Boardwalk Food part 8

One of the things that attracted me to the boardwalks as an artistic subject matter (and attracts a whole lot of visitors in general) is the sense of spectacle. Lots of color, light, sound, energy. Crowds of people, piles of prizes, tempting treats wherever you look. In all the prints done so far in this series nothing has been exaggerated- haven't needed to. I start with a concept, make notes from memories, do additional on-site research, then combine all this in the composition. I feel that in this environment the truth is interesting enough and the art is what I choose to include and how I present it.

At the last critique one of the group noticed a few lightly pencilled curved lines and asked if it represented a bird. I told her that it did, in this case a sea gull picking at trash spilled around the base of a garbage barrel, a fairly common sight on the boardwalks. (and this scene was fully drawn in a few days ago) It was then suggested that I should put a gull standing on the counter in the foreground. I suppose it possible that such a thing could happen, but I've never seen it happen and it seems unlikely, so I think of it as an exaggeration. On the other hand, a gull swooping down to grab some food out of the mouth of someone walking on the boardwalk, that's something I have seen. (several years ago in Atlantic City, near the food stands by the Taj Mahal) So that was what I worked on today.

Used a mirror to figure out the basics of the slightly twisted pose, and sketched it on paper. I had an idea of where the guy would be, but I wasn't sure, so I cut it out and moved it around the right panel, facing right and left. In the end I put it more or less where I had planned all along. As for the bird, I had collected a whole bunch of gull reference sketches a few years ago when working on my tower piece, only some of which made it into that piece. I chose one in a suitable pose and put it in the proper relative position, snatching a french fry from the guy's mouth. The bottom sketch shows where I ended up. The legs are not necessarily finished, since I expect another figure or something on the foreground counter may block part of the view of them, possibly saving me from having to deal with them.