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Tweak says, "Why don't they stay young?"

Dean Thomas is muggleborn and proud (quillandquaffle) wrote in refreshrpg,
@ 2015-03-08 21:42:00

Entry tags:

! log, 1998-march, character: dean thomas, character: lavender brown

Who: Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown
What: Portraiture!
Where: Gryffindor common room
When: Sunday night
Rating: probably low?
Status: in progress

Dean had been putting off his homework all weekend, but he'd finally finished it and now he had a little free time. Even though he'd been complaining of hand cramps from all the essays not an hour before, he was itching to pick up a pencil and draw something. He'd smuggled in some mechanical pencils when he came back from Christmas hols, which were a thousand times better than quills for drawing, and he had challenged Gwen Montgomery to some kind of portrait face-off.

As he glanced around the common room, he decided he knew just where to start. After all, one of the perks of being an artist was getting pretty people to model for you, right? He tucked a pencil behind his ear and grabbed his sketch pad, strolling across the room to the prettiest person currently occupying it.

"Hey Lav," he said, putting on his most persuasive grin. "Any chance you'd model for me?"

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_lavender
2015-03-09 02:19 am UTC (link)

Lavender was sitting, legs curled up under her, in her favorite arm chair by the fire, where she was working on some Divination charts she had to get done. Her concentration was beginning to falter when a much-needed distraction came over to her in the form of Dean Thomas. She turned and smiled widely at him. "Oh, really? What are you drawing? Why do you need me to model for you?" she asked.

Not that she minded what the answer was. Of course she was going to let him draw her.

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	quillandquaffle 2015-03-09 02:30 am UTC (link)
	"Just a little pet project. Gwen Montgomery is doing portraits of all the Slytherin girls, so I thought I'd do Gryffindors. What do you think?" He helped himself to the seat across from her, spreading the sketch book across his knees. "I probably should save the prettiest for last, but I'm just not that patient." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

_lavender
2015-03-09 02:36 am UTC (link)

"Is this supposed to be a competition or something?" she asked, setting her work aside and unwinding her legs from underneath herself. "Because we both know you're better at drawing than she is." Lavender smiled sweetly at him and brushed her hair off her shoulder, blushing lightly. "Oh, Dean, you don't have to tell me what I already know just to butter me up. Of course, I'll model for you!"

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quillandquaffle
2015-03-09 03:15 am UTC (link)

Dean gave her a crooked grin. "Something like that. Maybe my competitive spirit just got the best of me." He took the pencil down from behind his ear, flipping it showily across his knuckles. "It never hurts to be reminded, though, does it? It's not flattery when it's the truth."

He opened the sketch pad and flipped to a clean page, studying her thoughtfully. "What were you working on before I interrupted you?"

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	_lavender 2015-03-10 12:09 am UTC (link)
	"I know," Lavender said slowly, chewing on her lower lip. "And thank you." She glanced sideways at her Divination charts. "Just something for Divination," she said. "Why?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

quillandquaffle
2015-03-10 05:59 pm UTC (link)

"You looked...focused. Unguarded." He turned his sketchpad sideways and laid a few guiding lines down, though he didn't start to draw just yet. "That's good for portraits, but really hard to capture. It's like...what someone looks like when they think no one's looking at them, you know? I just thought it might give me some insight." He looked up again with a playful wink. "So what do the omens say tonight?"

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_lavender
2015-03-12 01:36 pm UTC (link)

Lavender couldn't pretend she knew much of anything about drawing and sketching and portraits, so she' d have to take Dean's word for it. She smiled back at him. "Well, tonight it is a quiet night," she said carefully, "though the position of Mars did say I should beware of men brandishing swords. Which I suppose could be your pencil there." Her gaze flicked down to his sketchbook and back up again.

