Boardwalk Tattoo part 5

Hard to figure the weather sometimes. Five days ago we had over a foot of snow, followed by temperatures that neared single digits. Today it was sunny and around 70 degrees. I'm not one to complain about warm days in early March. I did go up to the Studio and got some work done on the latest block, but I spent more time outdoors than inside today.

One thing that's bothered me for a while with this current block is that it has lots of good references to tattoos and their history, but not much to link all this to a boardwalk. Being part of the series will give it some of that context, but I'd like the image itself to carry some of that as well. The parts of the block that are relatively empty right now are the top of the right side panel, and the space between the artist and his customer. Whatever I do to remedy this will be in one or both spaces. One obvious solution is to put in a view of a boardwalk. It could be the one in Ocean Grove (where I first met the artist- in my Studio), in Bradley Beach (where his shop is), or Asbury Park (where he lives and has exhibited his art). I took advantage of today's nice weather to walk to the Asbury boardwalk and take a bunch of photos of the former Casino and Carousel House. I shot it from the beach, the boardwalk, and the street. The top photo is one of many from today's walk. Tomorrow I'll make some sketches from the photos, and then see if anything comes from it. If I don't use any of the Asbury photos for the tattoo block, I'm sure I'll use them in another print in the series.

After my walk I got back to work indoors. The other photos show some of today's work. The second photo shows some small grid-like pieces added along the edge, something Ryan uses regularly in his painting. On the other side I started putting some stuff around the dragon, traditional design elements. The third photo shows a series of bars (often used to fill up the background in an area), while the last photo shows lots of little circle forms that are common in dragon images- bubbles (dragons are water creatures in Japanese tradition), or maybe even clouds. These may change before I'm done, but for now it gives me something to consider.