#and on the one hand okay! if I buy high quality watercolors and they last the rest of my life then that was a pretty good investment!

[blujayonthewing]

part of me wants to invest in a few Good Watercolors part of me is like 'I don't DESERVE good watercolors I haven't EARNED THE RIGHT to get good watercolors'

[yuthoe]

Day 10: Paint Me (PENTAGON: Kino)

OH MY LORD THIS TURNED OUT LONGER THAN I PLANNED AND IT'S 12:30AM HERE, BUT IM JUST GONNA POST IT AND ADD THE REST OF THE TAGS LATER

anyway, today's prompt from this list is

Day 10: Meet Cute

and the scenario of reaching out for the same thing at the same time just would not leave my head lmao. so have this haha, it took me a surprisingly short time to finish, but the only reason im posting this on the 11th is that i was procrastinating

PAIRING: Kino/Kang Hyunggu x reader. GENRE: fic, fluff. WARNINGS: none. WORD COUNT: 1,389.

---

Art Bar is four hours away from your apartment, and therefore a luxury you only indulge in every few months, when you have a free day or two. It’s also an excuse for you to splurge and get new art supplies—your favorite brush broke last week and you’ve run out of green paint for the landscape piece you’ve been working on.

But also there’s this really high quality sketchbook they started selling recently and you desperately want one. You’d been eyeing it for the past month, sighing wistfully every time an ad for it crossed your feed on social media.

The faint smell of coffee slips past your nose as you push past the glass doors, and you take a look at the overhead menu of the cafe corner by the entrance, making a mental note to get a latte after you do your shopping. You hook a metal shopping basket on your elbow and head in.

The first stop is the brushes, and you quickly look through the choices for the exact ones that broke, and another finer brush as replacement for the one that’s currently losing a lot of hair. You eye one of the more expensive options, biting your lip and considering getting one, but you’re probably not going to end up using it for fear of wearing out the bristles.

You quickly look away and head for the oil paints, running through the really good selection, and pluck out a green, white, and black tube, along with a pink for the flowers. The pile of canvases off to the side catch your eye and lure you over, immediately taking a 24cm round canvas, just about the size of a small platter and perfect for an experimental circular piece.

The voice inside your head is screaming at you to mind your spending, but your sense of reason and all self-control get left at the door whenever you step into the store. The copic markers are teasing you, sitting docilely in their neatly organized shelves, and the section of the store dedicated solely for Faber Castell tools further entices you to grab a whole colored pencils set and just run away with it.

But you sigh deeply, stroke the row of pencils longingly and whisper, “Soon, my lovelies…”

You look around for that sketchbook that’s been haunting your waking moments, finally spotting it by the cash registers and beelining for it.

There’s one sample left open and you run your fingertips over the page, testing the smoothness of the paper, the thickness of every page, and inspect the ones filled out with watercolor, charcoal, and regular graphite. The more you look at it, the more you desperately want it.

Alas, it’s expensive, and you can’t afford a really big one right now, especially with the other tools in your basket that need to be purchased, so you go for the next smaller size instead.

A hand meets yours as you reach for the pad, and you jerk back. The owner of the hand recoils as well and says, “Oh, I’m sorry—were you about to get that?”

Oh, he’s cute, you think, dumbly nodding at his question. “Ah, yeah… But it’s okay, you can take it.”

He tilts his head, brows furrowing slightly and chestnut hair falling over his pretty eyes. He’s carrying his own shopping basket, loaded with a few small rectangular canvases, a bunch of copic markers, brushes, and a watercolor tin. “Are you sure? I think you were reaching for it first, though. And it’s the last one on display.”

You shake your head. “No, it’s fine, it’s fine. I’m pretty sure they have more at the back anyway, ‘cuz this brand has gotten pretty good reviews lately.”

“Ah yeah, that’s true,” he replies, wagging a finger at you. “I’ve seen a lot of reviews of it on YouTube, and I’ve been wanting one so bad.” He giggles, looking at the sketchbook fondly.

“I totally get it, I’ve been saving up for one for a while, too.” You smile at him. “That’s why I’m saying you should just take it, they probably have more in stock.”

