Art Lessons [Feliciano]

Sakura really enjoyed art, it had always been one of her great passions. She studied all kinds of it, preferring personally, the current ‘manga’ style, being a self professed otaku. She made some good money out of this, taking commissions for images or small comic strips. Some of the things she was asked to draw were admittedly a little odd, several people requested fetish pictures, but they paid well so often she would do them and send them privately. She’d learned a lot about strange fetishes since she had begun taking commissions, actually.

However, even though she did work mostly in a ‘manga’ or cartoonish style, she also enjoyed dabbling in other methods, especially western styles of art. She felt that it broadened her range and improved her as an artist, rather than getting complacent. She liked to take life drawing classes when they were available and a lot of other classes that were offered by the university or at least advertised there.

Recently, she’d felt as if her colouring was lacking, and she was very unhappy with it. It was poorly blended, flat, and didn’t really add to the piece. She would be better off leaving it in black and white. The people she talked to online claimed that she was too critical of her own work but Sakura couldn’t really see that as a bad thing. Was it bad that she constantly strove for perfection and improvement? It just seemed driven to her.

On the school notice board, she had seen a flyer for still life painting classes at another art school. It sounded just what she wanted, she rarely painted any more so a little practice would do her some good, and some guidance. She wasn’t too fond of still life, but it would still be a good exercise and it was only £50 for a set of three classes, which was fairly cheap compared to some. She called them up that evening, and luckily they still had a few places, so she was able to book her place.

The day they were meeting was a Thursday, unfortunately her busiest day, but it was at least an evening class, so she had time to go home and make herself dinner and find her brushes (she rarely used brushes provided by schools, they were usually so abused) before she had to catch a bus down to the art school where it was being held.

She hadn’t really known what to wear, so she’d settled for slipping a large white shirt over her own slim jumper, one that she didn’t mind getting paint on, and pulling on a pair of jeans. On the bus there, though, she began to worry that she didn’t look presentable enough like that, especially since her make-up was wearing off and the nail polish on her fingers was beginning to chip. What if they thought she looked really cheap?

But it was all just her nervous nature. She despised it about herself, and the fact that she worried so much what strangers thought about her but she couldn’t stop herself from worrying. She just forced herself through it and when it got to her stop, she walked calmly off the bus.

Luckily, it stopped just outside the right building, so she didn’t have to walk around lost at all. There was a large campus, and she looked down at the sheet of paper with the directions written neatly on in English. She needed to go to the South Wing first of all, then to classroom 12b. It was a little intimidating to be here while it was dark, because there wasn’t really anyone around and the closed off site had few lights, apart from ones which spilled from the classrooms.

She felt more than a little lost. There were so many buildings and none of them had their name written above them, so she wasn’t sure where to go. Then she saw someone. About her own age, maybe, carrying a large portfolio. Short, around her height. She waved to him, trying to catch his attention. “Excuse me?” She said, her voice ever so slightly quieter than normal, “Do you know your way around here?” She gave him a little bow in greeting, just a small incline of the head, as was polite.

It had been a good morning. Lovely, really. Everything had been falling into place for Feliciano and he had a feeling that it'd be a truly great day. He'd actually shown up not on time, but early to his first class of the day, and the second had let out early so he'd been able to workshop himself for the rest of the time left over and had finished a project he'd been working on for a while. Lunch - taken early - was delicious. Of course, it always was because he made it at home and wouldn't make himself something that didn't taste good, he was entirely too picky on that point, but still, it was always nice to have good food, even if you expected the good food from the get go.

And now he was off to actually earn himself a little bit of side money helping with a class he had already taken all the extensions of. Really, he had been a shoe-in for the position of TA even before the storm gave him his strange mastery over colour. the teacher, his advisor, had had him from his first year in the university and given Feliciano's sunny disposition and general ability to make people like him and want him around it was easily charismatic enough to earn him a place in the classroom, and since his talent didn't leave too much do be desired (though of course he had a rather long way to go yet if he wanted to become a truly great artist, he was certainly advanced and lessoned enough to help around as needed) it wasn't hard to convince his teacher to give him the job, or the university to allow it either. He really loved the course, too. It was an area of the arts he lived and breathed. He even meant to be their early enough to help set up!

...and then he got asked aside by the quiet girl. Well. It's not like he could really leave a pretty lady hanging now was it?

"Che?" He questioned, turning too look who spoke to him and. Oh! She was cute! She looked really sweet too~ He offered up his usual bright smile as he stepped in closer. "Know my way around here? Of course, I go here! At least for some of the buildings I don't really know the digital arts or theatrical departments but I know all the visual arts areas! Where are you headed? My name's Feliciano, nice to meet you miss...?"

He seemed like a nice boy. He was very friendly and happy to talk to her, unlike a lot of other people in London, who never seemed to want to talk to anybody. She didn’t usually mind, but sometimes when she was lost, it was a little intimidating. But this person was really cheerful, smiling at her kindly. He also had a little bit of an accent, where from? “Well, I am going to an art lesson.” She said, “But I do know where it is...” If he went to the school, then hopefully he would be able to show her where to go. “In classroom...” He looked down at the paper she was clutching, “12b. Do you know it?” She asked.

“Oh, it is Honda Sakura. Pleased to meet you, Feliciano er...” She hesitated, unsure, “Mr Feliciano?” She had to remember not to use Japanese honorifics.... She gave a short nervous bow, as was polite. Feliciano, that was a good name, it wasn’t too hard with her slight accent. She clutched nervously on the little scrap of paper as she looked him over. He had a lot of character in his face, so she tried to study it to see if she could use the features in her work. Thinking about it, she thought she might have seen him before...

Ah! A pretty name for a pretty girl~ Feliciano found himself letting out the little contented humm he sometimes made, a soft "veh" of a sound that slipped from his lips when content.

"Sakura. That's a really nice name~ You can call me Feliciano, or Feli! You definitely don't need to call me Mr., I'm not a mister at all. That makes me sound all old, and I'm not old yet, I don't want to be old for a while, it's too much fun being young!" He nodded, as if agreeing with himself, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet as he searched classroom numbers. Had he been a bit more organised or observant he might not need to think about it at all, but he mostly knew things as 'the ceramics room', 'the painting room', 'Professor Gerri's classroom', and 'the one with that really cute girl who wears her hair in a bun', so it took him a moment to place the location. Once it came to him, his face lit up, smile bright and eyes lighting up.

"Si! I know that classroom! Actually, that's where I'm going so I can take you there really easily, si? Just come with me."

It didn’t seem right to cause someone by their first names when one had just meet them. She didn’t think it was very polite, but she didn’t want to go against his wishes either, that would be just as impolite. He seemed, luckily, to finally realise where she wanted to go. She smiled in relief, “Really?” She said, stepping closer, “Thank you very much.” She bowed slightly.

“Why are you going to the room?” she asked curiously, “Are you taking the art class too?” But surely he wasn’t, he looked like he was actually a student and this was a beginner class.