When Rooney was CERTAIN that he had gotten the tone of Olivia's hair perfect, he noted down how much of what colours he had worked together so he could use it properly when the time came. He washed off his thin brush and went straight into the watercolour pink and went straight in to painting on the paper for the tutu. He used small strokes to get the shape right, occasionally looking back towards Liv to get a picture in his head completely. He perfected painting the tutu in a position similar to that of the ballerina they had painted together before and moved straight away to sprinkle the salt against the bottom of the painted tutu to create the effect of a fuller skirt and whatnot...

He chose to do it now, because if he waited until he had completely finished, the paint would have dried completely without the salt. Which defeated the object.

Next he organised the perfect skin tone and worked on painting that.. Watercolours were hard to create facial features, for him anyway. And so, Rooney made sure that the ballerina!Liv on his paper was looking away from him. It just made it easier for him and this was supposed to be for fun and he wouldn't be selling it? He'd probably give it to Liv in a frame if it looked good enough. Their anniversary was in half a year and he still had a few gifts to idea.

With the skin down, Rooney used the colour that he had mixed earlier and painted in the shorter mass of hair that Olivia was now sporting, before following it up with the smallest amount of salt. Hair was textured and hopefully, this would go the way that he wanted it to.

And then he painted the outer area of the paper in a light grey and faded it as it got closer to the focal point of the piece.

Nowwwwwwww to wait for it to dry....

Janelle was ready to paint. Now painting was definitely not her strong suit, but she was going to enjoy this activity anyway. The big question was, what to paint? After giving it some thought, Janelle had narrowed her choices down to two. She was either going to paint an abstract self portrait or some flowers. Finally she decided to go with the flowers, figuring that would be easier for the artistically challenged.

Janelle was going to start with two of her favorite flowers, pansies and irises. She wet her brush and dipped it into the purple paint. Giving it her best effort, she made several petals. Then she re-dipped the brush and made more petals, several inches over. Janelle cleaned her brush and then covered her brush with yellow paint. She made yellow petals in between the purple ones. Reaching for her salt, she sprinkled it over her flower petals. Over and over Janelle repeated the steps, until she had several pansies on her paper. After cleaning her brush once again, she made stems and a few leaves on her flowers.

Moving quickly, before the paint had a chance to dry, Janelle got her salt again. She sprinkled the salt over the rest of her flowers, careful to spread it around evenly. Now for the irises. Janelle made the stems first for these. Then she re-wet her brush, she used more purple paint to make the iris petals. More salt was sprinkled on top of the new flowers. Pausing to look at her work, she chuckled. Even though she hadn't intended for her flowers to be abstract, they were looking a little crazy. Well it was art. No one said it had to be perfect. Janelle couldn't wait to see what her picture looked like after the salt was removed.

Something was missing though. This painting needed more color. Janelle added a few roses, or her attempt at roses, around the page. Red and pink buds added a pop of color to her masterpiece. More salt was placed on top of the roses. Last, but not least, stems and leaves were addded to the rosebuds. Salt was sprinkled one last time. Janelle looked at her work and decided that she was done. She cleaned her brushes, while she waited for the last paint to dry. Being her impatient self, Janelle kept using her finger to test the paint. Finally, it seemed sufficiently dry. She took her finger and wiped/scraped the salt from her picture. The flowers were crazy, but the salt effect was pretty cool. Janelle just hoped she would get an A for effort because her technique was questionable at best.

Just then, the professor said that class was ending. Janelle thought that it would be best if she took her painting with her. It was not exactly display worthy. And good news, they got to keep the watercolors. That was a nice surprise. Even though she wasn't good at painting, Janelle found it to be extremely relaxing. Maybe she could do a little painting in the common room or dorm. After cleaning up her work area, she gathered her things and went up to the professor. "Thanks professor. I really enjoyed the class.......and thanks for the paint." Now it was off to her next class.

She gotten everything Professor Stewart had asked them to come up and get. Two pieces of paper…a watercolor set…a small assortment of brushes…plastic cups…and salt and water. Most of the supplies made sense, but the salt was a head-scratcher. Cassie had grabbed some of both types of salt just in case. And then by the time she had settled back into her seat with her borrowed items, the professor was moving them on to the main event.

