right people, wrong bus stop
Elisa S.
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title: right people, wrong bus stop
This painting is of my two close friends. I'll call them A and M. A is the girl on the left, M is the girl on the right. A has been one of my closest friends since I met her in fifth grade, and I have known M for almost my entire life. M and I live very close, so we take the same buses to school together every day. A lives across the city from us, so we don't take the bus together. M and I go to the same school, while A goes to a different school on the other side of the city from out school. we don't get to see A too often because of this. maybe once a month or so, and we really miss her. one morning, we decided to all take the same bus together even though we knew we would end up late to school. while we were all waiting at the bus stop that headed in the opposite direction to my and M's school, I took out a digicam I had bought that is now broken, and took this picture of them. it is rare that we are all together anymore like at that time, so I was really happy that day. we took that bus for a little while, said goodbye, and went in opposite directions. we made it to school just as the bell signaling the beginning of second period rang.
this piece was created using acrylic paints. i first made a grey-blue wash so that the canvas wasn’t white anymore, and not as intimidating. I used my hair dryer to dry the paint, and this was at around 2am so I was really hoping my parents wouldn’t hear and get mad at me. after it was dry, I sketched out the faces and blocked in the darkest color and shadows. hair, eyes, and mask. I painted the midtones and then the highlights after that. I painted the eyes very carefully because that is where their facial expressions were, and it is hard to capture a smile when you cant see their mouths. their eyes are also the most recognizable part of the face I think, and the way you paint them can make or break the resemblance to the reference, and the mood of the people. I had to redo their faces three or four times to really get it. after that, I did the background. I made it very blurry and unfocused. the background is the windows of a bank and the fence between the street and the bus stop, and everything blends together to show the foggy and slightly dark early morning and as to not take attention away from the faces. lastly, I finished the hair and highlighted it in blues and greys to match the background.
In total, this painting took me 15-16 hours, and four very late nights.
full painting:
/Users/elisa/Downloads/IMG_1375 3.HEIC
close up M:
/Users/elisa/Downloads/IMG_1365 3.HEIC
close up A:
/Users/elisa/Downloads/IMG_1366 3.HEIC
close up:
/Users/elisa/Downloads/IMG_1367 3.HEIC
I wasn’t able to choose the names for these files because I think my computer is breaking and almost everything is frozen. I had to airdrop these photos to myself and drag and drop the links, I could not name them.
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I use my art to create my own happiness, I only ever create things that make me happy to look at. I use my art to remind myself of the good things in my life. Whenever I feel happy, I take a picture of what is making me happy in that moment, and when I feel bad l look at that picture and I draw it.