He hums, thinking it over, but the allure of the sketchbook is too strong and he says, “Well, if you insist, I’ll gladly take it.” He picks up the last packaged sketchbook and slides it next to the canvases in his basket. “Thanks for this,” he says as you both move to the register.

It takes a while for him to pay for his items and you look around the frames displayed behind the counter as you wait. After around five minutes, the man steps aside with a hug bag, cradling it like a child. You see him move to admire the Faber Castell section nearby as you step forward with your basket.

“Excuse me,” you ask the cashier as you set the basket on the countertop. “Is there any more of the A4 size of that new sketchbook?”

“I’ll check our inventory for you,” she cheerily says, typing in a code in the computer and looking at it briefly before turning back to you. “Oh, I’m sorry, it seems like the last A4 one was just purchased. The next restock won’t be for another week or two. If you want, we can get your number and notify you when our stock is replenished.”

You can’t help but feel a bit down at the cashier’s answer—you have been waiting for weeks to get one, and who knows now when you’ll be able to stop by here again?

“No, it’s okay,” you say and gesture to the basket. “Just these then, please.”

The transaction is smooth and soon enough you’re clutching a paper bag of your own and heading for the cafe corner to get that latte—and a cupcake because you want to feel slightly better about the situation.

Sketchbook Guy is there too, his lavender patterned cardigan contrasting with the green diamonds wallpaper in the most complementary way. He turns to go to the claiming area and sees you, waves with a tight smile on his face.

You reply with a smile and order at the counter quickly, and step aside to wait for your coffee and pastry beside Sketchbook Guy.

There’s an awkward silence between you, until he finally blurts out, “Okay, I couldn’t help but overhear the cashier lady earlier.” He rummages in his paper bag and takes out the coveted sketchbook, holding it out to you. “Please have this. You said you were saving up for it for a while.”

“No, I can’t,” you say, waving your hand to decline him. “You already paid for it, and I told you to take it, anyway.”

Sketchbook Guy smiles, nudging the book closer to you. “Please. I insist. And if it’s the payment you’re concerned about, you can pay me back. With coffee, or something.”

You scoff. “This costs way more than one cup of coffee.”

He’s nodding before you’re even finished speaking. “Yeah, I know.” There’s a mischievous purse to his lips and your brows knit for a moment before you register his words and feel a heat rise to your cheeks.

“Ah… uh… I mean, sure? Okay?” you stammer, taking the sketchbook with both hands and looking at it before meeting his eyes again. “I live quite far from here, though, so—I don’t know—maybe we can, like, schedule something?”

He smiles even wider. “Yeah, of course. Here, I’ll give you my number.” He holds a hand out and you pass your phone to him. Long fingers tap on the screen and you hear a soft piano a moment later.

“Here you go,” he says, handing your phone back. You peek at the screen, at the new contact simply named Hyunggu, and the string of numbers underneath it. “Now you know my name and number, and we can talk about when you can buy me that coffee.”

This dude has got to be the smoothest and most charming guy you’ve ever met, and it’s leaving you flustered and amused at the same time. You’re basically left with no choice but to go along with him, but you don’t even mind it.

“Okay,” you say, nodding and pocketing your phone as your drink and to-go bag arrive. “My name’s Y/N. I’ll message you later about that coffee.”

[askthedustbowl]

Holiday stuff ‘??

you asked for it! here are some dust bowl christmas morning headcanons:

this year, erato proposed that they do a secret santa-esque gift exchange, and with a little coaxing, everyone agreed.

eurydice bought for euterpe.

orpheus bought for urania.

hermes bought for cory.

seph bought for melpomene.

clio bought for orpheus.

mel bought for polyhymnia.

euterpe bought for thalia.

erato bought for hermes.

cory bought for eurydice.

urania bought for seph.

thalia bought for clio.

polyhymnia bought for erato.

- they all get together on christmas morning at clio’s place to exchange gifts and have breakfast.

- it’s persephone’s first time at clio’s apartment, and she and clio chat about the interior design for a bit while they have coffee and homemade muffins and scones (and the pink frosted cookies that erato had brought).

- when it’s time to give gifts, they all sit in the living room area.

- eurydice gives euterpe a very fancy edition of The Art Of War by Sun Tzu.

- euterpe stares her down for a While and then says, “it’s exactly what i’ve always wanted.” in a deadpan voice.

