Bye-bye to OC

My boardwalk-caricaturing experience has come to an end, along with summer itself. Now, when people tell me I "ought to be doing this down the shore" I can say I have!

Although tiring to work every single day for more than a month, the rewards were great: the sea air, the sound of surf, the wonderful families and couples I got to meet, and having my S.O. with me for most of the time. He was a huge help. I even had time to work on my studio entry for the upcoming ISCA convention on slow days...

Without further ado, here are some of the faces that chanced upon me and my easel in the last days of summer...

First, LITTLE KIDS AND BABIES:

Here's that little guy from above again...

TWEENS and TEENS:

COUPLES:

 This young woman had never seen the ocean before, being a Midwesterner, so it was a big day for her, bound to be even bigger when the gentleman silently mouthed to me as they left, "I'm going to propose to her later today." :-)

This couple were my very last customers of the season. It was their 1st (paper) anniversary so a caricature was appropriate. They'd even gotten married on an OC beach. 

FAMILIES:

(Their baby is in the photo AND the caricature!) 

Couldn't resist snapping a pic as they admired it after leaving...

Now for the ETCs....

Below: a grandmom and grand-daughter:

This is the ONLY dog I drew, because dogs weren't allowed on the boardwalk! ;-D

Here are some hot single ladies---

This gentleman had a caricature I'd done of him probably five or more years ago, on his phone! Just bumped into my booth serendipitously!

This one was done as a "thank you" for mentors and dear friends of this lady. Did her from life and the couple from a photograph. Hope they like it! She said she liked her "crazy eyes". :-)

Soooooo...on to some of the beachside vibe of OCNJ

 during my stay. Never a dull moment! Sunsets, storms, blue moons, seagull rampages, weddings, proposals, etc, etc etc. Enjoy!

My little corner in Surf Mall for August...next to the crab fries. Crab fries have become the menu item du jour for these critters:

This beauty was taken from the pavillion next to the Music Pier. You can see where I drew every day, waaay down the boardwalk on the right, with the teal roof. This might just be one of the most impressive photos I've ever gotten, and I took it on my iPhone!

The Chatterbox restaurant is a downtown OC landmark, where we had breakfast. Screen icon Grace Kelly worked here as young teen (her family summered here for many years, long before she became Princess Grace).

One day, I was getting a slice of pizza for dinner, and saw this wedding on the dunes! On another afternoon, a plane pulled this banner through the sky:

The moon was the star of the show for a few nights...this was the blue moon.

Another night, it was already there at sunset:

The sunsets WERE amazing, even though they aren't directly on the ocean. And there was NO CHANCE of me getting up early enough to see a sunrise, sorry...

Storms..there weren't many, and none ruined the evening busy hours, but the few I saw were dramatic!

but after rain comes the rainbow...

The oldest business on the boardwalk is a candy store called Shriver's that's been going strong since 1898. Of course, I had to patronize them...

I wasn't the only artist in town. We chanced upon some other examples of various artistic endeavors:

This one was by far my favorite, a stunningly beautiful mural in a Greek restaurant called Katina's:

I loved how the painted chairs are the same as the real chairs. The faces, expressions and skin texture were rendered touchingly and expertly. The artist, Tony Troy, had (happily for me) signed his work prominently.

Another breakfast restaurant had a nice OCNJ themed mural on its wall...

On the boardwalk, we saw evidence of (but did not meet) two other practitioners of facial arts... one was the resident caricaturist of the north end of the boards, and the other was a pencil portraitist in a spot in a food court (which did not seem as if it had been occupied recently). (My spot was towards the other end of the 2.5 mile boardwalk.)

The old-time photo studio also had some original art adorning its front, particularly General Grant!

Did I show you my parking spot? Commuting was so much fun here!!

Finally, many many thanks go to my long-suffering S.O. who lovingly puts up with my extreme right-brained tendencies. You are a saint, JB. 

And thank you to Tassia and John for this opportunity. :-)