[Ponyville] Pony Portraits [Open]

[Chocoswirl]

The white pegasus was setting up her paintbrushes and canvas just outside her house in Ponyville. Electric Vibe had been thinking of ways to make more money so she could afford more art supplies. She didn't have enough time or money to set up yet another art auction, so she had spent days trying to come up with a plan. Soon enough, the idea had just popped into her head as spontaneously just as song lyrics came to her head. Electric could paint portraits of ponies and sell them. It was a simple, yet clever idea, and she was sure it would work. All she had to do was set up a chair, her canvas, and the paint and brushes she had. Once a pony would show up, they could pay bits for a portrait of them.

Holding a yellow paint tin with her wing, she set it down carefully next to other various colors or paint on the shelf of her canvas. She had her paintbrushes neatly set up, along with her paint. She also had stocked enough paper on her canvas to last quite a while. "Now I just need the sign!" She trotted away from her canvas into her house, approaching a large poster board with the words "Get Your Portrait Painted! 3 bits for each portrait!" painted on it. She grabbed it with her mouth and set it up in front of her canvas and the chair facing it. Sitting down on her own chair, she looked around hopefully. "Time to make some bits!" She spoke, leaning back in her chair, crossing her arms behind her neck.

(Once Electric finishes attending to a customer, another pony may enter to get their portrait painted.)

[Duchess]

Books sent back to the waiting air-chariot and mind once more firmly on the tasks he'd set himself, Polaris trotted down Ponyville's main street with every intention of getting on with them this time. 'No more bookshops', he admonished himself, slightly ruefully – he'd never been able to resist the lure of paper and ink, the smell of old books and the leather of the fine bindings – even the memory put a fond smile on his face as he continued to move at a leisurely, unhurried pace; it would never do to arrive out-of-breath and perspiring, horribly crumpled to boot.

As he passed one of Ponyville's subsidiary thoroughfares, his sensitive nose twitched – a sharp, biting smell, oddly heady and giddying, touched it and he sneezed convulsively, head swivelling automatically to try and find the source of the odour. It was familiar, too, maddeningly so, smelt before and half-remembered...Polaris shook his head and stamped his front hooves lightly in irritation, mostly at himself. The caprice of the wind took it away, and he turned back to his original path, but then it gusted, stronger, and he followed, curious now, and wanting to find out just what had so tickled his nose.

As shortsighted as Polaris was, he was quite close to Electric Vibe and her improvised street atelier before he managed to make out the easel, palette, chair and sign. “Ah. Turpentine,” he said with a slightly rueful sigh, more to himself than anypony else, suddenly remembering the various portraits he'd sat for – usually chafing as a foal in full dress and longing to be anywhere else.

Remembering his manners, he turned to the artist pony, raising his rich voice to carry effortlessly. “Good morning, miss! I hope I find you well this fine morning? Tell me, do you happen to have any examples of your art handy?”

[Chocoswirl]

"Good morning!" she greeted the unicorn, immediately sitting up properly. As much as she'd like to lie back and relax, she couldn't have a customer think she was rude. As rude as she could be, she knew that it wouldn't make a very good impression at all, and also wasn't very kind. "Yes, I do. Please wait a bit." Electric spoke, before hurrying off into her house. She rushed through the room of art she had stored in a room just near the entrance of her house. Looking through her paintings, she checked for some of her best work, until she came across a painting she had painted of the outline of the Everfree Forest a little while back. She had to admit, it seemed quite realistic looking. The trees had many shades of dark green blended and incorporated into it. She had managed to get the sky the perfect sky blue, darkening as it closed in on the trees, and the rest of the scenery around it was precise. However, the cost of all this work was having to spend about 3 hours sitting in front of the forest. She ached for hours after painting it. After taking it out, she grabbed it with her mouth and walked out of the house carefully with it, and set it down in front of the awaiting customer. "Here it is." She spoke.

(I would have images of these paintings, but getting most of the pictures up on here is nearly impossible for me at the current time. DX)

[Duchess]

((That's okay - and I apologise for the wait. My better half came to visit this weekend.))

The artist vanished inside what was probably her home as well as her studio, reappearing a short while later bearing a canvas which she displayed, proudly and slightly nervously, to Polaris. He took a few steps closer, so he didn't have to strain his eyes, which stung slightly from the turpentine fumes. It was a landscape, which surprised him, a dark, almost primeval forest towering beneath an endless azure sky, framed by more cheering rolling fields and the suggestion of neat, trim farmhouses and orchards on the sun-dappled hills.

