Dipping her chin into the white paint, she smeared it across her chest and nuzzled against it until her cheeks, throat, and chest were liberally paled, giving her face a ghostly appearance. She picked up the shell of black paint, walking over to a good rock and nudging the bowl against it until it was liberally-coated, before putting it down. That done, she carefully leaned into it, painting a jagged line first on one side of her chest, then the other. Then, more carefully, the doe leaned in against the blunt thing, moving to smear it around her eye socket, then carefully dragging her cheek up, leaving lines 'crying' down from the hollows around her eyes.
The last thing to do was to anoint herself with the red. There was a shell with a little bright red left over– of course that would be a popular colour. She added a little brown, and a touch of green, before mashing that around liberally with her hoof– there, a darker shade, and more of it, without touching the ones that others were clamouring over. A bit of moss wrapped around a branch made a good sponge, and something that she could reach from her back– that got saturated with the red, and then she got to work. Against her ears, the ends of her horns, a slash down the center of her chest, and then she was nuzzling her mouth against it, marking the front of her face from nose to chin. After that, she reapplied the paint, and started working it along her backplates. Once it seemed appropriately bloodied, she flicked her tail along it, and then walked around, looking for another bit of moss. Once she did, she paced back to the bowl, carefully dipping it into the paint, and leaned down, starting to paint at her hooves and the fur on the ends of her legs. The forelegs were easier than the hindlegs, and after that, she reached over to her tail, carefully touching up her work there before she was satisfied.
She gave it a little bit to dry, patiently making sure the paint had set and wouldn't smear easily before she rose. After she'd rested for a while, she moved to return her supplies, careful not to bump anyone else who was fussing with their own... rather more artistic visions. That done, the doe paced over to the nearby pool, a perfect place for taking a look at her handiwork, and making sure she wouldn't make a fool of herself. She took several moments of looking herself over– she could never quite get both sides of her face to turn out evenly, but she didn't look like a clown, and for all that she'd fallen somewhat out of practice, her hoofwork would suffice for the purposes of this competition."Warpaint should speak for itself,", the doe called out, walking back towards the largest cluster of painted kin, and waiting for their attention. Once she had it, she lowered her head, pawing at the ground, before moving to charge– and stopped short of the crowd, throwing her chin up and stopping immediately after her startling feint.
"That is what it is about– making one's appearance and actions more striking." She started gently pacing around the group, turning around to let them see both sides of her body, before pausing.
"Well, are any of you going to take a closer look?"
( WC: 680 )