- erato has to translate: “WHAT SHE’S SAYING IS THAT SHE LOVES IT!”

- euterpe nods once, and eurydice SWEARS that she can see a little smile on her lips.

- orpheus gives urania a notebook with constellations on the cover.

- “it’s not much, but it made me think of you,” he says to a beaming urania.

- he writes a note to her on the inside covers—it was so long that he took up the inside front cover AND the inside back cover. she loves it.

- hermes gets cory a pink sweater with “sugarplum” embroidered on the front in gold. she’s tired, like she always is during nutcracker season, but her eyes light up and she hugs hermes tight.

- persephone gets melpomene a new set of watercolors and a pack of high-quality brushes. melpomene flashes her a rare smile and puts both of her hands over her heart. “thank you.” she says softly. persephone feels VERY pleased with herself.

- clio gets orpheus a photo album with pictures that she picked herself. pictures of him and eurydice, him and the muses, him and persephone and hermes, and, on the last page, him and cal. he tears up a little while looking at it, and the last page just destroys him. he’s still sniffling when mel is giving polyhymnia her gift. eurydice has her head on his shoulder the whole time.

- mel gets polyhymnia a gorgeous painting she did of a forest. polyhymnia gasps and looks at mel as if she had just given her a million dollars. “for me?” she asks quietly. mel smiles again and nods, and polyhymnia launches herself at her sister to give her a hug.

- euterpe buys thalia a very intricate chess set.

- “look, thalia, i know you’ll just deface it, but i got you this.” euterpe sighs and hands thalia a large wrapped box.

- thalia tears it open and screams. “YOU DIDN’T!!”

- euterpe hands her a separate box. “open this, too.”

- thalia gasps and unwraps the box. it’s transparent, and inside, there are several little crowns and hats made of expensive paper.

- “oh, euterpe...” tears spring to her eyes.

- euterpe’s eyes widen. “oh—oh gods, okay, thalia, don’t cry, oh—“

- thalia sniffles. “y-you made them hats...”

- erato gets hermes framed photographs to hang and set all over the bar. she took them all herself. there’s one of the muses and hermes, orpheus and hermes, seph and hermes, and finally, calliope and hermes. hermes adores them.

- cory buys eurydice a pair of earrings with little feathers on them. “they’re small, but i thought they’d go with your style...if that makes sense.” cory smiles from her place sitting on the floor.

- eurydice grins. “cory, they’re very pretty.”

- cory exhales, relieved. she was very afraid eurydice wouldn’t like her gift. she didn’t have much time this season to do something more meaningful. regardless, eurydice reaches over, takes her hand, and squeezes it affectionately.

- urania gets seph a bottle of red wine and a fancy wine bag that she painted wildflowers on with mel’s acrylics.

- this was VERY stressful for her, as she is a little in love with seph.

- scratch that. she’s A LOT in love with seph.

- she consulted orpheus several times during the process, mostly at ungodly hours of the night.

- “so what does seph like? what should i get her? she’s so pretty i wouldn’t even know where to get anything for her and i—“

- “urania it’s. it’s three am.”

- when she finally decided on a gift, it got worse.

- “what if she doesn’t like it? i need to get her something amazing, i need to impress her!!”

- “urania, she’s MARRIED.”

- needless to say, persephone loves it.

- for clio, thalia gets her a pocketwatch to match the clock necklace that she wears every day (also given to her by thalia when thalia was twelve and clio was 23). it’s bronze, with an engraving that reads, “to clio, from thalia. time sure does fly, doesn’t it?”

- finally, polyhymnia gets erato a necklace with two charms on it—one of a heart, and one of a camera. erato squeals and hugs her, nearly knocking the painting polyhymnia got from mel over on the carpet.

the events of chant are still fresh in everyone’s minds, but for one morning, no one mentioned it. but even euterpe or urania. nothing bad happened, no one stepped out of line. it’s a perfect day.

[maddiviner]

The World of Grimoires, Part II: Choose Your Weapons!

If you’re going to have your very own grimoire, you’ve got to start with some raw materials. These will vary depending on what style of grimoire you have in mind, how you’d like to organize, and what you want it to look like.

Fancy?