It was much more textured than the majority of paintings he'd seen, a newer and bolder style, currently favoured by few and formed by the layering and sculpting of very viscous oil paints, set with linseed oils and then built up more to suggest even greater depth and texture than was normally possible with the simple play of light and shadow. “I like the use of texturing,” he commented – it really did make an otherwise quite unremarkable painting look striking, especially up close.

“I see you're developing your form away from the idealized style, as well. Very progressive. The chiaroscuro in the forest foliage contrasts nicely with the pinpoint precision of your shading and colouration everywhere else in the piece, too – I assume you know the view well? The contrast of known and unknown, the bright colour elsewhere in the painting focusing the viewer on the forest scene.” He smiled, amiably. “It's a good painting – a little rough around the edges, maybe, but a nice work nonetheless.” Polaris paused, as though trying to think of a diplomatic way to put things.

“I don't wish to be rude, so please don't take offence, but you're offering portraits, yes? Do you have any portraits – self or otherwise, I really don't mind - that I could gauge?”

[Chocoswirl]

(It's okay! :3 )

Electric smiled as she got the good review from the pony. It wasn't often that she got this kind of a detailed review from somepony. "Thank you very much." Electric spoke. At the mention of any other portraits, she thought for a moment. It had been a little while since she had painted any, but she was absolutely sure she had some portraits in her painting storage. "Oh, yes I do. Please wait another moment please!" She spoke.

How could she have been so stupid to not have shown him one in the first place? She quickly walked into her house, mentally facehoofing as she made her way into the same room. Scanning the shelves or art, she came across a portrait she had painted sometime last year. It was of a friend she had in Manehattan. When she had come to visit last year, Electric had offered to paint a portrait of her, but her friend was unable to bring it with her back home at the time. It showed a black unicorn with a white mane, curled and styled elegantly, flowing down her neck. She also had baby pink highlights in her mane. Her bright green eyes gazed softly at the viewer, a warm smile painted delicately on her face. The background was a simple light yellow. Electric hadn't wanted to draw attention away from her friend Black Sugar's face, so she made it a simple color, not too bright and flashy.

As soon as the pegasus saw the portrait, she grabbed it with her wings and with care, walked out of the house, and set it in front of the soon-to-be customer.

[Duchess]

“Hmm.” Polaris studied the presented portrait carefully. The composition was...different, to be sure. “Most of the portraits I've seen have a bit more...life in the background. Lakes, palaces, that sort of thing. Does bring out the main subject though, that pale colour wash.” He tilted his head from side to side, studying the play of light and brush-stroke. “It's very informal, but she looks happy. Those eyes are extraordinary, I must say.” He tilted his head the other way, rather unsure about the whole thing.

"May I ask what materials you're planning to use for your portraiture?” he asked, curious. He was no artist, but surely, surely, three bits for a portrait wouldn't keep anypony in canvas and oils.

[Chocoswirl]

"Well, I plan on using various acrylic and oil paints, and I also have various brushes for when different types of strokes are needed." Electric pointed with her wing over to a basket of materials. The contents of the basket were brushes with bristles different shapes and sizes, as some were thick and broad, while some were long and narrow. There was also an assortment of different acrylic paints and oil paints lined up on her canvas. She planned on using the acrylic paints as an underpainting to help plan out the basic details of the portrait, and would use the oils to paint over the basic structure. The acrylics would show a bit through the layers of oils, but this would be good since it would influence the finished product.

[Duchess]

Polaris looked intrigued. "I see. An interesting choice, to be sure. Well, far be it for me to question an artist's methods. Now, where should I stand? Or should I sit?" He looked about, curious as to where the artist would position him - so the light caught the silver of his hoofguards and the shimmer of his suit, maybe, or perhaps striking coronal highlights from his mane, or maybe simply bathing all of him in light, simple and stark.

Then again, it could be none of the above; whilst Polaris was no artist himself (aside from the usual stick-ponies that every foal drew for proud parents at some point), he did still appreciate art, and he'd met enough of the breed, at various galleries and exhibitions, to know that each had their own, unique style of work and that it was foalish and fruitless to attempt to interfere with that.

In the privacy of his own head, he was able to admit to himself that he was rather interested to find out what impressions the artist would garner of him and commit to canvas. The duke hadn't introduced himself - mind you, neither had his prospective painter - and so it would be interesting, at the least, to see what impressions she would gain of him. Polaris was a great believer in Art holding a mirror up to Life; what she painted would doubtless give him some insight into how other ponies viewed him, especially at first, and so it would be well worth the bits.

