Memphis Urban Sketchers met at the downtown welcome center on Saturday, and the heavens opened in the half hour before we met. Eight hardy souls sloshed their way downtown. The worst of the cloudburst was over  by the time I got there, and there are covered outdoor tables and super overactive indoor air conditioning, so I chose the dampish outdoors. My inflatable, waterproof butt cushion came in super handy. I perched on a table outside and sketched the first two pieces, including the rain coming down. I usually scan sketches for my website, but that light blue-grey sky just doesn't show up on the scanner, so here's the photo I took on site.

It finally started blowing more, so I moved inside and joined a group around the Elvis statue. All three of these were started in Inktense water soluble pencils and then watercolor on top. I've been doing quick forest sketches with those pencils lately and enjoying the texture and immediacy.

Just for fun I took a little video of sketching in the rain.