A Return to the Boardwalk

There's about a week left in my current show in Belmar, which means I'm past all the hard work that was required.  My woodcut class has now started- all veterans, so no need to order tools this time around, though I should do a paper inventory before supplies get low.  And the spring semester is rolling along at the colleges.  So it's time to get back to making art.

It's been a couple of months since I last worked on a boardwalk print.  The one in progress, the general daytime scene set in Asbury, has most of the buildings and structures worked out.  Next phase will be adding the figures.  Some will be based on photos and sketches I already have.  I spent a little time this morning looking at some of these collected references, to remind myself of what I have and what I still need.  I figure I'll find a model for any other ones I don't have references for, but it makes sense to combine poses for that one with the beach themed print in a single model session.  I've given a little thought to that beach view composition, but haven't started sketching it yet.

And then there's the Sandy themed print.  Not expecting a lot of figures in that one, so it may be the easiest one to get done right now.  My parents get the paper every day, and not surprisingly, the local daily has a lot of stories about the local destruction we have been dealing with since last fall.  My father has been setting aside an assortment of these photos, and I picked up his collection today before driving up to the Studio.  Most of my visit was teaching related- using the good table space and light to finish grading some drawings I plan to return tomorrow, as well as shooting photos of those and some older work of mine.  But I also took time to go through the pile of post-Sandy photos, just to put some images into my head.  Most of the coverage was of destroyed homes, which makes sense as there are only several miles of boardwalks total on the state's whole Atlantic coast and houses filling every other bit of developed space.  But any images of partially destroyed buildings are helpful, because when the time comes I'll be designing my own destroyed recreational architecture.  In any case, I expect that at least one of these boardwalk prints will be advancing early next month.