Okay, so far so good. Nothing bad had happened yet, no explosions and hopefully no mistakes. This seemed to be going alright and that made Nessie more relaxed and calm. This was actually in a small sort of way fun to Ness and if she did manage in succeeding on learning how to make these, she could make them for her bestie Thomas all the time. He loved painting and how cool would it be if he could paint moving pictures eh? It would be beyond awesome.

Now what was this cheesecloth thing? The red head pouted her lips as she watched Selena fiddle with a weird looking cloth in her hand. Wait..so Cherry wanted her to touch that?"Um...okay."she could do that, she supposed. It seemed simple.

The Hufflepuff picked the cloth from where it was dangling on Selena's cloth and then lay it carefully on the bowl, making sure it covered everything it needed to. "Is this alright?" she asked looking up at the older girl and waiting for her approval before they could do the next thing, which would be ladleling everything out.

"Okay," Nora said with a smile, taking a look at the two already measured cups with... whatever that was. Now, all she had to do was mix those with the borax solution, which is exactly what she did, until the thing got gooey and smooth, just as it was supposed to get. Ehh, the two of them were a great team. Hehe.

"I think it's good enough, isn't it?" The girl asked, turning again at Chelle. She still needed an approval from her partner, eh?

sorry guys, was very busy yesterday & today >-<
 

"You just need to separate it..." pointing his wand at the bowl, Cutter vanished the water, which left only the borax behind. "Just measure it out of that and go from there! No big deal."

It was then that he noticed West Odessa's cauldron, which had now overcurdled. As a result, it was smoking quietly and had started giving off a funny smell; Cutter immediately abandoned Erin's table and moved to West's. He vanished the bubbling mess with a quick flick and put out the flame before looking around for the kid. He'd heard something weird was going on with the kids, Merlin forbid it happen while he was here teaching ONE class. Where had he-

"Odessa...?" What was he doing?

Alas!

The Cutter guy helped Erin. Yeah, he just did that. And now, she was all ready to proceed, right? Right? With a smile on her face, "Thank you Professor." And then, she saw him run from her place to Odessa's table. She heard him call the little boy's name. Was he playing favorites now? Erin wanted him to stay at her table so that she wouldn't work alone. Just like the other students.

Erin placed all the borax in her bowl to the plastic that holds the borax earlier. And then, using a spoon, she measured three tablespoons towards the bowl. With the use of her wand, she uttered the Aguamenti spell to fill it with a haf-cup of water. She couldn't help but rivet her attention to the Professor who was still askng for Odessa. Snort. She mixed the it and waited a few minutes for the total dissolution.



Erin looked at the board and read carefully. She needed the measurements right. Measuring two cups of curds, she deposited it on to the borax solution. She used a stirrer to mix the solution so that it'll become smooth and gooey, just like what the Professor instructed them to do so.

...and, it's kind of hard, Erin took her wand again and showered the mixture with a small amount of water. Mix, mix, mix.

Mix. Mix. Mix. Her arm was already getting tired... and Mordred watching her kinda made her nervous. Not a good combination if you wanted something to go right. Baking? I... don't know, really." She eyed him, but never putting down the ladle. She had never really baked for real, so she really didn't know whether she liked it or not. "Why? Do you?"

Mixiiing. Meehh! Get gooey already, thing!! She was about to mix the stuff even faster when Mordred got a hold of the bowl AND her hand. Blink. Blink. :3 Could she flail about now?

"I don't know!" Sophie said looking at the mixture. What she thought it was gooey might not be what the professor thought it was. She had no idea, really.

So he wanted HER to add the water now? Butbutbut what if she put too much?? That would ruin the paint! And they would have to start all over again and Mordred might get mad at her and might not talk to her ever again and maybe he woud even think she was a failure and didn't know how to do anything right and didn't know spells and and and

"Okay." She said simply as she held the cup and watched him pull the bowl closer to himself. "Aguamenti." She let the water come out from her wand, but not filling the cup all the way up. Um... now? She looked up at him and waited for the instructions. He was such a good leader!

