3 Aug 2022, 19:55
Every Canvas is a Journey all its Own
Title quote: Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011; abstract painter)
@Finnegan Conner10.08.2022
Hogwarts Summer Camp, London❀
Summer camp might be an odd choice of venue with everything it had to offer, but Glenys missed painting. She hadn't done any real painting since before they went to London and none at all since camp started. It was a horrible. Not that she didn't have fun here, she did, but she still missed it a lot. It was a good thing she never went on vacation without at least her small water colour set (since she'd gotten her first "travel set" three years ago) and a set of coloured pencils.
So she was ready.
She just needed a place to paint. She didn't want to paint inside the tent, the lighting in there wasn't the best for what she wanted to do. So Glenys had grabbed her things and was now out and about in the camp looking for a somewhat secluded (read: quiet) corner of the camp area. The quiet wasn't strictly necessary but she didn't want to sit smack in the middle of camp where everyone was walking through. She had no interest in accidentally getting jostled every second. (Okay, that would be an exaggeration but her point stood. A place more to the side, the lesser frequented part of the camp would be better for her purposes.)
It wasn't particularly hard to find a fitting spot and so she sat down in the shade with her watercolour set and her misappropriated clipboard (a left over from one of papa's part-time jobs that he no longer had had use for), stacked with drawing/painting paper. Of course she had a separator sheet in between the paper sheet on top and the rest, wouldn't do for all the paper to get wet before she could use it.
An easel or a desk made for a better painting surface, especially for bigger projects, but for now she just had the standard paper size. (Easier to transport.) The clipboard was just fine for that. She set up her things so that the watercolour set with the small water bowl was next to where she sat cross-legged on the ground and she held the clipboard in her lap so she had a flat-ish surface to paint on.
Unlike most the time at camp, she was not in a summer dress but in some older comfy outfit, a worn-looking grey tee (that was probably once black and now washed out) with an (also faded) printed lion king sunrise motif, and some knee-length jeans. She'd chucked off her flipflops as she sat down, and they haphazardly lay next to her.
In the mood for something orange, Glenys began painting a somewhat abstract version of summer camp, starting with painting her sheet of paper orange so that she could add approximations of colourful tents on the orange background.
6 Aug 2022, 18:07
Every Canvas is a Journey all its Own
Finnegan sauntered forward, dragging his feet like he was wearing waterlogged rubber boots. Every breath felt like someone stabbed his sides with a blade and twisted for good measure. From a distance, he might've passed for a tiny drunk, swaying side to side, stumbling over his own feet, and muttering to himself under his breath. The moss green of his disheveled tee had darkened around his collar where a water-casting spell had hit him, and he had ripped his shorts somewhere along the way too.
Pulling all the tent pegs out from a tent inhabited by blood-thirsty Durmstrang teenagers had not been his brightest idea. It hadn't even been his; he'd just been goaded into executing the stupidest plan in the galaxy. Sticking around to watch the total collapse had been his idea, though, and was arguably even dumber. He had nearly gotten himself cursed by a very angry fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy who'd flung spells at him and chased him halfway down the camp like a mad dog before he'd managed to shake the teenager off.
He'd run full pelt, and now he'd gotten completely lost in a part of the camp he'd never been to, out of breath and with dirt all over him.
When he looked around to reorient himself, he noticed a splash of bright purple hair amid the drab greens and browns of the camping ground. Upon closer inspection, it belonged to a girl sitting down in the grass, hard at work to turn her sheet of paper orange. Finnegan idly wondered if there was some spell that could do the trick for her. He could not remember reading about any spells for drawing or painting - though he'd only really read ahead in his Defense Against the Dark Arts book.
"Excuse me," he said, his voice sounding hoarse. "Do you have some water?". It didn't seem like the girl had brought much other than her drawing materials and flip-flops, but it didn't hurt to ask. Without being invited to, he plopped beside her, sucked in a deep breath, and gave her a lazy once-over before speaking up again. "What are you drawing?" he couldn't see anything near them that was bright orange.
@Glenys Urquhart
Pulling all the tent pegs out from a tent inhabited by blood-thirsty Durmstrang teenagers had not been his brightest idea. It hadn't even been his; he'd just been goaded into executing the stupidest plan in the galaxy. Sticking around to watch the total collapse had been his idea, though, and was arguably even dumber. He had nearly gotten himself cursed by a very angry fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy who'd flung spells at him and chased him halfway down the camp like a mad dog before he'd managed to shake the teenager off.
He'd run full pelt, and now he'd gotten completely lost in a part of the camp he'd never been to, out of breath and with dirt all over him.
When he looked around to reorient himself, he noticed a splash of bright purple hair amid the drab greens and browns of the camping ground. Upon closer inspection, it belonged to a girl sitting down in the grass, hard at work to turn her sheet of paper orange. Finnegan idly wondered if there was some spell that could do the trick for her. He could not remember reading about any spells for drawing or painting - though he'd only really read ahead in his Defense Against the Dark Arts book.