Creativity time!

Oh goodie! She was going to explain about the salt. Or not. It was just mentioned as a technique that was used sometimes with watercolor painting. Cue slight frown gracing the fourth year’s face as she continued to listen to what was expected of them. Cass might just have to do a bit of research after class about it for more information. Her curiosity about the use of salt had been piqued. But for now she would just paint with the watercolor AND the salt as directed. Only had to decide just what to paint out of all the possible subject matters.

A person…an animal…a place…an item or items.

Ooooo!

Getting an idea, she set up to ready some brownish paint tint. And some goldish color. Oh and some black to use as an edge to draw an outline. Cass then dipped a brush in the brown and started off with soft brushstrokes on the left side of the clean white page, trying to get the look of wings. Here’s to the eagles!

Henry was in the middle of his cloudy sky painting when he heard that class was over. Well, that was an easy lesson even if he wasn't really into the art stuff. And his painting wasn't that great, so he wouldn't be framing it.

He added some more blue paint and tried mixing it with a little purple to make a stormy looking sky. Allowing a few empty spots for clouds, he also sprinkled salt in various places, though he wasn't so sure that made it look any more like sky. oh well. He was calling it done.

It was trash as far as he was concerned, but he didn't want to throw it away in front of the professor. That would just be rude. Instead, he tucked it away with the rest of his things as he cleaned up his area and stuck the watercolors in his bag too. He wasn't so sure he'd use them again, but he did have some friends who liked to paint. Maybe they could appreciate them.

"Thanks, Professor. Have a nice day," he told her as he walked by and headed out. Time to get to his next class.

Brent had started out planning to do a sports-related painting. Of course he had. Sports was always the first thing on his mind when he had to come up with something random like this. He had even picked out a color scheme he thought went well with quaffles, quodpots, pitches, etc. At the last minute, he completely changed his mind, though.

It all started with a mistake. He had painted a really nice patch of grass, complete with two tones of green for artistic purposes. Duuuuude. This grass was awesome! He hadn't even realized he knew how to do that! He sprinkled some salt on the wet paint before moving on to another color. When he'd gotten to the poles the goal hoops hung on, though, he smudged his painting. He frowned at the smears.

Now what? ... In an attempt to fix the pole that had smudged, he'd ended up making the pole waaaaaay too big. Now his painting was almost ruined. He sighed and looked at his painting, trying to figure out the best way to fix it.

This lesson had been so much fun for Zelena and it also allowed her to express her inner feelings. She was content with having her painting displayed so she carefully signed her name on the bottom right-hand corner of the painting. Zelena cleaned up her desk and carefully placed the set of watercolours in her bag. She returned the required items and placed her painting on Professor Stewart's desk.

"Thank you for the very brilliant lesson, Professor." Zelena said with a smile as she departed the classroom.

SPOILER!!: mini activity

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Kay moved back towards her desk. “Alright, everyone! It’s time to get started on the activity. But first, I would like each of you to come up to my desk in an orderly fashion and take the supplies you will be needing.’’ Some of them had guessed by now that there were art supplies under that last sheet by now, she reasoned. She carefully removed it so that they could all see. “What I have here are plain, white paper about 25cm by 25cm in length and width; watercolour sets.’’ She pointed to the two sets of materials neatly stacked on one end of her desk. “Brushes.’’ Of all lengths. “Salt both coarse and fine.’’ These were set in individual salt shakers. “Water and small plastic cups.’’ The water had been placed in large mugs and had to be thrown out into the cups.

“What I would like you to do is to take a sheet of paper or two, a watercolour set, a brush or a few that you will be most comfortable using, salt- either or both types if you would like and about a half of water. There are enough materials for you individually.’’

Well..yeah. He DID like creatures so the professor earned an eager nod from the Hufflepuff. As for liking the activity...well...that was left to be seen. He was sure he wouldn't hate it - this wasn't Herbology after all - but if it was what he suspected it to be...he was going to feel a bit crestfallen since painting and drawing and general arts and crafts had been something in Astronomy and History of Magic already. Did hags like art? He still hadn't totally ruled out his theory of their involvement given how much food was present in lessons. STILL VERY SUSPICIOUS!