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quillandquaffle
2015-03-12 03:24 pm UTC (link)

Dean snorted before he could help himself. "That's kind of Freudian. Sometimes a pencil is just a pencil." He twirled the pencil again and leaned in, smiling in a conspiratorial way. "Not this one, of course. This one is going to capture just a tiny bit of your essence, which is some pretty strong magic in its way." He sat back again, studied her for a long moment, and then--at last--put pencil to paper, beginning to sketch in slow, curving strokes.

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	_lavender 2015-03-12 03:37 pm UTC (link)
	Lavender had to bite her lip to keep from watching every little movement of Dean's hand. But she couldn't help it, always amazed at how his strokes formed a likeness so easily. "I don't know how you do it," she breathed out. "You're so good." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

quillandquaffle
2015-03-12 07:04 pm UTC (link)

He wanted to capture that, for certain--the way she caught her lower lip between her teeth, making her look sweet and pensive--her mouth in general, honestly. He tried to catch the expression before it was gone, with quick messy lines that he'd go over more firmly later.

"Not as good as I'd like to be," he admitted, smudging the shadow beneath the drawn lip a bit with his thumb, then changing his mind and erasing it entirely. "But thank you. I wish we had classes in it like Muggle schools do. Mum usually finds me a program for the summer hols."

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	_lavender 2015-03-12 11:47 pm UTC (link)
	"Oh!" She exclaimed, licking her lips. "A Muggle program? What's that like?" Lavender asked, dropping her gaze to watch his hands work again. She leaned forward more to get a better look. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

quillandquaffle
2015-03-17 05:14 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, they're great." Dean's eyes lit up, and for a moment his smooth demeanor slipped to show his enthusiasm. "I mean, of course they can't tell me how to make the art move, but the basic principles are the same I think. And they give you a chance to try a lot of different things--they bring in models for life drawing, and take you out to museums and parks and things for still life and landscape. One I did we even got to do some sculpture, although as it turns out that's not really my thing."

He was darkening her eyes now, going over her long lashes, shading beneath her brows and then shaping and softening the shadows with a well-used eraser. His gaze grew more focused, more intent as he worked.

ooc: sorry this thread was one of the casualties of my terrible-sleep week. I did not mean to abandon it!

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_lavender
2015-03-19 01:14 am UTC (link)

Her tongue wet her lips, and she leaned in closer to him as he worked. Then she realized what she was doing and sat back, rubbing her arm lightly. "Do you only take one class a summer or more than one? Can you make your drawings move once you finish them, even if you can't while you work? Like, if you do it the muggle way, can you then use magic on them? Does it work?"

ooc. it's totally fine; I've been so busy lately!

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quillandquaffle
2015-03-19 03:23 am UTC (link)

He was watching her mouth again, although he no longer needed to. If he was leaning in, he could blame it on bending over his sketchbook--or at least he could if she didn't want him to lean in. She didn't seem bothered at the moment.

"Usually just one. They typically run for a couple of weeks in June or July? And yeah, I can make them move after I draw them, although I think there's some other way to do it that I don't know yet. They'll move, but they don't...really have a life of their own, I guess? They don't talk or anything. I'm hoping to learn that at university."

Assuming he even got into the wizarding program. He still hadn't heard back, though he'd gotten an acceptance from both of the Muggle schools he'd applied to as backup. He wasn't saying much about it, but it was starting to stress him out just a little.

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	_lavender 2015-03-22 02:44 am UTC (link)
	"Oh that would be wonderful," Lavender said. "I don't even have any idea what I'm doing after this, and we're almost at the end, aren't we? What are you going to study? Drawing or something more than that?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	quillandquaffle 2015-03-22 03:23 am UTC (link)
	"Hopefully painting at WUA. I haven't heard back from them yet, but it should be soon. If not, I'll be doing Fine Arts at Slade." He began laying down the curls of her hair in gentle pencil strokes, framing her face carefully. "Do you know what you want to do overall?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	_lavender 2015-03-31 12:56 am UTC (link)
	Her eyes widened. "Oh no I have no idea at all," she said, then worried at her lower lip, shaking her head. "I know I should know what I'm going to do but I can't figure it out at all." (Reply to this) (Parent)