Forever and Always

16. Picasso's Perfect Painting

I know I've been very absent but I've been on vacation and a lot of college visits around the states. I lead a very busy and stressful life and sometimes, I won't get to update frequently so please don't get frustrated with me. I can't be sitting here writing chapter after another when I have AP college class work to be done. Thanks for understanding and enjoy the new chapter :)

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The moment the lights turned on, everyone grimaced. Kelly was standing by the doorway peering at all of us who were huddled on my tiny bed. Jamie flung her hand out for the remote to pause the movie. 

"What?! What could you possibly want from us?" Jamie dramatically asked.

Kelly smirked but didn't reply. She turned to me before spitting out , "Your parents were bragging about what a perfect artist you are and they called you downstairs.'

I raised my eyebrow at her condescending tone  but jumped off Kaleb's lap anyways. 

"Okay" I said dragging out the word. "Lead the way"

Kelly sniffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder and stomped out of my room. Kaleb and Jamie grudgingly got off the bed and followed suit. I could hear Kaleb grumbling about being disturbed from the movie. 

We thundered down the stairs like a herd of elephants. The parents all looked at us when we entered the living room. 

'Hey sweetie. I was just telling Patricia and Rob about your latest art stuff that you're working on." My mom began. 

The past 2 months, I had been focusing more on oil painting on canvas using mostly objects or people. I would just place a mug with an apple or tennis ball under the light and draw what I saw. After a few weeks of drawing from life using inanimate objects, I started to veer towards painting profiles. I started mostly with my mom's face from different angles so I could practice getting all the shadow and light placements right.

My mom had actually told some of her office colleagues  and they had come in for a sitting as well. My dad had tried but sitting there for 2 and a half hours just wasn't his cup of tea. Soon I started taking sitting orders from some of my mom's friends. And I don't mean to brag or anything but I'm a decent painter.

Maybe I've mentioned this before but I started when I was pretty young so I got into the habit of perfecting my painting from a young age. 

"Maddie?" My mom called out. I blinked twice and snapped out of  my thoughts. 

"Huh?" I intelligently replied back. 

"Everyone wants to see a live demo. Can you please do one? Maybe on Jamie?" My mom suggested. 

Jamie looked up at the sound of her name. She started frantically shaking her head. I smiled. I knew that she would die before sitting in one spot for more than 30 minutes. Since there was no way I was going to look at Kelly's face for the next 2 hours, there was only one choice left. 

I turned to Kaleb and opened my eyes wide and settled in a pout. Kaleb understood what I wanted him to do and started shaking his head. I widened my eyes and blinked a few times. I could see Kaleb hesitating and I knew at the exact moment when he slumped his shoulders that he had given in. 

" Actually...is it okay if I draw Kaleb instead?" 

My mom nodded and everyone filed upstairs into my drawing room. I settled Kaleb down in the little stool behind the black curtain and started adjusting the lights around him. The lights are a very important part of the drawings because if there's too much light on the face and no shadows, it won't look realistic and 3D. 

Thankfully for me, Kaleb's naturally high cheekbones and long eyelashes cast a shadow of their own. 

"Ok so I need you to pick a spot and focus on it. Something that won't make you lose your expression." I instructed Kaleb. 

He nodded once before his eyes found mine. I looked up from  my palette and blushed to see his bright green eyes focused intently on my movements. I ignored the heat running through my body and ushered everyone to the part of the room where they wouldn't get in the way. 

I walked to the window and plugged in my Ipod and started my art playlist which was just a bunch of songs that helped calm me down. Then I started getting my paint palette set up and I put out the turpentine for my brushes. As soon as my station was set up, I sat down and eyed my subject. 

I studied every plane and angle of his face before I put down the first mark. The trick to painting in oil is to always take the dark brown and mix it with a lot of medium so that the medium thins out the paint to allow me to sketch. The thinner paint can also be wiped clean with a napkin. About 30 minutes later, I had sketched out Kaleb's face and blocked in the shadows. 

Suddenly Kelly came barreling into the room and Kaleb jumped back as the door almost slammed into him. 

"Ew! Why does this room smell!!" Kelly's annoying voice rang out. 

I pinched my nose to avoid creating a scene. The adults all groaned and started making their way over to Kelly. 

"Hey honey, we'll be outside when your ready just come and get us to see the final result." My mom called out as she pushed everyone out the door before slamming it shut. 

I glanced at Kaleb again and noticed that the shadows and lights had moved from where they had previously been. I groaned and stalked over to his chair. I reached above him to re-position the lights. I grabbed his face and tilted it to every side to try and recapture the original shadows. When I took my hands away from his face I noticed brown fingerprint marks on his cheek. 

"Oops. Sorry about that. I'll clean that up later. This should be quick."

"No problem. Just keep painting." Kaleb smiled. 

I started mixing the colors for the shadows and lights for his skin. I glanced back at him to check that I had the right bright green that shone in his eyes. I smiled and quickly blocked in everything else before going back and  working on the more minor details to make the painting come to life. 

It took me another 75 minutes to finish up the drawing. I stood up and stretched as Kaleb followed suit. I headed over to the wash basin to rinse off the paint when I felt a familiar scent engulf me.