Okay. Charms. Here we go.
She could do this, and she would do the WHOLE class really well. Or, at least she would try as always… even if charms seemed to hate her for roughly her first twenty or so attempts. TODAY. Today would be different. She was fifteen now, and her magic should know that she meant business. So yes, today would be the day.
Smiling brightly, she walked into the classroom to greet the Professor … only to find that there was no Professor. And no magic required. Great. … and she wasn’t even that good at drawing.
Moving over to a free board, she stared at the canvas… And stared some more… And soooome more for good measure.
Nope, no idea what to draw.
She thought about her Summer and the many times Alis had ‘forced’ her to colour in and draw with her. Her little sister had never cared – always ending up with a masterpiece. Right. Be more like Alis.
Dipping her fingers in the paint, she covered her finger in a blob of paint before putting it on the canvas, closing her eyes and she began to draw. She formed a shape in her mind – but knew that the paper version probably wouldn’t match… and that was okay… because actually, it was quite fun.
Text Cut: Julien
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Originally Posted by
Bazinga 
Merlin he hated paint, he hated anything that could cause a mess. So knowing the students were in the classroom with paint put Julien on edge, but he had a purpose. Maybe he should have had Ansley step in and teach this lesson. That made so much more sense then him doing it. He could appreciate art as long as he wasn't near it while it was being made. He stayed in his office away from the finger painting and while he was in there he imagined how much of a mess the room would be. Someone would probably try to splatter it on the walls or something. He could envision points being taken and detention most likely.
When it was finally time to go in Julien took a deep breath and stepped in. His brow raised to the cleanliness of the room. Yes, he was impressed. He was also impressed to see Daxton and Blaise. They both got nods of approval. He was glad they were there, he was glad everyone was there. "Good afternoon. If you could please stop painting." With a flick of the wand there were towels moving towards each of them. "Use these to clean up your hands." No paint on your robes!
"Charms is something that truly can make our lives easier in so many ways, but to know how much easier it is you have to first remember how hard it was without magic. Some of you just started to learn back in September while others of you have been doing it for years so it is easy to forget what it was like to not have it." They were reminded every summer, but he was making a point. "The first thing we do as children when it comes to art is finger paint, which you are doing here. The next step is usually picking up crayons or a paint brush to use. " He looked at all of them as he spoke. His eyes hitting his own horrid picture for a second before he vanished it away.
"I want you to take a moment, you can use the finger painting, crayons, or paint brush and actually make something. A stick figure, a fish, anything you would like. Go ahead and take five minutes."
Having opened her eyes to reapply paint a few times, she knew that she had a squiggly mess of a thing in front of her – but she had to be honest, the colourful mess did make her feel better and happy when she looked at it. It was rough and not in the least bight GOOD, but that didn’t matter.
She smiled at the Professor and rolled her eyes a little. She knew just how hard things could be, she worked with animals and never normally considered using magic around them in case it freaked them. However, she got it. Picking up a paintbrush she dipped it in water and then in the paint before she drew a thicker border around the outside of the picture.
There. Simple but she didn’t want to draw something that wouldn’t go with the original picture.
Text Cut: Julien
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bazinga His eyes fell on Daxton first, he knew the boy would not do the work. He had come to figure that much out. He wasn't giving up on Daxton though. Nope, he was going to keep trying until he found something that worked. Hence the art lesson. Julien was not comfortable paint in this room, but his effort was to try and reach some of the more hands on students and different levels of learning. He would soon show them why it was fun to know charms. Charms were an amazing piece to life if you knew the right things to do.
Though it didn't seem like Daxton was the only one that felt the need not to do anything. There were a few. Seriously did parents not teach respect anymore or you know if instructions are given shut up and just do them when it is a Professor. He stared at the first year a bit, the over eager one that seemed to now have an attitude on top of it...
"The point is to learn why we do what we do. I can give you words and movements all day, but do you truly understand why you need to do it. Can you appreciate it that way? I can answer for you, no, you can't. In my classroom I do things to help all learning styles learn as well as give explanation and examples behind the learning." Though she should have known that by now. It was November and classes had been going on. "Please focus on your creation so you can really know the why soon."
Merlin....
When Blaise spoke up the vein that was about to pop went down again and a rare smile crossed his lips. "You are still young yet Blaise, you keep working on Incendio and you will get it. Working hard to achieve something don't make you a slow learner nor does it make it out that it is harder for you. It just means you are dedicated and determine to succeed. Charms do make your life easier. What if you are somewhere there is no other way to get fire, but with your wand? Will you just freeze because you can't start the fire by rubbing two rocks together? We have a very lucky gift with magic that we should embrace and try our best to master. Before teaching and even now I do love to experiment with charms, try to make new ones that can help with life."
