Hey [your Viking's name]! Do you have some free time to help me out? I'm hosting a painting competition and I'll need some help wrangling the twins and Snotlout. We'll be meeting by the lake at the Wilderness. Come join when you can!
1- Check out the competition in the Wilderness
Ruffnut
Praise Loki! Maybe now we can get started and bring this trophy home!
Tuffnut
Yeah, we'd already be done if we didn't have to paint your dragon. Chicken wouldn't be this difficult and she's the best looking anything in the whole archipelag
Bucket
Oh no! I didn't bring colors to match Stormfly's sky skin. All I have are these eggs that I brought from lunch and they won't help.
Oh! Heather is here to watch the competition. Can you ask her if she has any spare paint?
2- Ask heather for help
Heather
I didn't bring any, but that's an easy problem to solve! To make paint, first we need natural coloring materials called pigments. Then we need a binder to help the pigments hold together and stick to the surface that is being painted on. Lastly we need a solvent to thin the pigment out so there's enough paint for the artist to use.
There are plenty of pigments all around us that we could use. For centuries, we've used pigments from things like plant parts, trees, rocks, rust, minerals like lapis lazuli (a blue rock), sea shells and lichen. Lichen in particular is an interesting source of pigment.
Lichen grows on rocks, trees, and walls and can be orange, yellow, red, brown, green or gray. Lichen may look like moss, but it's not a plant. It's actually a mix of fungi and algae. The algae makes food while the fungus keeps the algae safe and moist.
We can look for lichen and flowers around here to make some Stormfly paint! Can you pick 3 bunches of flowers so that we have a good variety?
3- Pick 3 Bunches of Flowers
Heather
Great work! Did you know that we can see pigments because they reflect one color? Light is made up of several colors, but pigments absorb most of the spectrum. We think that a leaf is green because the pigment is only reflecting the green part of the light back at our eyes!
Okay! We need to find black pigment next, which we can find in bone charcoal, or bone char. We can make it by burning animal bones at high temperatures. I gathered animal bones for a future experiment, but we can use them now. Go into the cave and shoot the animal bones, please!
4- Shoot the animal bones to char them
Heather
Bone char makes the best black pigment, but we could also have made it by burning oil, wood, or some rocks.
item: 1 Bone Char
Heather
While you found our pigments, I found us a great binder - Bucket's lunch! Egg yolks are sticky enough to be a good binder. I separated the egg yolks from the egg whites. Now all I need to do is grind up the pigments, stir them into the yolk, add water as the solvent! Can you give me the flowers and the bone char?
5- Give the 3 Bunches of Flowers and Bone Char to Heather
Heather
Okay, and... done! Bucket's paint palette is ready and the colors look beautiful, if I do say so myself!
item: 1 Paint Palette
Heather
Paints that use egg yolk as a binder are called egg tempera paints. They'll smell of eggs, and the paints need to be used quickly or the yolk dries up. Lucky for us, Berk's cool weather will slow that down.
Will you give the paint palette to Bucket please? Let him know that he can't lick his canvas, no matter how good it smells!
6- Bring Bucket the Paint Palette
Bucket
Thank you! Egg tempera paints make my mouth water but now's not the time for a lick. I need to paint quickly to catch up, especially with Snotlout making a masterpiece. It's a little derivative of Bjorn the Burning's works, but I like it.
Astrid
Snotlout, your canvas is on fire! Quick, [your Viking's name], click on the bucket to throw water on the fire!
7- Click on the bucket of water to put out the fire
Snotlout
Hey, we had things under control! Hookfang just shot my canvas to... get the right shade of awesome.
Astrid
You showoff! Would you think it awesome if [your Viking's name] hadn't just saved your eyebrows?
Snotlout
Okay, okay! Thanks for the help. You saved the 'Lout's dashing looks, and that's worth more than any painting.
Astrid
Ugh. Well, that leaves just Bucket and the twins. Wait... where is Ruffnut an why is Tuffnut being so quiet? Could you check on him?
8- Check on Tuffnut
Tuffnut
It's all very simple. Ruffnut got bored and decided to take half our áint to throw at unsuspecting Vikings. I decided to paint Chicken. No offence Stormfly, but there's no one so fair and majestic as Chicken.
Now that my masterpiece is done, it's time for Chicken and me to retire to our respective bedchambers. Good night.
Astrid
Well, the winner of this competition is a no brainer... even if it hadn't been a victory by default. Bucket's painting is the clear winner!
Thanks for helping out, [your Viking's name]. I think you earned the right to tell Bucket the great news.
9- Tell Bucket that he's the winner
Bucket's Painting of Stormfly
Bucket
It's a dream come true! Oh my goodness, there are so many people to thank. I'd like to thank my parents and Mulch who supported me all through my painting career. Another big thank you goes to [your Viking's name] for the unending support and paint supplies. You can have the winning painting for your Hideout!