Pouring the water liiiiiittle by liiiiittle - maybe too little - as he was telling her, she was careful enough not to make a mess around their workstation. They wouldn't want to waste any paint, now would theey?

After she was done adding the water, Sophie placed the cup on the table next to her wand and watched Mordred go on with the work. She gave the room a quit glance again and noticed professor Cutter calling for the Slytherin boy. Her attention was now divided between the handsome boy next to her and the little dude in front of the class, probably doing something he shouldn't...

Keefer looked up at the sound of the word 'Odessa.' Yes, the Captain had been keeping tabs on the boy. And yes, Mr. Jacob Cutter seemed to finally be noticing the boy's... er... interesting behavior. This ought to be good.

He gave a sideways glance to his mixture before turning his full attention to what was sure to be a comical situation.

He eyed the sheet and then came to a few realisations at once. Firstly there was a portrait under there. Secondly it was talking to him. Thirdly it couldn't be dangerous, and finally, it was scared of the dark.

West tugged the sheet off. He was only doing as he had been asked!

Dum de dum.

Nothing to see hereeeee....

West turned around looking innocent, save for the fact that there was a sheet in his hands.


QUEUE BIG REVEAL!

Alyssa was just keeping an eye on Louisa and her own cauldron when she noticed that Professor Cutter was having a little chaotic situation of his own going on. She tried not to giggle because honestly it did look funny, seeing him try to help everyone all at once.

If it had been Professor Lafay's class she would have kept a stoic face, but Professor Cutter just cracked her up and Alyssa had to quickly put her hand to her mouth to try to stop the giggles that were trying to escape.

Chelle looked at the mixture. It seemed good enough. Gooey and pasty, just like it was supposed to be. She grinned at Nora. "Yup, this is great," she said, and gave her a thumbs-up. Then she heard the Professor say something to the Odessa boy. Craning her neck, she tried to see what was going on. She frowned. "What on earth is he doing?" she muttered.

plus Cutter and West
 

Peering into the bowl, Vickers nodded his head "Looks pretty good" he commented "But then you'll be using this right? If you still think its too thick, we can add more water..." he grinned then was distracted with the Professor calling someone out in front. Odessa? The Ravenclaw shifted in his seat, he can see the young Slytherin boy with the sheet in his hand Wasnt that covering something?... he mused as his icy blue gaze shifted towards what was uncovered..

He wasn't-

Cutter held up a hand, mouth opening to tell the boy to stop, but he was too late. The sheet was already sliding off, revealing the portrait it had hidden. The portrait that was very happy to finally be freed.

The man in the frame threw his hands up in the air in victory as the class came into view, a cocky grin on his face. Cutter closed his eyes and immediately began rubbing the bridge of his nose, waiting for the verbal onslaught that was about to begin.

"Greetings, ladies and germs," he began, looking out at all the students. "Pardon my lateness but big brilliant Professor Jake there apparently forgot to uncover me. Ponce, he is." He turned to West. "Thanks for the help kid... you can go back to readin' comics or whatever it is you were doin' instead of listening to Jake be booooooooring."

Cutter sighed.

"Kids... this is Truman. He was painted in 2024, and I can't for the life of me remember why I ever brought him along with me."

"Because I'm hilarious and the kids will love me more than your boring lecture on paint and pigments."

"So I could leave you here, more like," Cutter muttered under his breath before gesturing to Odessa. "Your milk overcurdled... you can use mine, please catch up quickly."

Couldn't really punish the kid... he hadn't done anything really wrong, and Truman was probably more at fault for his actions. With a flick of his wand, he levitated his curds to Odessa's table; he then briefly considered covering the portrait up again. However, he knew it would be futile. Truman had seen the kids, and if Cutter covered him again, he'd just raise a racket and cause the professor a headache. Cutter moved back to the desk in the front and gave Truman a look.

"You stay quiet or I'll have you hung up in a public lavatory." He cleared his throat as Truman stared at him, clearly concerned by the threat. "Does anyone need any help before we move on? If you've followed all the steps, you should have your paint base; we'll be adding pigment to it next, to create colours, and then you'll all have a chance to actually paint."

