Rough Sketch

The sound of her growling stomach distracted her momentarily. It was getting closer to suppertime and her body knew it. She didn't care. She was too preoccupied with her drawing. Sitting on the edge of her bed, one slim leg tucked underneath herself. The other foot was perched comfortably on the wooden edge of the bed frame. Her moss green-painted toenails splayed at an angle towards the drab brown vinyl floor.

Her sketchbook rested on her knee, its spiral wire made ladder marks on her bare skin. The pencil danced across its surface to a fading melody. Light strokes of grey defined themselves into a face. Soon, accusing eyes glared back at her.

She glanced at the expression her pencil had created and smirked slightly. Then she added a petulant set of lips to the face, giving it a sullen expression. On the shelf above her bed, the tape player clicked to a halt. Without even looking, she reached over and turned the cassette over. Steven Tyler began to sing about "The Other Side".

Her right hand was becoming cramped from gripping the pencil for so long. She put it down, flexed her fingers. It was painful but felt good all the same. Absentmindedly, she tossed her long dark blonde hair back over her shoulders and resumed hunching over her drawing. With a few light sweeps, the face on the paper had long flowing hair. Then she added the body, sinuous and serpentine. It flowed into a mermaid's tail. More strokes with her pencil gave her creation arms that bent at the elbow with hands buried in the luxuriant tresses.

The girl sat back at last and straightened out her legs. The bed's rail had dug a groove into her left heel. She grimaced a bit as she worked out the kinked-feeling in her limbs. Her stomach rumbled again in response to the aroma of food wafting under her bedroom door. She sniffed the air. Meatloaf with the tangy scent of ketchup, green beans, and the warm yeasty odor of rolls greeted her nostrils. She was able to pick out each individual aroma and her mouth watered.

She looked down at her latest efforts. A lithe, sexy mermaid playing with her hair stared back up at her. She was satisfied at last and put down her pencil. Clicking off her Aerosmith tape, she finally got up. Her mother's voice called out, "Suppertime!" just as she emerged from her room. The sketchbook lay on the now vacant bed, waiting patiently for her return.

She ate quickly so that she could escape back into the haven of her room. Though the food was filling, her mind was engrossed with the progress of her work. Before she left the kitchen, she stopped at the sink to fill a small cup with water. Then she retreated to her bed once more.

There was a cheap small nightstand beside her bed. It was overloaded with books, magazines, and other debris. Carefully, she cleared a spot for the cup to rest on. She bent down to pull out her plastic organizer from its hiding place. The latch snapped open to reveal the contents. A rubber-banded group of watercolor pencils rested atop two layers of Crayola markers. She sorted through her tools and located her paintbrushes.

Before she began to color her sketch, she readied her work environment by popping in another tape into the player on her shelf. This time she choose Joe Satriani's "The Extremist". The instrumental guitar music invoked a sense of calm she needed to execute the difficult task of adding color. She also lit a stick of incense to infuse the air with the thick scent of strawberries. Now she was ready to get serious.

After selecting the right colors, she dipped her brush into the water and lightly rubbed it into her watercolors. With light precise sweeps, she was able to create a background of blues and greens. Her pale, uncolored mermaid stood out in a sea of dark, murky water.

The girl rinsed out her brush and set it to the side for a moment. She pawed through her collection of markers, trying to locate her favorite flesh tone. It was dried out, to her annoyance. She frowned at it and then tossed it across the room. It landed with a plastic thud in her trash can. She improvised by using a watered-down acrylic instead.

Her insolent mermaid was fleshing out nicely. Her eyes came to life with the careful application of green marker. A pout of ruby crimson graced her mouth soon after.

What took the girl the longest to create was the long curving tail. She sat there for half the duration of another cassette tape, drawing each scale with her fine-pointed ink pen. The results were worth the effort though.

She sat up straight and felt her back pop pleasantly. The incense had long gone out. Her music still played as she got up to stretch. The open window beside her bed let in a gentle breeze heavy with the scent of honeysuckle. She stood on her knees on her bed and rested her elbows on the window sill. Small curls of air wafted around her head, tickling her skin. She stared out into the darkened sky where the moon had yet to rise.

She sighed again and then returned to her art. An hour later, it was finally done. She smiled down at the mermaid writhing so prettily and felt relieved to have finished something in one day.

After making sure the page was totally dry, she turned it over and picked up her pencil once more. It was time to begin another sketch and the blank whiteness beckoned to her....