My imaginary friend is utterly ungrateful.

  I offered to paint her portrait since imaginary beings don’t show up in photographs, and she has the nerve to complain.

  “How long do I have to stay still for?”

  Everybody knows quality art takes time, she just needs to be patient.

  “A little longer.”

  “Oh, you didn’t stutter at all this time.”

  I should be happy about that, but I feel like she will take it as a sign to make my life harder from now on.

  For now I need to focus on this piece of paper that will hang in my room for the foreseeable future.

  I hold the pencil in front of me and close one eye to look at my ridiculously pretty but slightly imaginary model.

  The reason for doing so is beyond me, but they often do it on TV so there must be a reason, and I need to capture her looks properly to satisfy her.

  I draw a single line, grab a different colored pencil and repeat the process.

  “Do you really need blue to draw me?”

  Now that you mention it, I did grab the wrong pencil, but I can’t afford to open the door to her criticism, so what should I do?

  Oh well, I’m already committed and Ami’s hair will look good in this shade anyway.

  “Y-yes.”

  “You didn’t stutter before, why are you doing that again?”

  It’s not like I want to stutter, or speak in general for that matter.

  Just stop complaining about every little thing already.

  “This is taking so long, hurry up already.”

  I’m not getting paid enough for this treatment, or getting paid at all.

  I finished with the head and now it’s time to draw her body, which I believe to be the weaker part of my artistic abilities.

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  I look at her from various angles and try to translate the new information gained from my three dimensional perspective into the two dimensional medium.

  Put this line there, use this color to play with the light here, and turn the table she is sitting on into a little donkey to get that touch of whimsy.

  This is it, I finally finished it and it looks nothing like her.

  Is it because I took too many artistic liberties or because I have too little talent?

  Well, no one here is qualified to judge what mistakes might have been made, so we’ll just have to see if the client is happy with it.

  Her understanding of art must be as lacking as mine, so if I act confident enough maybe she will think it’s some kind of abstract masterpiece.

  I lift the paper with a flair and hold it up for her to see.

  She studies the paper with a somewhat displeased look.

  This type of attitude is exactly why I don’t usually take commissions.

  “It’s not quite what I expected.”

  I don’t deserve such abuse, I’m doing this for free you know.

  This drawing would have definitely gotten a passing grade in kindergarten, and that’s the prime drawing age.

  “Why exactly is my hair blue in this?”

  I grabbed the wrong pencil and I decided to commit, confidence is key in art.

  “I-it’s pretty.”

  “I don’t have a nose here.”

  A completely unnecessary facial feature if you ask me, you simply didn’t need it, I totally didn’t just forget about it.

  “And my arms and legs are all very different lengths.”

  Okay drawing wasn’t my forte, just like being photographed isn’t hers.

  There are some things we just can’t do, you don’t have to rub it in.

  Maybe it will go better if I try in a three dimensional medium.

  Yeah, I’m sure my hidden talent lies in sculpting or something like that, I’ll just etch her

  likeness into that wall over there to prove it.

  “I was excited to hang my own picture too.”

  “N-not good enough?”

  Fine, I’ll just try again, no need to give me that look.

  Let me just grab a new sheet of paper, pick the right pencil and l’ll show you how it’s done.

  “Why are you starting with green, there is no green anywhere on me.”

  So many demands, she is just impossible.

  Don’t use green, don’t use blue, what colors can I use?

  You should just dye your hair to match the painting, instead of making demands of the artist like that.

  Maybe I should sketch her instead to avoid her scrutiny about colors.

  I’ll just look for some tutorials on how to sketch online, or maybe some really fancy camera will have an imagination filter, but that sounds expensive.

  The video starts to play and talks about starting with basic shapes and some lines, which I didn’t know existed.

  It explains how to draw a nose, which seems crazy to me, but Ami seems satisfied with their process.

  I’ll try to follow along to make her happy, but maybe I should hang up my original drawing anyway, I kind of liked it.