Stifler! XD
 

It was a man....

Vickers shifted in his seat again, trying to avoid all the heads blocking his view of seeing the entire canvass. Then the portrait started to speak, knocking the Instructor and his methodology. The Ravenclaw looked sympathetically at the dark haired man and shook his head, he was doing just fine as far as he was concerned.

But eyes goes back to the painting. He was as his grandmother would say, a smartypants kinda fellow, the kind that would likely clash badly with her. But as this was an art class he suddenly had a depressing thought. Leaning towards Gwen he whispered "Do you think you'll be able to paint a portrait of him?"

Chelle was at her desk, staring at the commotion in front of the class, frowning and watching. Her partner had mixed the milk, and their paint base was perfectly ready and sitting on their desk. But at the moment, Chelle was more interested in whatever was going on with the Professor and the portrait.

Whuuttt?!

Chelle gaped as a man raised his hands. There's a man in the portrait. A really annoying man. He addressed them as 'ladies and germs'. Was he going to be there for the rest of the lesson as well? Because Chelle didn't like him too much.

"Strange guy," she said, to no one in particular.

Minerva looked shocked at that portrait being very rude. Who did he think he was. He was a portrait for heavens sake. She tried to focus on her notes and not make eye contact with the portrait, but it was hard not to look at it. She had never come across a rude one in the castle. She didn't pay that much attention really, but none of them seemed rude at least .

A man stepped out of a portrait "How is this possible? Does that mean I can take, let say the fat lady for a walk, she needs the excercise and if this man can walk out of a painting, why can't The Fat Lady?"

Really? The little lurker wasn't even a littler curious as to what his little friend was up to? That was kind of strange but also it made Ella feel strangely proud of the little guy. She hadn't expected him to be so focused on the work. Thumbs up, Theodore.

The second year tried not to look at the curd as Theo scooped out the two cups. It was actually really gross...and it made Ella's stomach feel all squirmyish. She didn't like that. Oh, and now it was her turn? "Okay then." She said as she took the spoon from the lurker.



O_____O

Uh-oh. Theodore's little bestie might be in trouble for that, yeah? Oh well, serves him right. And WHATTTT?! This guy in the portrait was being quite mean to Mr. Portrait expert! And he wasn't that boring! Professors couldn't really help be boring sometimes...it kinda came with the job description, right?

Truman huh? Well he'd definitely shake things up a bit in class. Ella wondered if maybe Cutter and Truman would get into some sort of yelling match. That might be funny. She wanted to ask Theo who he thought would win in that sort of thing but she didn't want to get in trouble for talking...especially since Cutter was getting back into the lesson. "Theodore, I think we're pretty caught up right?" She was pretty sure they had made the base correctly. And now they could make some colors! Cool.

"You owe me for that, portrait dude." West pointed out. "You should make him give me points or I'll cover you up again." Paaause he leaned forward and whispered, "Or throw you out the window." His name was Truman? "Its only fair." West added helpfully.

Whats that? He got to use Cutter's stuff? Cool. West beamed and there was a bounce in his step as he returned to the table and did that two-finger-pointing-at-portrait-and-then-at-his-eyes-cos-he-was-wotchingyouuuTruman thing. Be a good portrait.

Or get thumped or defenestrated.

Hearing a question, West of course he put in his two knuts. Reasonable knuts. "Well because paintings don't have metabolisms. And that was how she was painted, and I bet her original subject didn't like doing exercise stuff." Right? Made sense to him. Logic.

Louisa almost jumped in her chair when a new voice addressed the class, she looked up from the mixture and saw that a portrait of a hot man was speaking. Her mouth curled up into a smirk as she watched him and the awkward professor...banter? That should be fun. "Nice to see you, Truman," she called out, grinning.

He seemed to be of the teasing type and they soooo attracted her- she did not just think about this. Uh oh. She was mind-flirting with a portrait. Her brow furrowed as she raised her hand, "Sir? Was he a real man? Or did you just come up with him?" either way, it would've been... incredibly odd to be.. attracted toward a portrait.

