Sun Breaks at Evergreen Washelli

4/2/15 Platinum Carbon and DeAtramentis Document
Brown inks, watercolor, Caran d'Ache Museum
colored pencils, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Crazy weather!

We’ve been having a lot of rain lately, but that’s nothing new, especially for this time of year. What’s crazy are the hailstorms, lightning and thunder! The other crazy part is how quickly the weather changes, within minutes or a few miles.

When I left home this morning, it was pouring buckets. By the time I got to Shoreline a few miles north, it was dry and – dare I say it? – even sunny. On my way home from the errand, I wondered if it would stay dry long enough to sneak in a sketch, so I took a chance and stopped at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park (where I sketched the doughboy last month). I was hoping to sketch some angel statuary I’d spotted last time, but I couldn’t find them. Driving around the cemetery, I found instead a domed monument that I could easily sketch from the car (a bonus, since it was chilly).

During the half-hour or so that I sketched, the sky went from deep, solid gray to spotty patches of sun breaks and back again, multiple times in rapid succession, changing the light and shadows every time I looked up. When I finished drawing and was ready to put in the shadows, the light was flat, so I just waited a bit, and then the sun poked out (but only for a minute).

On the way home, the showers started again. You gotta be quick if you want to sketch around here in the spring!