When I read this poem, the line about stars jumped out at me. I know it's supposed to be about stars on the sidewalk. But I immediately thought I could parallel that with stars in the sky. I just imagined a nice night scene with the theater all lit up and stars in the sky.

I originally painted the theater from a different angle, and it was similar to that VanGogh piece, the cafe at night. I just feel there's a really strong mood in pieces like that, where the night is dark, but there's light from the street, a cafe, or in this case, the theater.

A lot of the illustrators in class shoot their reference shots, then illustrate the scene exactly like the reference. They would probably shoot the theater at night. I just went out during the day. I had the reference of what the theater looked like, but then I went in with my own ideas, of what I wanted the color and brightness and contrast and value to look like.