Louisa eyed the portrait suspiciously.

"You have no idea," Cutter muttered when he heard one of the children's opinions.

Blink. Blink.

"I'm sorry?" Cutter looked at Truman, who was staring at the girl and looking way too amused. "Nnnnoooo, portraits can't step out of their 'world', so to speak. They're stuck there."

Pause.

"And yes, what Odessa says is true. Portraits are essentially trapped in time. No matter how much they work out or try to change, nothing can change for them."

This kid. Cutter shook his head in amusement and pointed at the board to remind him that he had a few quick steps to catch up on before he was up to speed with everyone else.

"Yeah yeah, I'll see what I can do," Truman mumbled, stretching in his frame and eyeing the kid.

If Cutter had heard the threat of defenestration, he probably would have allowed it to actually happen.

"Nice to see you too, sweetheart!" Truman called back at the pretty young girl. Cutter glared at him, and Truman heaved a heavy sigh. "She did it first!"

The professor's hand twitched toward the sheet.

"He is a real man." Cutter started moving some of the plastic containers to the desk he'd set his things up on. "This portrait was painted in 2024, when Truman was in his mid twenties. His real-life model is now in his seventies. He found the portrait too annoying, apparently, and left it behind when he moved... I moved into his old house several years ago and 'inherited' it."

Truman made a sound, as if to protest his being annoying, but Cutter was plunging ahead before he could say anything, and all the portrait managed was a reproachful look.

"What you have now, as I said, is the base of the paint. It's like what they use when you go into a Muggle store to have a custom colour mixed. To create the colours, you have to mix in pigments."

He opened a container and scooped up a handful of dried yellow flower petals, holding them forward to show the class.

"Now, almost anything in nature can be used to create pigment. Think of any of the million things you can find on the grounds; if you dry it, you can grind it into pigment to be added to this base. For this class, I pre-dried some things for you guys... some come from more dangerous plants, but as I said, you can use anything. You can even use mundane things, but they tend to not work as well when it comes to the 'animation' stage."

"Secondary colours like purple, green, and orange can also be made in this way, but it's usually just easier to mix some of the primary colours together."

"Supplies are up here in the containers, and mortars and pestles can be found on the side table there." Which was Cutter's way of saying 'be free, kidlings, create colours!'.

eta ooc: the small porcelain dishes on your tables are there for you to mix your paints, guys. :)

Minerva went up and looked at the materials. She took a few containers and then took some charcoal and some bloody red rose. She went back to her seat and placed the red rose in front of her. taking the tools provided she began to make the blood red rose into a fine grain and put it in one of the containers mixing it with her base she saw it changing to red. Smiling at the color, she liked this color. She then turned to the charcoal and did the same thing, but she didn't feel like it was changing as nicely as the red did. She looked at it confused not sure if she did something wrong this time. She looked back at the directions, but didn't see any mistakes. She sat and wondered if she had done something or if this was the color it was suppose to be.

"What is a base?" Sarah asked. To be on the safe side, Sarah knew what she was making something that she need ALL the colours for, because the more the better and safer. Frog Bone, Bloody Red Rose, White Fleabane. Honking Daffodils, Charcoal were all beaten to death in grind by Sarah's mortar and pestle.
She then added that to her notes.

Ella almost felt bad for Truman...being all abandoned cause he was annoying. She could imagine that happening to a certain someone else she knew...eyeing Theodore thoughtfully. Yup. She could see how something like that might happen.

Cool! So they would be using things from the grounds to create their colors? That was quite cool and like...really green. Who knew this Cutter dude was such an environmentalist? Hmm. Maybe he was a hippie or something!

Pulling her quill and parchment closer to her, Ella quickly copied down the list of ingredients they would be using to mix their colors and the process of making the pigment.



Once her notes were done, she turned to Theodore and stood up. "I'll go grab some stuff for colors, okay?" Just in case he decided to go up there and only grab the stuff for the colors he liked. Nope. That wouldn't be happening. "How about you go grab the mortar and pestle?" Pretty pleaseeeee! And with that, the blonde walked up and grabbed a little bit of everything! That way they wouldn't have to worry about leaving any of the colors out!