"Excuse me," he said, his voice sounding hoarse. "Do you have some water?". It didn't seem like the girl had brought much other than her drawing materials and flip-flops, but it didn't hurt to ask. Without being invited to, he plopped beside her, sucked in a deep breath, and gave her a lazy once-over before speaking up again. "What are you drawing?" he couldn't see anything near them that was bright orange.
@Glenys Urquhart
"He's a dweeby chocolate bar lip smacking nerd" - Evelynn Decipio
8 Aug 2022, 09:22
Every Canvas is a Journey all its Own
@Finnegan Conner❀
As intent on painting as she was, Glen didn't clock the boy's approach until a voice suddenly addressed her out of nowhere. She barely managed not to flinch and looked up at the person belonging to said voice. Woah. He was looking just a teeny bit bedraggled. What in the world had he been doing? Something fun, most likely, though he also seemed a bit exhausted. Then again, that wasn't a contradiction.
"Some water? Ah. Sorry, no. I just have the water for the water colours and trust me, you do not want to drink that." The unsaid I have tried was probably audible in her voice. That had not been a good experience and it was not something she ever planned on repeating. Sure, there was probably worse to drink but no. Just no.
When the boy dropped down next to her (uninvited, not that she minded), she merely gave him a smile and introduced herself. "I'm Glenys, by the way, or Glen." Looking at him she wondered how old he was. Would he be a first year like her, or was he already a second year (or even higher)?
"Oh, I'm going to paint the camp, I think.", she offered as she slowly resumed painting the page orange, keeping at least half her attention on the conversation.
14 Aug 2022, 13:53
Every Canvas is a Journey all its Own
"Ah, well, never mind," Finnegan said magnanimously. "I'm not about to die of thirst." The more likely thing to kill him were a horde of bloodthirsty Durmstrang students though he was confident he'd shaken them by now.
Upon introducing herself, Finnegan offered his own name in response, still a bit out of breath. It didn't take long before he succumbed to his exhaustion and took the liberty of laying down in the grass beside her. She hadn't seemed to mind his presence so far and he doubted she'd mind it much now.
Once he'd settled into a comfortable position, his knees half drawn up and his hands folded behind his head, he spoke up again, musing aloud. "It's kinda dumb that nothing electronic works here, innit?" He'd tried taking pictures but his phone had been reduced to a useless black brick that wouldn't power on. "Can you imagine the videos you could make about any of this stuff?" he gestured vaguely in the direction of the camp. "You'd be like the biggest YouTuber ever, like, overnight."
He let out a drawling sigh, "I know it's all supposed to be a secret and I get why but still... you're smart for bringing your paints, that way you can capture some of it at least, unless you get one of those wizarding cameras but I don't trust the smoke that's coming out of those, it's probably poisonous."
Upon introducing herself, Finnegan offered his own name in response, still a bit out of breath. It didn't take long before he succumbed to his exhaustion and took the liberty of laying down in the grass beside her. She hadn't seemed to mind his presence so far and he doubted she'd mind it much now.
Once he'd settled into a comfortable position, his knees half drawn up and his hands folded behind his head, he spoke up again, musing aloud. "It's kinda dumb that nothing electronic works here, innit?" He'd tried taking pictures but his phone had been reduced to a useless black brick that wouldn't power on. "Can you imagine the videos you could make about any of this stuff?" he gestured vaguely in the direction of the camp. "You'd be like the biggest YouTuber ever, like, overnight."
He let out a drawling sigh, "I know it's all supposed to be a secret and I get why but still... you're smart for bringing your paints, that way you can capture some of it at least, unless you get one of those wizarding cameras but I don't trust the smoke that's coming out of those, it's probably poisonous."
"He's a dweeby chocolate bar lip smacking nerd" - Evelynn Decipio
16 Aug 2022, 10:59
Every Canvas is a Journey all its Own
@Finnegan Conner❀
Glenys had turned about three quarters of the page orange already when Finnegan suddenly asked her about electronics. It wasn't really a first topic choice she would've expected at what basically was 'magic school summer camp' but she nodded. It certainly felt ridiculous. She vaguely understood why, but still. Stupid. "It's going to be so annoying at school. "
YouTube? She would've expected someone their (presumed in his case) age to be more about Insta or the hellhole that was TikTok, but YouTube? Sure, he wasn't wrong but she didn't think she knew anyone remotely their age group who was interested in making YouTube videos. "Mhm.", she hummed. "I guess. But if it was possible we would have a whole bunch! Would be interesting to be able to compare vids from different schools though, wouldn't it?"
Huh. She hadn't considered that. Well, she'd never been all that interested in painting let alone drawing realistically, so maybe that was why. An idea for the future maybe for when she had no ideas what to paint? She could then try to actually capture Hogwarts life? Eh. They'd have to see. It somewhat sounded like boring exact(ing) work. "I don't know about capturing it, I don't think I'm the right person for that. But you might be onto something. And yeah, those cameras seemed a bit like a health hazard, though mostly in an might-explode rather than a poison vine." Granted, she was only remotely familiar with one such camera, and that one belonged to her maternal grandmother who'd bought it used, as far as she knew. So who knows how old that thing was. Besides, she'd only seen it the once. So she might even be misremembering.
"Do you watch a lot of YouTube?"