on the bottom to add an attempt of realistic shading. She leant forwards, her nose almost touching the paint, to investigate the smoothness of her strokes. The smell of turpentine burnt her nostrils, made her give a little cough.

The flowers were the trickiest part, especially when Anouk would not be painting them from a model. She glanced at the real plant once again, shifting herself to the right to look at the petals from a slightly different angle.

She had already painted the first layer of the four flowers, but now Anouk had extended the stem to make her plant seem taller, she would need to add more florets to ensure it looked realistic and balance.

It began with three pastel pink semi-circles; two with the flat sides opposite each other and pointing inwards, and the third overlapping the tops of the first two. When this first layer of paint was completely, Anouk went over the circles with more care, turning their smooth arcs slightly pointed to model the petals of the flowers.

Niva watched carefully, smiling softly as the due care and caution with which her daughter painted. Anouk was a patient girl; a trait that she only shared with her mother. Thalia, Okanis, Euterpe - and the man who had sired all four girls - all lacked the quiet patience that Anouk and Niva carried in spades. "Think tall, Anouk." Niva whispered, wondering whether the comment would carry any meaning to her daughter, lost in the world of paint and colours as they were.

[Anouk]

Anouk heard her mother's guide, but the words carried little meaning. She repeated them silently to herself, and the words even escaped from beyond her lips in a breathy whisper. Think tall.

She added the two lower petals to her flower, taking a step back to observe her progress from afar. Think tall.

The girl glanced to her mother for confirmation that the words had been said all along, and had not been whispered to Anouk from the paints on her artists' pallet. When Niva nodded, Anouk also nodded in response. Yes, think tall.

When she returned to the canvas, Anouk paid greater attention to the top half of her flower in progree. Repeating the message over and over in her mind (think tall, think tall, think tall), Anouk extended the petals upwards, making them bigger and, indeed, taller. When she paused to drink in her progress so far, she smiled. "Think tall. Yes."

Niva could also see the improvement. The first layer - the most vague, less detailed - of Anouk's latest flower looked far more realistic than the squattish examples she had created earlier. "Much better. Next layer?" Niva encouraged, a hand on her daughter's shoulders.

[Anouk]

Anouk replied with a single nod, returning to her world of colours in silence. When she painted over that first layer of the petal, Anouk made sure to use a higher ratio of oil to colour pigment to introduce more detail in her petal. She knew that capturing the minute details of the flower - those tiny, delicate veins, for example - were far beyond her skill. Better to do a simple painting well than to try and over achieve, messing up one's attempt in the progress.

So instead, Anouk simply added some basic shading to the flower, drawing a thin line on the underside of each petal to try and capture a sense of depth to her painting. The resulting effect was pleasant to look at, if not quite perfect. Next she turned her attention to the purple patches of the flower. Anouk paused, twisting her neck to loosen up the tightness in her muscles before glancing to the model. She noticed how no single flower had more than four splotches of purple on the petals, and none of these purple patches were bigger than the nail of her pinky finger.

When her attention turned back to the canvas, Anouk erred on the side of caution. The purple she used was delicate and pastel, and she added it to the canvas cautiously. She did not want to overbear her white petals with the colour, despite her having subdued it some.

Another layer of slightly darker purple was added to this initial, paler layer. Once again this upper layer had a higher oil to colour ratio - fat over lean, the girl repeated in her head as she mixed the colours.

As she finished, Anouk glanced to her mother, who smiled and nodded.

"Aaah, yes. See how this flower is taller than it is wide?" Niva pointed, her fingertip inches away from the wet paint, to the flower Anouk had just finished and compared it to her earlier pieces. "A vast improvement."

The girl nodded silently, still irked that the improvements to her painting had come so late in its creation. It was no longer possible to go back and improve the earlier flowers or buds; they were be an eternal reminder of her artisitic mistake.

Still, she did not want her mother to pick up on her critical thought processes, so Anouk feigned a smile and nodded, unconvincingly saying, "Yes. I'm happy with it."

[Anouk]

Slippered footsteps indicated the return of the other girls, so Niva smiled to Anouk and then turned to her other daughters. "I say we continue for another bell or so, and then perhaps have lunch." the woman said softly, looking at each of her children in turn. They were all miniature versions of herself, but with subtle differences that gave each of her girls their own individual look.

They were all beautiful girls; even their mother's rose-tinted gaze did not do them justice. Thalia, being the eldest, carried a sense of superiority around with her, which complimented her sharp features and angled nose. She moved charmingly, in a way that caught the attention of the room. Euterpe, like her sister, held a strong jawline and strong features. However the second born Parvati girl held an atmosphere of activity and excitement. Her eyes drank in her surroundings, seeking out the best source of fun. The next in line, Anouk, had softer features than her sisters. Despite her high cheekbones and lingering aquamarine gaze, she was harmless, relaxed. Perhaps having been born to two older sisters had reduced the girl to being too passive, too happy in the comfort of herself and her colours. Anouk's demeanour contrasted starkly to the youngest sister. Okanis was Niva's little hellcat, her spirit child. The girl was lively, but in a less innocent way than that of Euterpe. The age gap between Okanis and Anouk was the longest between all four girls, and so by the time she had arrived, her sisters had wanted to mother spoil her. She was unused to being told no, was all too happy to let people do her bidding.

The girls each returned to their paintings, and Anouk found herself rejuvenated with confidence and eagerness. Thalia's minute amount of jealousy - and minute it was - had fed Anouk's small ego, giving the younger sister a much needed confidence boost. With a smile, Anouk continued to improve her painting, adding to the main stem some bundles of dark green that would become the buds. She added shading alongside the lower part of each bud - again was unhappy with this, but nevertheless she continued in silence. When Anouk was finished short afterwards, the upper half her creation was far superior to the squat lower half.

Well, she thought mildly, better to improve later rather than never.

oocI know I used Anouk's sister pretty extensively in this thread, so please let me know if I need to apply for them as stationary NPCs for further use in flashbacks

[Dravite]

Anouk

XP Award:

• Observation: 3
• Socialisation: 2
• Painting: 4
• Investigation: 1
• Intelligence: 1

Lore:

• Niva Parvati: An artistic mother
• Okanis: The youngest sister
• Thalia: The eldest sister
• Euterpe: The second eldest sister
• Painting: Using a live model
• Painting: The use of colours
• Painting: Shading
• Observation: The smell of fresh paint
• Painting: A smooth line
• Painting: Layers
• Painting: Start with what you know
• Painting: Adding detail
• Painting: Tone

Notes: Hello, Anouk. This was a beautifully edited story and a pleasure to read. It is always nice reading up on a character’s history and seeing what past events shaped the person they eventually become. Anouk seems to be quite the talented little painter! I had no trouble spotting lots of lore to award you with. Concerning your queries about the NPC, if you continue to use them I would suggest applying to make them stationary NPCs, otherwise a one off is fine. Let me know if you think I have missed anything here and be sure to edit your grading request! .
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