AAAAAAAAND sure enough...art. Painting. With salt?

Not questioning things, Derf hopped up from his seat and scurried over to gather up his supplies. "Profes-ss-ss-sor? Did this Pizza-O guy paint with salt too?" Had that already been explained? Sorry...he had sort of zoned out here and there. NO OFFENSE!

He was going to opt with the whole set...aaaaaaand both kinds of salt. Yes.

SPOILER!!: main activity

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Now that everyone had collected their supplies, Kay addressed them again. “Today you’ll all be demonstrating your artistic talent in the form of painting.’’ She didn’t want to hear that some of them weren’t good enough. She was not going to judge anyone and if she found it happening in the class among the students today, she would not tolerate it. “For the remainder of the class, you will make a painting of your choice. Now, many of you may be wondering what the salt is for. Well, we won’t be making ordinary paintings today. We’ll be making what are known as Watercolour and Salt paintings. It’s really simple. All you need to do is to sprinkle the salt on the wet paint as you go along. It would be useless to use the salt after the paint’s dried.’’ Kay winked.

“So for example. Let’s say I’m going to be painting a crup. If I decided to start painting its face, I would sprinkle a bit of salt at intervals while painting it.” Was she explaining this clearly enough? “When you have completed your painting and salting, just let everything dry. Afterwards, you will use your fingers to scrape away the excess salt.’’ Kay looked at her watch. “You have the remaining of the lesson to get this done. You may begin, everyone.’’

UUUUUUUUUUUM....

Derf found himself looking around the room watching others paint for a LOOOOOOONG while trying to figure out exactly what the process entailed...and what he should actually paint because his mind was swirling with waaaay too many ideas. Was the salt supposed to be used for lines? Sprinkle salt as he went along...okay...um...

AND THEN THERE WAS BASICALLY NO TIME LEFT?!

In a panic, Derf threw salt at his piece of paper and quickly jabbed at it with his brush, dipping it into various colors and sweeping it across the parchment - which really only resulted in his brush getting all jammed with salt and scratching up the piece of paper while leaving tiny trails of paint in its wake. If anyone asked what it was...he was going to say that it was abstract art and it was whatever the viewer's imagination decided it to be. Like one of those ink blob painting things.

...yup.

MORE SALT MORE SALT!

He had a little humble mountain of both types of salt in the middle of his piece of paper when the class was called and he looked sheepishly around the room to see how everyone else had got on and...yeah...his was by far the most abstract. Flicking his brush at the mountain of salt, speckling it with various colors, the first year caaaaarefully carried his design over to the professor and handed it over without making any of the salt fall off. Well...okay...SOME did but there was still a little mound in the center.

"Haveagooddayprofessor!" he chirped upon handing it over. Aaaaaaand he was outta there before she could make any sort of comment about his painting.

Ummm.... yeah they were fine? Char blushed a little at the professor's question -she didn't know about things right? Was it weird at all that she had sat with Dalton who was technically her ex-boyfriend? She was serious about being friends with him still, and also not making him uncomfortable, but also being friends and generally he was a very special person okay? Which was why she'd sent the candy gram..... and it was kind of awkward to be sitting next to the person you had sent a candy gram to when they got it actually. But it was okay! It was fine. And Henry getting two candygrams in this class was also fine. Very fine. All the fines. MANY MANY FINES.

She put on her most Char-like smile, bright and cheerful, and gave the professor a thumbs up before getting down to work with her painting, but not before returning the little finger wave to Henry. Only blushing a little bit. Hi friend.

But back to her painting. She would focus all the way on that instead of awkward things. She decided to try and paint something that was a thing and not just pretty coloured smears. And what better thing than her first love, a snaaaail? A snail would look pretty cool right? With that salty water effect that she was starting to see take shape on other people's pages. But she'd only want that texture to be on the snail itself.... not on the background. So that would mean painting them separately? And letting the background dry without any salt on it. Okay.

Tongue poking out a bit, Charlotte started working with her chosen colours.... blue... pink.... green.... the blue and green blending together to make a pretty purple... and some white, with pleeeeenty of water. Lots of water.

