Twisters

There's been a lot of tornados lately. Sometimes it seems like more of every kind of natural disaster is threatening our planet these days. Recently tornados have been happening in unlikely places like in the South and NorthEast USA. Twisters are nothing new to anyone who has lived in the Mid-West however. When I lived in Eastern Kansas as a kid, I witnessed many.

Here's some sketches of your classic "Wizard of Oz" twister.

And I remembered to add in some notes, Susan! I left that piece of paper in the foreground deliberately to remind myself to mention something. If you keep a piece of watercolor paper in your sketchbook, put it under the page you are painting on, and the page beneath with not wrinkle.

Most of these never hit the ground, thankfully, but a local school did get hit and we had to go on half-day sessions with them for a whole year. When the air-raid sirens would blow on our block, all the neighbors, kids and dogs ran out into the streets to see what was happening. Then if we saw something, we'd all go back inside our houses, under picnic tables in our basements and wait for the sirens to sound that it was all clear.

We never saw many hit the ground, because of course, we were hiding in the basement.

See more public domain images on Wikimedia Commons under tornados.

A New Lens Is Born

My Squidoo Sketching Everyday Lens got huge and so jam packed with information, I thought some of you might be getting overwhelmed.

I decided to break sketching down into bite sized pieces that would make it easier to understand and digest. I also explain my materials and make some supply recommendations here.

INTRODUCING Simple Sketching Steps

Blustery Days Of May

The middle of May has been more like the middle of March the past couple of days. With temps getting down to almost freezing at night, we've gone from needing the air conditioning last week to turning on the heater this morning. The horses like it because the bugs aren't biting and the windy cool weather has gotten them all frisky. Here's a quick sketch I did of Miss Rita today.
I can't believe it's only three weeks until I start drawing every single day!

Carolina Wren

One of my backyard favorites is the Carolina Wren. So far they haven't made any nests in inappropriate places this year.