A long, long time ago, there was a young girl, fresh at a new school. Timid beyond belief, she found it painfully hard to make friends when everyone else knew everyone else, so, not necessarily minding being on her own, she took refuge in her art, spending lunchtimes drawing in the art rooms. Her art teacher at the time was a canny soul, and seeing she was in need of a little guidance and a friendly face, and offered her just that. She, in turn, tried to shine for him, and put her heart and soul into everything artistic. When she saw that twinkle in his eye that said he liked what she did, it made her unbelievably happy. He even pointed out what a great medium coloured pencils were for her. She, stupidly, disregarded that advice at the time.

Fast forward a few years. One evening, the same girl is handed a news article in the local paper. Headline reads "One of country's first super Teachers dies of sudden respiratory disease." There, in the article, is the face she saw smile at her every morning coming down the corridor before classes. The face she would have gone to the ends of the earth to make proud.

My world hasn't been the same since. I am hugely thankful to have ever had his presence in my life, to have been able to make him smile. But now more than ever, I ache thinking about what I could have shared with him. He knew, I think, even though my work back then was pretty bad, he saw the potential. Heck, the coloured pencil thing makes me smile no end today, knowing how much I really love the medium. I wish I could show him he was right. I wish I could show him how those tentative seeds have grown. I wish I could have just 24 hours to see that smile again, to say thank you.

So this is my expression of all that I wish I could show him. And all that I miss more than the fragile ineptness of words can possibly begin to express. I miss you Mr D, wherever you are.

This piece shares some similarities with this original piece I did for the Inspirations contest on DA a couple of years back: [link] The pocket watch is just a personal thing. All done in photoshop from scratch, around 15 -20 hours ish.