Working with the salt crystals was.... not as easy as she had hoped but Char kept going. It was okay, she could do this. She picked out a little brush to add more detail, and waited in between to let certain areas dry, to try and control what would and wouldn't do stuff with the salt.

When the professor spoke up, Char was surprised to notice the lesson was over. The two claps startled her out of her concentration, a feeling she wasn't at all used to. Apparently when it came to distracting herself from other things, she COULD focus. Letting her work dry, Char cleaned up around her, shooting a little smile at Dalton before going back to her painting to scrape off the salt. Except there were a few parts where she kind of liked the look of the salt? Sooo... what if she left those? Could she protect it with magic maybe? Humm. Oh well. Most of it was scraped off and dry now. She signed her name on her work and left it where it was. The professor could have it as a present, if she liked it.

"Thank you professor." Char said quickly, packing the rest of her things up. "If you like my painting then I want you to have it okay?" If she did. Who knew? Perhaps the professor didn't like snails.

This painting with salt thing? Skylar wasn't sure she fully understood it. Like it didn't exactly make sense as to what the purpose of it was, or what it would do.... But nonetheless she was going to try. Staring at her blank canvas as those around her were working steadily, Skylar just sat unsure over what to paint.

Finally once time was almost called, was when she first mixed her water with the palette of watercolors. Starting with yellow, and working her way to blue and purple formed with the red, and orange formed with some more yellow, and concluding with a nice shade of green that she made with the blue. It was as if the watercolors just effortlessly blended.

Sprinkling some salt on - though not too much, she frowned wondering if it was supposed to harden completely? But then once her painting was almost dry, she brushed it off using her thumbs. It didn't really seem to do much, but maybe it did? She had no idea. But it was time to go. Signing her name information to the bottom, she dropped it off at the Professor's desk. "For you, Professor," She said, on her way out the door.

SPOILER!!: Henry! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

Henry was in the middle of his cloudy sky painting when he heard that class was over. Well, that was an easy lesson even if he wasn't really into the art stuff. And his painting wasn't that great, so he wouldn't be framing it.

He added some more blue paint and tried mixing it with a little purple to make a stormy looking sky. Allowing a few empty spots for clouds, he also sprinkled salt in various places, though he wasn't so sure that made it look any more like sky. oh well. He was calling it done.

It was trash as far as he was concerned, but he didn't want to throw it away in front of the professor. That would just be rude. Instead, he tucked it away with the rest of his things as he cleaned up his area and stuck the watercolors in his bag too. He wasn't so sure he'd use them again, but he did have some friends who liked to paint. Maybe they could appreciate them.

"Thanks, Professor. Have a nice day," he told her as he walked by and headed out. Time to get to his next class.

"You're welcome, Mr Whittebrook! To you as well.'' Kay gave him a smile as he headed out, no doubt on his next lesson.

SPOILER!!: Zelena! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ginevra

This lesson had been so much fun for Zelena and it also allowed her to express her inner feelings. She was content with having her painting displayed so she carefully signed her name on the bottom right-hand corner of the painting. Zelena cleaned up her desk and carefully placed the set of watercolours in her bag. She returned the required items and placed her painting on Professor Stewart's desk.

"Thank you for the very brilliant lesson, Professor." Zelena said with a smile as she departed the classroom.

Kay smiled. "I'm glad you liked it in the end.'' At least Selena had like the lesson even if she wasn't too fond of painting. "Thank you. It's wonderful!''

SPOILER!!: CUTIE ALERT! *whaa* <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Well..yeah. He DID like creatures so the professor earned an eager nod from the Hufflepuff. As for liking the activity...well...that was left to be seen. He was sure he wouldn't hate it - this wasn't Herbology after all - but if it was what he suspected it to be...he was going to feel a bit crestfallen since painting and drawing and general arts and crafts had been something in Astronomy and History of Magic already. Did hags like art? He still hadn't totally ruled out his theory of their involvement given how much food was present in lessons. STILL VERY SUSPICIOUS!

AAAAAAAAND sure enough...art. Painting. With salt?

