Making a Living part 4

 

It's been a week since I printed the second copy of my night time boardwalk print, so I figured today was a safe day to start the coloring process.  Plus, I figure the only way to learn if I have enough watercolors to color the two prints that are ready is to start the process.  Had my watercolor palettes with their premixed colors, my can and brushes, all packed and ready to go.  Also had my back pack full of stuff, including my book of general discs.  

Got up there around quarter to 1:00.  I knew my parents were eating pizza for lunch (at a meeting of some kind), so I figured it would be good for my lunch as well, since I know we wouldn't have it tonight.  However, the local place (across the street) tends to be very busy during the noon hour, so I took care of a few other things first.  One was moving one of the prints to a lower position.  When I first printed the second copy I put it way high on the tack board to dry, actually in the spot that the 3rd proof  had been for a few years.  Problem is that it is not easy climbing up there, and this coloring will take a while, so it made sense to put my push pins in a place where I could reach the thing from the ground.  Also carried in my bags, and left them in the Studio. 

Went across the street and got a slice, what I think of as an eggplant rollatini slice, since it is a regular cheese pizza, but then covered with thin slices of fried eggplant, small mounds of ricotta cheese, and puddles of tomato sauce.  My Virginia residing friend Jenny is amazed that eggplant if available on pizzas up this way, but it is a fairly common pizza topping here in New Jersey.  I'll put a file photo of such a slice up at the top of this post if I have one.  Brought it back to my space, where I had a beverage waiting for me.  Pizza was still warm and all was very tasty.  Besides that I knew my parents were likely eating pizza, I also knew that I would start my boardwalk coloring with the building that holds "Don's" pizza and clams, a completely authentic rendition of a boardwalk eatery from the 50's, even though the place is completely made up in this century.  

For music, I started with the copy of the Brood's Vendetta album that I had kept there in the Studio. (you can read about it on this blog in August 2021).  I had chosen that mostly because something I had heard on a local radio station kind of reminded me of the band.  Didn't sound like them, just reminded me of them.  Followed that up with my home burned collection of songs by the Wipers from 1978 to 1988, which you can read about on this blog at July 2019.  I wouldn't say that either one is strictly boardwalk music, but both are good rocking collections of songs, good for working to.

Ready to color.  I knew from my study of the completed print I had in the basement that the outer wall of that whole building was a light neutral color, essentially a buff titanium, a color I had a big pile of on my largest palette.  That works out.  Study of the copy in my Studio showed that the same color was used for the small building that holds restrooms, and a few well lit spots on the boardwalk itself, plus a few undersides of signs and a counter in the pizza place.  So I took down the second printed copy (fewer stray marks) and started adding that color to the appropriate places.  For this purpose I put the print on a piece of foam core which seems to have served this purpose before, based on some color already on it.   As I finished the first print I started to wonder if I had enough of that color to do all its use in both prints.  It's probably the largest color I have to do in that print.  But it turned out I had enough, so for now I don't have to order more water color paints.  A view of painting from palettes can be seen here:

I did one other color today, a more golden version of that same near neutral, rising that buff titanium with a touch of yellow, and putting that in a few places. Left that to dry for a few minutes, and went to check the office.  Nichole's car wasn't there when I went out for pizza, but as I approached the office door I could here her in there, so I had a brief conversation with her regarding various teaching questions, then left her to her pile of tasks, cleaned up, carried stuff to my car, and went home.