𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 - noah schnapp

t w e n t y f o u r

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october 11, 2019, friday

As soon as I got home from school, I went straight to my room to finish my painting. I still had about two months until all art contest entries were due, but better sooner than later.

I studied the canvas in front of me. Before Noah's birthday dinner, I had started on the girls face, but hadn't gotten very far. The girl only had a face, no hair, no neck, no facial features, blah blah blah. Her blank face didn't have any dimension, either.

I sighed. I had a lot of work to do.

I started with adding shadows to the face. To my surprise, the colors blended very nicely and it looked good. Then I moved onto the nose. Since painting noses was technically just adding some extra shadows to the face, it didn't take long. Next, lips. I mixed the original flesh color with the slightest bit of red, and began to fill in the outline. Then using different shades of pink, I added dimension.

I stepped back to look at my work so far. Not gonna lie, I was impressed with myself. None of my other attempts have gone that well. Don't get your hopes up, I thought to myself.

I first painted the eyebrows. I followed the outline, using a tiny angled brush and small brushstrokes. I finished the right one, then the left one. I stepped back to view my work. "Okay, I'm not hating this," I said. I then remembered I had to do the actual eyes now. I sighed even deeper than before. "Here we go."

The eyes. Easy to draw, awful to paint. They required a fair amount of accuracy and precision, and because you can't erase paint, it was extremely difficult to undo any mistake.

The first eye I painted actually turned out pretty good, although it took me 10 minutes. I was starting to feel really excited about this. This is definitely going to be the one I submit, I thought. I smiled and started to jump up and down with joy. Not only was this attempt going great, but I could also see this piece winning the competition!

I started the second eye feeling a lot better this time. After painting the white of the eye, the iris, the pupil, and the eyelid, it was time for the eyelashes. It's almost done, I encouraged myself. I got this.

I dipped my thinnest brush into the black, lifted it up to the canvas, and started making little brush strokes. Just when I was about to finish, my hand slipped.

Oh no.

My heart sank. I stared at the stray mark I had made on the girl's eye. Maybe I can fix it, I thought optimistically.

I tried to scrape the black paint off her eye, but since my fingers were so dirty with paint, it made it worse.

No no no no no no no... This cannot be happening...

Would a paper towel work?, I asked myself. I grabbed one off the desk, tore off one of the corners and tried to dab the paint off. Instead, it just smeared the other colors of the eye.

It was ruined. I ruined it. And that's when the tears fell.

I worked so hard. Over multiple attempts, the only one I had hope for was gone. I was so angry. Angry at the paint. Angry at the canvas. Angry at myself. Now sobbing, I smeared the rest of the girl's face with my hand. All of it was ruined now.

I grabbed the painting off the easel and smashed it against my bed frame. It created a huge rip in the middle, but I didn't care. I kicked over the easel, raced downstairs, and ran out the front door.

I wanted to leave, to forget about everything that happened. So I took off running.

I didn't get very far down the street when I saw someone riding towards me on a bike. I stopped.

Noah. Why was he here?

"Sorry I didn't text you or something. I was just bored and thought you'd be home. Where are you-" He saw that I was crying, and got off his bike.

He didn't care that I was ugly-crying, or that I had paint smeared all over my hands. He didn't get me to explain what was wrong. He didn't even need an explanation. We ran into each others arms almost instantly. And for what seemed like an hour, he just held me. It was the most comforting feeling in the world.

Maybe I wanted to run away and forget what had happened, but I had all I needed right there.

-

thank you guys for being patient with me while I kinda took a little break from writing. this chapter was the first of its kind for me, so I didn't exactly know what to do. I did, however, take some time while I was on break to create a new cover and edit the previous chapters to fit the new theme which I think helps the story a lot. I also want to thank you for the positive comments I get from time to time! they really make my day and inspire me to write more! oh and we got to 2k views!!

luv ya <3
-sha