Not questioning things, Derf hopped up from his seat and scurried over to gather up his supplies. "Profes-ss-ss-sor? Did this Pizza-O guy paint with salt too?" Had that already been explained? Sorry...he had sort of zoned out here and there. NO OFFENSE!

He was going to opt with the whole set...aaaaaaand both kinds of salt. Yes.


UUUUUUUUUUUM....

Derf found himself looking around the room watching others paint for a LOOOOOOONG while trying to figure out exactly what the process entailed...and what he should actually paint because his mind was swirling with waaaay too many ideas. Was the salt supposed to be used for lines? Sprinkle salt as he went along...okay...um...

AND THEN THERE WAS BASICALLY NO TIME LEFT?!

In a panic, Derf threw salt at his piece of paper and quickly jabbed at it with his brush, dipping it into various colors and sweeping it across the parchment - which really only resulted in his brush getting all jammed with salt and scratching up the piece of paper while leaving tiny trails of paint in its wake. If anyone asked what it was...he was going to say that it was abstract art and it was whatever the viewer's imagination decided it to be. Like one of those ink blob painting things.

...yup.

MORE SALT MORE SALT!

He had a little humble mountain of both types of salt in the middle of his piece of paper when the class was called and he looked sheepishly around the room to see how everyone else had got on and...yeah...his was by far the most abstract. Flicking his brush at the mountain of salt, speckling it with various colors, the first year caaaaarefully carried his design over to the professor and handed it over without making any of the salt fall off. Well...okay...SOME did but there was still a little mound in the center.

"Haveagooddayprofessor!" he chirped upon handing it over. Aaaaaaand he was outta there before she could make any sort of comment about his painting.

"I found no evidence during my research that Mr Picasso did. But that's not to say he didn't.'' Kay winked at Derf.
* * * * * * *
"Did you enjoy painting?'' She had honestly expected him to paint a creature but from her observations earlier, he had not. What she was looking at was a little salt mound with colours int he middle of the paper. Kay chuckled. "Rather creative.'' This master piece would be on display. "You as well!'' What an adorable first year!

SPOILER!!: Char! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Ummm.... yeah they were fine? Char blushed a little at the professor's question -she didn't know about things right? Was it weird at all that she had sat with Dalton who was technically her ex-boyfriend? She was serious about being friends with him still, and also not making him uncomfortable, but also being friends and generally he was a very special person okay? Which was why she'd sent the candy gram..... and it was kind of awkward to be sitting next to the person you had sent a candy gram to when they got it actually. But it was okay! It was fine. And Henry getting two candygrams in this class was also fine. Very fine. All the fines. MANY MANY FINES.

She put on her most Char-like smile, bright and cheerful, and gave the professor a thumbs up before getting down to work with her painting, but not before returning the little finger wave to Henry. Only blushing a little bit. Hi friend.

But back to her painting. She would focus all the way on that instead of awkward things. She decided to try and paint something that was a thing and not just pretty coloured smears. And what better thing than her first love, a snaaaail? A snail would look pretty cool right? With that salty water effect that she was starting to see take shape on other people's pages. But she'd only want that texture to be on the snail itself.... not on the background. So that would mean painting them separately? And letting the background dry without any salt on it. Okay.

Tongue poking out a bit, Charlotte started working with her chosen colours.... blue... pink.... green.... the blue and green blending together to make a pretty purple... and some white, with pleeeeenty of water. Lots of water.



Working with the salt crystals was.... not as easy as she had hoped but Char kept going. It was okay, she could do this. She picked out a little brush to add more detail, and waited in between to let certain areas dry, to try and control what would and wouldn't do stuff with the salt.

When the professor spoke up, Char was surprised to notice the lesson was over. The two claps startled her out of her concentration, a feeling she wasn't at all used to. Apparently when it came to distracting herself from other things, she COULD focus. Letting her work dry, Char cleaned up around her, shooting a little smile at Dalton before going back to her painting to scrape off the salt. Except there were a few parts where she kind of liked the look of the salt? Sooo... what if she left those? Could she protect it with magic maybe? Humm. Oh well. Most of it was scraped off and dry now. She signed her name on her work and left it where it was. The professor could have it as a present, if she liked it.