OMG Now we have Seann William Scott aka Stifler...rotfl
 

Alyssa looked at the portrait in front of her. 'Are we expected to paint that face?' Alyssa thought to herself. She groaned. She just hoped that Louisa was better at painting then she was. But now it was time for them to mix the pigment into the paint base.



She quickly added what Mr. Cutter wrote on the board into her journal.



Alyssa quickly went forward to pick up the mortar, pestle and grabbed a handful of everything because since she was working with a partner, she wanted both of them to come up with a color they both liked. Gathering up everything in her hands, Alyssa returned to where Louisa was sitting.

"Well Louise, what colors would you like to use for our pigment? I like Indigo and Red personally."Alyssa asked her partner.

Look what I miss when I have to work! *pouts*
 

Keefer just shook his head in amazement at the Odessa boy. Seriously, Keefer didn't know how West managed to get away with as much as he did. If almost anyone else had pulled that same stunt, they would've either landed themselves in detention or lost a bunch of points. Actually, the Captain had to admit it was an impressive feat.

For the most part Keefer didn't think much of the revelation of the portrait. This was a magical portraiture seminar, after all. One could hardly be surprised that a large, square-shaped object being covered might turn out to be a portrait. Perhaps the level of annoyance of said portrait would be unsuspected, however.

What Keefer was really concerned about was how to choose which pigments to mix. Since he probably didn't have enough time or base to make them all, he would probably have to decide what to paint now and then mix only those colors. He stood there thinking for awhile before making up his mind. He grabbed what he would need for black, white, and green along with a mortar and pestle before setting to work.

First he loaded the mortar with frog bone and ground it into a fine powder. Setting that to the side, he next grabbed liberal amounts of white fleabane and honking daffodils. The pestle rolled over both, grinding them into a very blue-looking green. Eh, not quite. He alternated sprinkling in daffodil and grinding further until he was satisfied with the hue. Finally he ground away at the black, rolling his wrist around once finished in order to alleviate some of the tension.

Now came the mixing part. He decided to once again start with white so there wouldn't be any cross-contamination later. He poured about a fifth of the base into a container and began stirring. With his left hand, he gently tapped the white dust into the base in small amounts, waiting several stirs in between dumps. It was hard to tell when it was fully mixed, as the base was so close to white to begin with. But he was finally content with its consistency, so he repeated the process for the green and black, dividing the remaining base into one third and two thirds respectively.

Louisa's suspicious look turned into an amused one. She couldn't help the surprise about this man being alive... with his twenty self still talking and being this energetic. But... did the mister say he was in his "seventies" on purpose? DID IT SHOW ON HER?! That she kinda maybe possibly liked the man's portrait? Sweetnibblets!!!
"I like h- it," Louisa disagreed smiling at the man in the portrait still. What? Even if the real-him was seventy or so, it didn't mean that she didn't like his sense of... something.

Ahem.

Back to the lesson...



The Prefect wrote down whatever she found useful, peeking glances at the mister showing them the dried flowers and the items. While Alyssa hurried over to get them, Louisa continued to work on her parchment...



...mhhmmm? Louisa looked up at Alyssa and shrugged one shoulder, "I like green originally. We can choose the Bloody Red Rose petals and..." the Ravenclaw peered over checking the others out, ".. the fleabane. This will make a lovely purple color." Moving her parchment to the side, she brought closer the mortar and the pestle.

First, she took a small amount of the dried bloody red rose petals with her two fingers and into the mortar. Then she took one of the fleabane, carefully chucking a piece off and throwing it into the mortar. With the pestle, she started crushing them. "This reminds me a bit of potions," Louisa mused, keeping her gaze onto the mortar. "I wonder if we should divide the base paint to make different colored ones." She looked down at the mortar and lifted the pestle, "I think this is enough. Would you like to mix it with the base paint?" She offered the mortar over to Alyssa with an encouraging nod.