Phan Oneshots

Painted Constellations

Summary: Dan is a painting major at uni who needs someone to paint on for his art project, and Phil is a photography major who needs Dan to model for him.
Word Count: 8613
Warnings: alcohol, mentions of suicide, a lot of Van Gogh talk, smoking, mentions of sex, homophobic comments, depression

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There is a certain relaxation in allowing images to unfurl themselves from the bristles of a brush onto the white emptiness of a new canvas. The paint is smooth and fragile, breaking into nothingness if smeared or smudged, now an entirely new picture. The colours would then blossom into a new galaxy of flowery fields, the starry night sky, or even a dog waiting by a picket fence for it's owner.

The possibilities were endless and alive; a painter does not have to live in a dull world when they can create their own.

But there is also with great certainty that artists have something missing from their lives - whilst they can create so many beautiful universes, they deal with having to be trapped in the cruel world that is the Earth and all of it's humanity. It was no wonder that Vincent Van Gogh would eat yellow paint to be happy, claiming that "the sadness will last forever" after attempting suicide and lying on his deathbed.

Dan completely understood and could at least sympathize with Van Gogh while thinking about the endless possibilities, stuck in a classroom full of dozens of young adults who would rather be sleeping at the moment. The air was stale, smelling of sweat and pain - a disgusting melody between melancholy and morning coffee - that choked Dan until he could barely conjure another breath. The professor, with a long white beard and a head of silk snow, seemed to resemble a sad Santa Claus, voice tired and strained.

Despite creating wondrous pictures with his fingers and a brush, Dan was captive to a world where he paid too much to learn and had to paint objects that he would otherwise have no desire to in the first place.

"Alright, class," the professor started, "Today you will be getting a project that will be due in three weeks." He began to pass out sheets of paper that had the directions written on them. "Your assignment is to connect nature with painting by creating an image on different parts of nature. For example, a tree or a leaf, or anything essential to life. You will do five paintings on five related objects, then take a picture and binding them together so we can see your project."

Dan pressed his lips together, reading the directions with tired vigor. Seemed relatively easy, except for the fact that he didn't know what exactly to paint on. A tree seemed too rough, a leaf too small. He needed something smooth and easy to make a portrait on.

He expressed this to Phil during his Art Orientation class with a grim expression on his face and a voice filled with hollow annoyance. Phil, whom he had met and talked to only in this class, listened while shading in his drawing of some boxes that they were supposed to be working on. Dan's paper sat half-filled, abandoned to his bitching.

He always felt somewhat bad for Phil since he was forced to take drawing classes even though he was a photography major. He never really understood why photography majors had to take all of the drawing and art courses, but he never asked due to his fear of being judged.

After explaining his debacle in full-out bitch mode, Phil pursed his lips thoughtfully, tapping the pencil on the desk. "How about you do it on skin? The nature of humans or something like that. You could focus on a new body part for each painting."

Dan dropped his pencil to the desk and gaped at Phil. "I swear to God I could kiss you right now," Dan joked. "Obviously I couldn't do it on a girl because then I would probably need to paint on her tits or something, which would be too weird. So that leaves-." He narrowed his eyes and smirked at Phil.