Many, many witches over the years have told me the held off on beginning a grimoire until they could find “just the right book” to write it in and just the right tools to write with. Nine times out of ten, the most coveted blank books for grimoires are giant leather (or faux-leather) tomes that resemble something you’d see in a fantasy novel about witches. 

Many also want to write in these books with quill pens dipped in magical scented ink, another old-fashioned technique normally seen nowadays in fantasy fiction. I’ll admit that I longed for such things myself when I was just starting my first grimoire, and have felt pangs of wonderment at the thought of owning them many times sense.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting that sort of setup, but anyone will tell you that it’s a bit impractical. Giant leather tomes are expensive and easy ruined by stray splotches of ink. Quill pens are difficult to work with at first, and require much practice to use correctly. Magical scented ink is nice, but can, again, be pricy, even if you make your own.

This is compounded by the fact that many new and experienced witches (including myself at times) have a sort of neatness obsession when it comes to their grimoire, wanting it to be perfect from the start and forever, with not a single splotch of ink out of place.

It often seems that, the nicer and more expensive the notebook or journal, the more perfect and neat we’d like it to be. Given how easy it is to completely ruin a new and expensive leather journal if you’re slinging around magical scented ink from a brand-new quill pen, you can see how this problem snowballs into quite a conundrum.

I won’t tell anyone not to buy an eldritch-looking leather-bound journal if they want, but I will say this: expect imperfections, especially in your very first grimoire. You’ll be getting your feet wet with the concept and are bound to make plenty of mistakes. 

Regardless of what notebook or journal you get (if any), make sure it’s something you’re comfortable making mistakes in. It’s pretty horrible to see someone get a nice notebook, spill some ink or rip a page, and shelve the entire thing, afraid to touch it again.

A far better option than a very expensive blank book would be a moderately-priced undated journal such as a Moleskine or other more elaborate creations.I’ve made it no secret which publisher of blank journals I prefer, and have written at length about why I tend to choose Peter Pauper Press journals. These undeniably won’t please everyone, though, and there are many other publishers creating beautiful blank journals.

If you choose something like that, don’t buy it for appearance alone - consider if it’s well-made and will stand the test of time. One thing I always check is that the price sticker is removable and doesn’t leave much residue on the cover. Not everyone will care about this, but I find it neater that way.  

I do recommend checking to see if the paper is of good quality.  Cheap paper can lead to pens bleeding through, doesn’t handle markers and other decorating tools well, and can overall ruin your grimoire. I’m not saying you need extremely expensive high-quality paper, but just check to make sure it’s thick enough not to experience bleed-through.

Utilitarian?

Many witches prefer a more utilitarian approach, out of necessity or other concerns. This can involve a wide range of materials, and is often quite a bit more discreet than a giant leather book and quill pen. This is advantageous for those who’d rather not attract unnecessary attention to their practices. In truth, a grimoire can look like whatever you want, provided it gets the job done, and this includes appearing completely ordinary, like a normal notebook where you’d find a shopping list or accounting information.

Some are fine using a simple spiral-bound notebook available at any dollar store as their grimoire. If discretion is the most pressing concern, a normal college rule notebook is likely the best bet, but I caution against buying something poorly-made or with very thin paper, especially if you plan on decorating the inside later on.

Another option would be a packet of binder paper and a three-ring binder with tabs. You can create sections in the binder according to subject or whatever other organizational feature you might want to use. A binder has the advantage of being easily reorganized, removing and adding pages when necessary to create the grimoire’s intended structure.

If you want this feature, but still crave an old-fashioned leather-ish look, some suppliers online sell elaborately-decorated binders to suit that aesthetic. Another option is to buy good-quality printer paper and a hole punch. Then, you can actually print digital grimoire pages from your computer and insert them into your binder. If you have a particularly good printer, you can even add elaborate images and colorful decorations with clipart, public domain paintings, and other available artwork. You can even make your own in Photoshop or another program.

Digital?

Printing a grimoire is a great option that plenty of witches use, but just as many prefer to keep their grimoire wholly digital, existing only on the computer itself. If you struggle with handwriting or are simply more comfortable typing, either of these are wonderful ideas.

For a wholly-digital grimoire, I recommend an app like Google Docs, and I also recommend that you separate each entry or section into its own file, and organize them into folders for easy sorting. Google Docs has the advantage of being accessible from almost anywhere.

