Clouding up

12/14/11 10 am, facing northwest

This morning the clouds moved in after yesterday's crisp clear skies. This is a warm front coming in advance of a cold front later in the week. By noon, the sky was overcast with little blue visible. There were a variety of cloud types including stratocumulus,  altocumulus and stratus.

Today and tomorrow are forecast to be warmer than normal with the promised cold front arriving on Friday with possible showers. Lots to paint!

Day of clouds and intermittent rain

The whole day of Tuesday, November 22nd, was overcast with vague, blue-gray and blue-violet clouds covering the sky. This painting was done at 1:30 pm facing west with the amorphous shadows of stratocumulus clouds above.


This is forecast to be the early part of big thunderstorms coming in through during the night. We've had light showers every so often during the day with thickening of the cloud layer as the day went on.

Soft and bold

We had a break in the clouds yesterday afternoon around 4 pm and these ragged clouds broke up in the eastern sky. The soft, dark compressed Conte charcoal and soft vine charcoal creates a rich texture especially when I worked back into it with chamois leather, a blending tortillion and an eraser. I find the tortillion rather a grand name because when I was in art school we called them stumps.


The two little soft clouds in the upper left were vague and puffy to the point of fading away. I think they are more examples of fractus clouds above and below the large irregular stratocumulus.

Stratocumulus?

These scattered fluffy clouds in a row, possibly stratocumulus, reminded me of Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey which just celebrated 70 years since its publication. Mrs Mallard and her progress through Boston with her brood was an inspiration to parents who wanted safer streets and easier crossings.  McCloskey's charcoal drawings are lively and reflect the personalities of the mallard parents and ducklings.

These clouds trailed by at about 8:15 pm last evening in the pale eastern sky catching a rosy reflection of the sunset. Stratocumulus clouds are thought to warn of coming thunderstorms and wind but once again the rain fell elsewhere. The parched grass is crunchy underfoot and the leaves are turning early and falling from the willow and maples.


This is a new Arches watercolor block in an almost 8-inch square format that I find very attractive. There is nothing like new art supplies to create excitement and excite creativity.