Drawing the Invisible

It's hard enough drawing things we can see… what about those we can't see? How do you portray invisible things in a webcomic like magic, wind, earthquakes, scorching heat, invisible people, and so on?

One way is to draw the invisible thing's normally, only making it seem opaque (the background somewhat visible through the thing) without normal colouring or shading that exists in the rest of the panel, like Invisible Woman here:



Alternatively we can show the impact of this invisible thing in the environment instead of drawing it at all, thus making it visible by virtue of the reaction of other things to it, including how they are positioned as they are 'floating' in the panel space. Like we can tell this invisible guy is looking up.




There is also the option, especially when the invisible thing is energy, like in magic, to make the magic moer visible either by giving it a glow or portraying it like assorted rays or designs of light.




But when it comes to things like earthquakes, perhaps a combination of everything has to be employed, to give an impression of the massiveness of what is basically an invisible phenomenon of great impact. And of course, sound fx words.



What method have you got for drawing invisible things?