Instructors Love

2

Mr. Lee taught well. He seemed to blend right in with his students, he communicated with every well, and he seemed to have a lot of patience. I asked him for help a lot. I have painted before, it's not a new concept to me, I just get caught up in the little details. 

    “Do you understand this blending technique, Dylan? I can help you further if you need.” I looked down at my canvas. I found myself painting monsters in pastel pinks and purples. “You see, right now some of the areas on the canvas look flat. Look at this blue monster over here,” He pointed to a larger monster in the corner of the canvas. “It needs more depth to fit the requirements of this technique.” He and I mixed colors and started to add shading to the piece. Mr. Lee guided my hand with his own, showing me where to put the color and how to adjust it.

    “Wow! It looks so much better!” I stared down at my painting. The pastel creatures had come to life, just as they had in my head. Mr. Lee chuckled down at me, placing a hand on my head.

    “Yeah, you did great kid.” Soon after, our time had ended and I had to move to my next class. 

    After my clay shop, I had to move to my last shop, Anatomy. There were easel set up in a half moon shape in the center of the room. A man in a black hoodie and baggy black cargo pants sat at the desk in the corner of the room. He had small silver pocket chains dangling by his hip, and his hoodie was littered with baphomets and pentagrams. Is he the instructor? 

    I knocked on the side of the door frame to let him know I was here, I guess I was early, for I was the only one here. “Hello?” I asked. He looked over at me from his papers.

    “Hey.” He looked at me with unreadable eyes. His face was stone cold, I couldn't tell what he was thinking in the slightest. “Sit here,” He tapped the stoll closest to his desk. 

    “We have seats assigned to us in this shop?” I asked, walking over to the stool and setting my things down. 

    “Not normally, I just decided.” He watched every breath I took, like a house cat anticipatingly looking at a small bluejay fluttering in the bushes. Like it was the first time this cat had seen a bluejay. 

    I ignored it and continued to set myself up. The staring only stopped when other students started to file in. Everyone seemed to be so nice when they greeted him, despite him never changing his facial expression. How rude. 

    “Ok, lets begin.” Introducing himself as Mr. Kain, he welcomed us all to the class and told us the basics. Things like showing us around the room and where everything was set up. “Today we are just going to freelance sketch, just so I can see where you all are in terms of skill.” I grabbed a few different types of graphite and my kneaded eraser. I had a rough Idea of what I wanted to do. My concept was a blue alien boy sitting on top of venus. I would add other details along the way, but for now that's the game plan. I began to sketch him and how I wanted him to sit. The way he held himself up and how his legs would dangle. I wanted to make something that sticks to the basics of anatomy but also plays with the idea of distortion at the same time. 

    Half way through the sketch, Mr. Kain walked up behind me and examined the sketch. “Watch how you draw your jawline, and look at his right arm positioning.” He pointed out some minor details. 

    “Ok, thank-”

    “And make sure when you draw the face it lines up with its proper perspective. You put the head on a weird angle.” He didn’t even let me finish my sentence. Ignoring it, I fixed everything he pointed out and began working on the face. “You should make the eye color contrasting, I hate seeing brown eyes on a colorful piece of art.” I guess he noticed I was playing around with color bubbles off to the side. 

    I finished the initial sketch, a blue alien boy sitting on venus blowing bubble gum. I made his eyes a bright pink shade, I dressed him feminine and started to work on other basic poses for him. By the end of class I had a few sketches surrounding the main piece, like a portfolio of this character. Everyone had handed in their piece, so I walked over to his desk and carefully set my paper on his desk. He turned it to face him and started to examine it. 

    “You did great.” He looked almost impressed. “I like the color palette you choose, you pulled off the poses almost flawlessly, and the characters' expressions are different and accurate in every sketch.” He put the paper with the others. “You did good today, you can head home now.” He grabbed a skateboard from under his desk and his bag. He skated to the shop today? I can’t say anything, I walk everywhere I go. 

    I cleaned up my station and left the building. It was dark out already? I better be careful, these streets aren’t the safest to walk around after dark. I kept my bag close as I hurriedly walked. “Hey!” A man had called for me from a local bar I was passing. I tried to ignore him, but he ended up walking over to me. “Hey! Can’t you hear? I called for you!”