Bomb Cyclone Sky

 

10/24/21 A break in the bomb cyclone through our skylight (Derwent Lightfast pencils)

Our long foreseen “bomb cyclone” arrived on Sunday, spewing fast rain and high winds. A hundred-thousand people in the region lost power, but we were safe and cozy at home, thankfully. Sometime in the late afternoon, the rain stopped, the deep gray clouds split open, and when I looked up through the skylight, I saw big cracks of blue and even some bright spots of sunlight fringing the clouds.

Grabbing my Stillman & Birn Nova Trio sketchbook (with three colors of toned paper) and Derwent Lightfast pencils, I tried to capture that bit of sky through the window as quickly as possible. It was a fool’s errand – the clouds changed every time I looked back up again – but it was the most exciting thing I did all day.

(Strange: I chose a gray page, but my scanner made the paper look more beige than gray.)

Overnight and the next day, the storm continued. For a moment in the afternoon, the sun tried to break through again, but I didn’t see any blue this time. I turned to a black page in the Nova to try to capture some of that cloud drama and warm light near the horizon. It wasn’t quite this dark in reality, but it felt like it.

10/25/21 (Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle pencils)