Sketches from the road...

From angry politics to peaceful nature sketching.

So I loaded up the family for a Fourth of July vacation and left our little liberal bubble of the Bay Area .

We’re visiting family up in Idaho and Montana and, as you can probably guess, you see things here you don’t see in the San Francisco area. (Although you could probably drive about an hour and see some of the same sentiment.)

I’m fascinated with political signs like these, mainly because I use them so much in my cartoons — it’s good to remember that signs like these, and people who post these signs in their yards, really exist.

Based on my highly unscientific polling, there seem to be fewer Trump signs and flags compared to last year.

Guess we’ll have to wait for the election to really get rolling to see more Trump sloganeering around the country.

Unfortunately, signs aren’t just about the Defendant-in-Chief anymore. “Woke” ideology and book banning seems to be gaining a foothold.

These are just a few of the political signs I saw while driving and, for safety’s sake, I didn’t draw while at the wheel. (Which is why the “keep woke out” sign doesn’t have all the exact text, I only remembered the overall anti-woke sentiment.)

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It’s important for me (and all of us!) to escape the angry political world once in a while.

Which is why I'm planning on doing more drawings like these over the next several days to give my brain and stress levels a break.

There was an incredible (and hopefully non-wildfire-producing) thunderstorm this morning, so for the first time in a looooong time, I did some nature drawing.

From thunderheads clearing and fog forming . . .

. . . to a cloud study.

I could draw these clouds all day.

After seeing those angry signs, clouds like these help put things in perspective.

I hope you have a great Fourth of July weekend!

Thank you SO much for following my cartooning and for supporting my work.

-Mark