The rest of the evening was spent with Yujia continuing on with her portrait. Things were fairly quiet and peaceful.However, the next morning, when Yujia woke up and looked at herself in the mirror, she instantly winced.
A gigantic pimple appeared out of nowhere beneath her lips, in the bottom right corner. The red mound destroyed the flawless skin she used to have, standing out against the normally smooth skin.
Yujia struggled with keeping her skin acne-free back in the modern world. Even though there were plenty of skincare products, those became overly expensive later on in her career and she couldn"t afford the better ones, sticking with only a normal acne wash. That was why it was normal for her to be accustomed to seeing a couple of pimples on her face.
Now, after transmigrating, she quickly got used to have pretty and smooth skin, completely oil-free yet still very moisturized at the same time.
She didn"t expect that she would wake up to see such a large pimple on her face.
Yujia tilted the circular bronze mirror she held in her hand, observing the pimple. It didn"t look like it would go away until a week or so later, and from her previous experience, she knew that no matter how tempting it might be, popping it would not be the best choice.
Giving a weary look at Hui"er, Yujia requested, "Can you bring me some cream? Ointment? Something of that sort to get rid of… this?" She pointed at her pimple and frowned.
Hui"er folded her hands together. "The Fourth Miss never cared for those since she never needed them. There"s none in the room, and only the other young misses in the household might have some…"
"She didn"t use any products?" Yujia"s eyes widened incredulously. How was it then that her skin was so perfect?
"The Fourth Miss always ate simply. She never ate anything greasy, so things like this never happened."
Yujia thought back to the entire greasy chicken she ate yesterday while talking to her commissioner. She didn"t think much of it at the time— there was no way that it was as greasy as fried chicken they served in fast food places of the modern world— but she supposed that compared to the lacking meals that the owner of the body used to eat, it must"ve been too much.
As delicious as the chicken was, she shouldn"t have eaten it.
Yujia thought back to what Hui"er said about the fact that the Fourth Miss never owned any skincare products. That just added on to the list of things she had to do. Once she had enough money, she wanted to spend some to make her living standards slightly better. Besides creams and good food, she always wanted to buy more clothes and art supplies.
There were so many things she wanted to do, but that all depended on how well she could sell her art.
With that thought in mind, Yujia set the mirror down and turned to Hui"er. "For now, can you get me a piece of fabric to cover up my bottom half of the face?"
Based on her previous knowledge— or at least of what she learned from watching historical period dramas— these face scarfs were fairly common, a semi-sheer piece of fabric that could be tied around the lower half of her face. They were commonly used for young misses of important households to protect their status. Yujia planned that if she was going out, surely she had to wear it to hide her pimple.
Hui"er obediently nodded and went off.
Once that Hui"er was out of the room, Yujia exhaled and relaxed.
No matter what she thought yesterday, things did not pa.s.s as easily as she expected them to. She could not look at Hui"er the same way that she used to— or anyone else, for that fact. She guessed that it was likely just something she had to get used to. There weren"t many people that Yujia was close to, and she still had to rely on Hui"er for adapting to this world. For now, she would just have to deal with her own feelings on her own.
Yujia reached over to the side of the table, directing her attention to a scroll with the sketch that she had worked on. Slowly, she unfurled the piece, staring at it.
She only finished lightly shading half of the picture, which was the face and head. The clothing was only a brief outline. Still, she got the most time consuming part finished, which was figuring out how everything was positioned. She could add in the darker values later, as well as any touching up she might need, and clothing shouldn"t be too difficult to draw without a model too.
The only thing she was slightly unpleased with was the fact that the steamed bread eraser wasn"t perfect. It didn"t erase quite as well as a rubber eraser, but she didn"t have any alternatives. She would have to make do with it for now. Maybe she could just be more careful.
Yujia looked at the unfinished portrait for a few more moments.
At most, she only spent a little more than two hours sketching and lightly shading. She could also do most of the darker shades without referencing Hui"er too much.
This was good.
If she only spent so much time working on the basics, then she could get the subject of her portrait commission to only model for a while.
Her commission would occur two days from now. Until then, she would just work on improving her skills. Drawing portraits weren"t her strongest suit. She was better at painting landscape or birds. Still, nevertheless, she liked to draw people, so it didn"t hurt to work on it more. Because in one of her studio cla.s.ses focused on portraits that she took for two semesters, she had a decent amount of experience and skill. It was just more practice that she needed.
Yujia sighed deeply and picked up one of the darker pencils again.
It was almost funny to think how she expected to not have to draw or paint again after coming to this world, but here she was, relying on the only true skill she had: art.