Page 18 of Fruit
“Uh, nothing. I get like a really good discount in an art shop I used to work at, so. Thought you would like it.”
Joshua stays silent for a moment. “You’re an artist?”
“I mean, kind of? I work in graphic design, but I like most types of art. Acrylic is probably my favourite. I didn’t get any ’cause I didn’t know if you liked that, and choosing the right colours is based on preference and the project you’re working on, so…”
There’s a long pause as Joshua just stares at the materials.
“I can show you how the blow pens work, if you want?” I ask a little hesitantly. I know I pushed him hard when we met, but I don’t want to encroach into the safe haven of the youth centre if he doesn’t want me here.
“Sure.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Whatever,” he says, but he doesn’t sound reluctant. If I didn’t know better, he seems almost shy.
“Okay. Let me get some paper. I don’t want to ruin your sketchbook.”
Joshua nods. I get up, going towards Jasmine, who’s already pulling out some blank A4s. She hands them to me and I nod my thanks.
“Okay,” I say as I sit back down. Joshua has cleared the table a little, putting everything except the blow pens to the side.
I open the packet and show him how to load them. I practise with one, twisting the pen’s mouth larger or smaller to control the intensity and span of the spray.
“See, you can play with the opening, closing it to get sharper lines with more saturation, or opening it to cover more area with a weaker spray. How hard you blow will also affect the spray, so it’s good practice for precision, as well as contrast,” I explain.
“Contrast?”
“Yeah. So, like, you create contrast by putting two different elements next to each other. For example, a light and dark colour, or colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel.” I take a moment to google an example of a colour wheel. “See, we have the warm colours here, and the cold colours on the opposite side. So, if you colour something with just cool colours, it can be made interesting by using very dark and very light colours, or it will look monotone. But you can make the painting even more dramatic, if that’s what you’re going for, by using opposing colours in the colour wheel, like this pink and this green.”
“Oh.”
“Obviously, you can do this with any medium which has colour, but I like practising with blow pens because it’s more difficult to be accurate, and you really have to think about what you’re doing. Like, if you open the mouth a lot, then the spray will be weak but cover more space, and there won’t be a lot of saturation—which is, like, how intense the colour is, how much pigment there is, you know, in one spot. But if you use this open setting you can blend colour by blowing them on top of each other.”
I demonstrate a quick blend of warm colours. “Which is good for shading. And then if you close the mouth of the pen, this is better for lining. Wanna try?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says, picking up a clean pen.
We play around with the pens for a while. Joshua picks up on it quickly, nimble fingers turning the head of the pen to control the spray.
“You’re really good,” I say as I look at his drawing, a graphic, sharp-lined depiction of a face in profile.
Joshua shrugs.
“Here, maybe you’ll like this style. It’s simple, but hard to get exactly right.”
I google images for tattoos of pin-up faces in a traditional style. They depict big-eyed women with short, wavy black hair, a red rose over one ear. Their eyes are large and simple, cheeks blushing red, lips heavily pigmented. I tilt the screen to show Joshua.
“Wow, those are cool,” he says.
“Right? This is traditional-American-style tattooing. I like it because, yeah, the lines are simple, but it’s hard to get it exactly right. Nothing can waver or you’ll throw off the shape of what you’re drawing. You wanna try drawing one?”
“Sure.”
“We can use the normal markers for this, if you want.”
“Okay.”
I leave the reference for the tattoo on my phone and we start drawing. After a few minutes, I see him frowning down at the paper.