[Chocoswirl]

"You can either sit right here on this chair-" Electric spoke as she pointed with her large wings to a chair sitting just a few feet away from the canvas. "-or you can stand somewhere in front of the canvas." Electric finished. "Just tell me when you're ready, and I'll get started."

She then proceeded to trot over to her canvas, quickly looking over all of the supplies, just to be sure she had the right colors and brushes set up. After a quick evaluation, she nodded confidently as she had everything set.

Hopefully she would be able to satisfy this new customer, and she was a bit more worried than usual since he seemed to be a pony with high standards. He didn't seem snobby like the ones she was exposed to as a filly, but he certainly didn't seem like the one to be easily impressed. Soon, the chilling thought of him being displeased with her work popped into her head. However, she had to be confident in her work in order for her to be able to please anypony, and soon shook the thought of messing up from her head. If she was confident with her own work, and confident that she had done a good job of portraying this stallion, it would work out just fine.

[Duchess]

Had he eyebrows, Polaris would have raised them. He'd always felt rather like a mannequin doll whenever a portraiture artist had come by; they always had a very specific vision of how he should look - sometimes even down to what suit to wear and whether the ducal coronet would be appropriate or not - but this particular artist seemed much more flexible. Adaptable, that was the word he was looking for.

"I'm not used to having a choice in my portraits," he said with a wry smile, looking around carefully, trying to judge light and composition as best he could. "On balance, though, I think I'd rather stand. Plenty of time for seated portraits when I'm in my dotage, surrounded by grandchildren and all that sort of thing, eh?"

Carefully, Polaris trotted out in front of Electric Vibe, rather self-consciously giving himself a quick once-over, checking for any egregious problems - he didn't want to be immortalised in oils with a clod of dirt on his clothes, for example, or with purple ribbons trailing forlornly from his mane and tail rather than being properly tied. Satisfied with himself, he glanced over at the artist, a small, secret smile touching his muzzle as he saw her check and recheck her equipment.

"Will this do for your painting, miss?" he called quietly.

[Chocoswirl]

"Just right!" She spoke, smiling, and she used her wing and picked up a larger brush. Taking a glance over at the unicorn, she then turned her attention to the blank canvas, and swiftly began to paint the basic structure and outline of his face lightly, using some of the acrylic paints she had at her disposal. After every few strokes, she would take another glance at him, to see if she was on the right track. She wasn't necessarily looking for absolute perfection, but she also wanted to be sure that there wasn't anything that could mess up the painting or seem odd.

Electric worked carefully,, but she also worked at her own pace, observing her progress every few moments to be sure everything was fine. Most artists knew that to be able to make your paintings, or rather, any kind of art the best it could be, it took a bit of time. However, the outcome will be worth it. Soon enough, most of the basic outline was about halfway finished, and nothing seemed wrong from what she saw.

It wasn't much yet, but as soon as she got started on the details, she would be ready to put as much effort as she could into portraying Polaris in this painting. She quickly turned her mind back to painting, and began to focus quite hard on trying to get the structure set accordingly, letting her wing move carefully with the paintbrush. While her left wing was painting, her right wing was starting to prepare the oil paints.

[Inkwell]

Once in a while, a pleasant surprise dropped into Inkwell’s path. He’d thought today would be ordinary and not too terribly eventful, filled with drawing and finishing commissions. During his normal walk through town, looking for interesting things to draw, he saw something he’d somehow missed before: another artist!

Seeing the sign for portraits made him smile hard enough to make his mouth sore. One of his favorite things was meeting a pony who loved art as much as he did, and doing things like comparing notes and looking at each other’s work. How in Equestria did he somehow never see this mare at work until now?

He almost walked up and started spouting off with typical enthusiasm, until he saw that she was occupied with a customer, and a rather regal-looking one at that. From experience he knew just how jarring it was to be interrupted in the middle of work. Introductions could wait. Instead, he had another idea, one that made him giggle.

Inkwell stood off to the side of the two ponies, making sure that he could see both of them, then got out his sketchpad and pencil set. As Electric Vibe began her painting of Polaris, so Inkwell started work on a pencil sketch of the both of them. It was such a cheeky idea. Rose would probably love it. Hopefully his mere presence wouldn’t serve as much of a distraction if he kept as quiet as possible.