Another idea would be to purchase a small but high-volume USB drive to contain your grimoire. Some shops even sell rather beautiful USB drives that can be worn as jewelry. I personally know a technowitch who chose this route, and now keeps their grimoire in a small USB locket around their neck.

Increasingly, some witches are using blog sites such as Tumblr to create digital grimoires. If you go this route, be sure that the site you choose has an option to password protect your blog or, if not, that you’re comfortable sharing everything you’ll be writing there with the world.

Open grimoire blogs are quite an amazing and useful trend to have developed recently, particularly on sites where it’s easy to share content, like Tumblr’s reblogging system. These are great because they allow for you to quickly consolidate information provided by others into a sort of digital scrapbook that can be studied later or as needed.

If you create an open grimoire blog, please give credit where credit is due in everything you post. If you copy an incantation from a book, cite the book and author. If you include content (such as spells and rituals) made by other witches online, be sure they’re okay with their work being included in your grimoire.

And, give them the courtesy of linking back to their site when you post it. After all, you’d want them to do the same for you, and, truth be told, you can get into legal trouble for plagiarism. It’s rare, but it can happen, so it’s best to be honest, ask bloggers for their permission if necessary, and always credit them.

One of the advantages of a digital grimoire is that it’s quite easy to add images, and there are many beautiful public domain works of art you can use to illustrate your entries. If you’re good with Photoshop or a similar program, you can also create your own images there, too. If you have any skill with HTML/CSS3 at all, or are just good at copying and pasting, you can style the overall layout of your digital blog grimoire to your heart’s content, as well, using custom theming options available for most blog platforms.

I Have a Pen…

Last but not least, it’s important to consider the writing utensil you’ll be using for your grimoire. You needn’t have one specifically dedicated to that purpose unless you want, but you want to choose a pen that flows nicely, is legible, and doesn’t splotch the pages. For many, a simple ballpoint will do, but I tend to prefer felt tip or fountain pens, myself. If you decide to dedicate a certain pen just for your grimoire, you’ll probably want one that’s refillable and not meant to be just tossed after the ink runs out.

If you’re interested in custom inks (including magical scented inks!), investing in a fountain pen could be a good decision. These pens are easy to use and leave your grimoire with lines similar to what you’d get from a quill pen. Look for one that specifies it comes with a “converter;” this is a small gizmo which will allow you to fill the pen with custom ink, including colors you could mix yourself.

You can purchase scented inks, including stock formulas like Dove’s Blood Ink, from many metaphysical shops. You can even try mixing your own! Many websites and books give instructions for doing so, and I in particular recommend the ink formulas described in Scott Cunningham’s book, The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, and Brews. Make sure whatever ink you’re getting doesn’t bleed through the paper.

Beyond pens, what else might you need? If you plan on illustrating your grimoire, art supplies are a must. If you’re already an artist, you probably have your favored medium on-hand already, but if not, I suggest researching various illustration tools and choosing the one best fitting your personal aesthetic.

Keep practicality in mind, though. I, for example, adore watercolor, but rarely use it in my grimoires because it causes the pages to curl. Instead, I use soft pastels to illustrate over and around what I’ve already written. I’ve only just recently started illustrating the pages at all - all of my previous grimoires stretching back to high school were strictly writing with an occasional diagram.

While I’m not much of an artist, I do find it very soothing to add color to the pages of my grimoire, and the pastels blend to the point where they leave my writing visible beneath them. It’s a bit like a coloring book, but with no lines to worry about, just endless gradients of relaxing colors. This is great for me, as I often need to de-stress and do something fun after I’ve finished studying or writing for the day.

I’ll sometimes draw small illustrations, but they’re quite simple so far. As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I have dyskinesia and my hands shake sometimes, making fine motions difficult. Still, I hope to learn more about art techniques in the future as I work further on these grimoires, and make them more adorned and beautiful as time goes on.

If you’re unsure what art medium is right for you, I suggest researching and, if possible, trying several. There are also a lot of resources for choosing markers, colored pencils, watercolors and other supplies to be found, oddly enough, on sites about bullet journaling. Bullet journaling, while normally quite simple, does often involve illustration, so the “bujo” crowd is knowledgeable about such things.