"Thank you professor." Char said quickly, packing the rest of her things up. "If you like my painting then I want you to have it okay?" If she did. Who knew? Perhaps the professor didn't like snails.

Seeing that Char had blushed earlier, Kay had taken the hint and left the matter alone. She was keen on watching her work, however. Char took such time with her work! When it was brought up to her desk, the woman couldn't help but admire the finished product. "What a lovely snail, Ms Kettleburn! I do like it so you'll see it here in the room during the next class. Also, you're welcome.''

SPOILER!!: Skylar! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

This painting with salt thing? Skylar wasn't sure she fully understood it. Like it didn't exactly make sense as to what the purpose of it was, or what it would do.... But nonetheless she was going to try. Staring at her blank canvas as those around her were working steadily, Skylar just sat unsure over what to paint.

Finally once time was almost called, was when she first mixed her water with the palette of watercolors. Starting with yellow, and working her way to blue and purple formed with the red, and orange formed with some more yellow, and concluding with a nice shade of green that she made with the blue. It was as if the watercolors just effortlessly blended.

Sprinkling some salt on - though not too much, she frowned wondering if it was supposed to harden completely? But then once her painting was almost dry, she brushed it off using her thumbs. It didn't really seem to do much, but maybe it did? She had no idea. But it was time to go. Signing her name information to the bottom, she dropped it off at the Professor's desk. "For you, Professor," She said, on her way out the door.

"Why thank you, Ms Diggory. Wonderful job!" Kay really like the use of the colours.

SPOILER!!: Janelle! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

Janelle was ready to paint. Now painting was definitely not her strong suit, but she was going to enjoy this activity anyway. The big question was, what to paint? After giving it some thought, Janelle had narrowed her choices down to two. She was either going to paint an abstract self portrait or some flowers. Finally she decided to go with the flowers, figuring that would be easier for the artistically challenged.

Janelle was going to start with two of her favorite flowers, pansies and irises. She wet her brush and dipped it into the purple paint. Giving it her best effort, she made several petals. Then she re-dipped the brush and made more petals, several inches over. Janelle cleaned her brush and then covered her brush with yellow paint. She made yellow petals in between the purple ones. Reaching for her salt, she sprinkled it over her flower petals. Over and over Janelle repeated the steps, until she had several pansies on her paper. After cleaning her brush once again, she made stems and a few leaves on her flowers.

Moving quickly, before the paint had a chance to dry, Janelle got her salt again. She sprinkled the salt over the rest of her flowers, careful to spread it around evenly. Now for the irises. Janelle made the stems first for these. Then she re-wet her brush, she used more purple paint to make the iris petals. More salt was sprinkled on top of the new flowers. Pausing to look at her work, she chuckled. Even though she hadn't intended for her flowers to be abstract, they were looking a little crazy. Well it was art. No one said it had to be perfect. Janelle couldn't wait to see what her picture looked like after the salt was removed.

Something was missing though. This painting needed more color. Janelle added a few roses, or her attempt at roses, around the page. Red and pink buds added a pop of color to her masterpiece. More salt was placed on top of the roses. Last, but not least, stems and leaves were addded to the rosebuds. Salt was sprinkled one last time. Janelle looked at her work and decided that she was done. She cleaned her brushes, while she waited for the last paint to dry. Being her impatient self, Janelle kept using her finger to test the paint. Finally, it seemed sufficiently dry. She took her finger and wiped/scraped the salt from her picture. The flowers were crazy, but the salt effect was pretty cool. Janelle just hoped she would get an A for effort because her technique was questionable at best.

Just then, the professor said that class was ending. Janelle thought that it would be best if she took her painting with her. It was not exactly display worthy. And good news, they got to keep the watercolors. That was a nice surprise. Even though she wasn't good at painting, Janelle found it to be extremely relaxing. Maybe she could do a little painting in the common room or dorm. After cleaning up her work area, she gathered her things and went up to the professor. "Thanks professor. I really enjoyed the class.......and thanks for the paint." Now it was off to her next class.

"I'm glad you did, Ms Guidry! You're welcome.'' Yet another great piece of art. Then again, in her opinion, none of her students had done a bad job.