He glanced at the rest of the class. "What Blaise is saying speaks lots of truth for younger wizards. You are use to using tools that aren't magic so it does come easier. I myself will pick up a broom once in awhile, but if I can just stay in my chair and wave my wand wouldn't that be easier? Now I had you start with finger paints because as a young child you probably have finger painted. It's messy, it's fun for the child, and it drives parents and adults nuts. Perfect combination, but what if you could bring that finger paint to life or at least make it seem that way. I saw a hand earlier what if that hand could wave?" He turned and flicked parchment to the board and went over, "I'm not a good artist, but if I was going to make a stick figure person and wanted him to walk I could either draw or paint a few stick figures to indicate he was walking or use magic." Lifting his wand he he traced the stick figure, " Animatae"
Watching the stick figure move around the page he finally glanced at the class. "Is this more of an entertainment thing then making our lives easier, yes, but isn't it more interesting then just a standing still figure? You can use the drawing that you have already made or you can make a new one, but please go ahead and bring it movement. The wand movement is just tracing your drawing and then saying the words, Animatae." Not where he was going to start with the lesson, but teachable moments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bazinga He stood there watching Blaise, his glances might be going to Daxton and of course the rest of the class, but he was watching Blaise. "Unfortunately as much as we as adults and parents want to protect our children there might come a time where it isn't your mother who placed you somewhere you might need a fire. There are dangers all over, you could get lost, taken, try to run away." Plenty of dangerous things even in the castle could happen that the boy would need his wand to save his life.
He turned to see that Miranda had done it on the first try. Impressive for a first year, but not fully out of the ordinary here. "Very good Miranda, this spell is a basic animation. There are many charms that can make the art work do many more things, but lets start with the basics at the moment."
Turning back to Blaise he couldn't help but notice he hadn't even brought out his wand. "You do have your wand today don't you? It is needed for every charm lesson. A wizard should never go anywhere without it." If he didn't have it there really was no point of being in class today.
Okay, so the next step was to animate the drawing… Except her drawing was mostly lines and squiggles and patterns. Hmmmm. On closer inspection, she noticed a circle she had drawn in almost the centre, where the lines didn’t quite match up, so there were three overlapping circles - but the start and ends of them matched.
Curious.
She slowly traced the weird, extended circle as she focused and held her wand just so like Griffin had shown her.
”Animatae.” She said, clearly. Lowering her wand, she watched as the circle stayed in-animate. …. No surprise there that it hadn’t worked for her… even if it had worked for some of the others.
She shook her head to clear any doubt in her mind that she couldn’t do this charm, and then retraced the pattern.
”Animatae.” The Welsh girl repeated. This time, with a happy smile, she watched the three circles rotate around as if doing a waltz. How cool was that?!
Text Cut: Julien
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bazinga "Alright class, please look up here for a moment." He turned to the board and placed a blank canvas on it. "Now like I said you can use charms to make things easier. I am horrible at drawing, but with charms I can become a masterpiece. Now people do not get famous for their charmed artwork of course, no, that is for pure talent, but we can all have fun." Were they following? Especially the ones that you could tell by their face were not enjoying this at all. Turning to his canvas he pointed his wand. "You will want to think of the color you want your drawing, I am going to think about red. The incantation is figura and then the shape you want. So lets say I want to make a circle. I will take my wand and make the circle so it knows the size I want and then do the incantation." Turning to the parchment he moved his wand in a big circle motion, but made sure the circle wasn't perfectly round, "Figura circle" A perfectly round circle the size he had wanted appeared.
"Now using the next parchment on your easel go ahead and work on just making shapes. Remember to say the shape you want so that it will work."
Still smiling, Marsha looked up and around the easel (why were they so BIG?) and watched as the Professor drew a wonky circle only to have a rice red circle appear on his page. OKAY.
This was awesome.
Turning back to her parchment, she gave it one last smile before ripping the page free… Since she wasn’t tall enough to flip it over the top of the board.
Looking at her new, blank piece of paper she aimed her wand at the bottom left of the paper. Thinking of the colour red, she too drew a circle in the air.
”Figura Circle.” Nada. Sighing, she tried again.
”Figura Circle.” Still nothing.
Listening to her classmates, she realised she was emphasising the wrong part of the charm and so she tried again.
”Figura Circle!” This time, she managed! She watched as a red circle appeared on the parchment. About three inches high. How smart. She could never draw circles perfectly.
Moving over slightly, and thinking of the colour blue this time, she drew a square just to make sure that it wasn’t a complete fluke.
”Figura square.” This time, the charm worked for her perfectly and a three inch square sat happily on the page next to the circle. She tried again, going for a green triangle and then a fourth shape of a yellow pentagon.
You know, just so she had a shape per house.
Grinning and happy that her extra charms practise seemed to be paying off, she kept making different shapes in different colours until the Professor told them to stop again.