Fortescue

Fortescue, NJ - September 2017

Just over 5 years ago, I sat on the shores of Fortescue, a tiny village on the bay side of southern New Jersey. Fortescue doesn’t get the summer crowds. There are no souvenir shops in Fortescue. There’s but one small motel and a bar and grill in the whole town. There is barely 1 bar of cell reception, too. Shoobies, as they are called, would not day-trip to Fortescue, although the beach is rather beautiful in its own right.

But Fortescue holds a secret, only visible to those of us who ply the shores looking for sea glass. Its shores and inlets are bounties for this ocean current-cy (see what I did there?) Browns, whites, less common colors like greens, aquas and even the rares of blues or reds can be found with a keen eye at Fortescue.

2 years after this photo was taken, I decided to draw this scene. Before I started, I did a number of sketches to get the feeling right. I’ve never been too confident on clouds. There’s something about them. Even as a kid, if I didn’t have to draw a cloud, I wouldn’t!

Sketch #1 Clouds over a sea. Getting familiar with what clouds do. It is true what they say, every cloud has a silver lining! Horizon clouds are of course much easier!

Sketch #2 - More clouds! This was a rough sketch of the final. This feels like a separate piece altogether!

Here is the final form! As you can see, I changed the sky quite a bit! Although I’ll admit, I do like the original sky from the draft sketch. I decided that ultimately I did not want to portray a stormy sky, but a sunny quiet late summer day.