A Krita Day

I fell asleep at 6pm after work. It was one of my catnaps, a 15-minute snooze that refreshes me for a couple of hours. Afterwards I didn’t feel like working on my book. Instead, I watched a few videos about Krita — watercolor, sketching, some tips — that kind of stuff. Then I sketched this car with its cartoon tires and odd perspective, using Krita, of course.

Every afternoon I take Nacho the Pug for a long walk, rain or shine — as long as it’s not too rainy or too cold for either of us. He loves the rain and leaps up as he tries to bite the drops pelting him. He has a handsome goldenrod colored raincoat, and I have my blue raincoat.

Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of a project, I just want to keep working. I don’t feel like taking him out, but I do. He really needs the walk. He needs to smell every post, telephone pole, and tree. It makes his day. And it make mine, too. As I’m reluctantly walking, I begin to feel uplifted and I start thinking optimistically about the book I’m working on and about the books I plan to write. New ideas rise up from the well of humdrum thoughts I’m swamped with at work. Walking is a blessing.

Sometimes I take a picture of something that catches my eye. Today I saw a rock that I liked, something I can use as a reference the next time I’m struggling to paint a damned rock. Here it is, my fabulous rock.

T.G.I.F, again

It’s 7:15 pm Friday as I write this. Normally I’m off work at 4 pm. The new clients have diminished for 70 to 45 as the withering pace of the programs blows them back into their normal lives. Still, the remaining cohort is hungry, chatty, and demanding more, more, more. Which ultimately means I work late some nights. Hey. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Now I’m going to start up Krita and doodle for a few minutes.

Artisit's Survival Protocol: Just Use References, Dummy!

Today I activated my survival protocol, the one I use when my back is against the wall and I start to crack — I stop all outside work at 4 pm and give myself time to be quiet, to be alone, and to calm the fuck down. Today I took time to study my Swedish, to work on my book (see that big cat’s claw?), and to walk Nacho the Pug up to the ridge to enjoy the view of the valley.

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It’s amusing to compare my original cat’s paw to the paw I drew today using a reference photo. I’m stunned at how bad my imagination sucks at drawing familiar objects. My ego tells me I’m so clever that I can draw a simple cat’s paw without stupid references. But in reality I can’t. I suck at drawing from imagination. I need a new survival protocol for drawing: Just use references, dummy!

Willy the Pomeranian is home from the hospital

Willie the Pomeranian is back at home with us. He’s alert, and a little subdued. He’s be eating special rations to get some food into him, but he’s not eating his regular food yet. He’s taking two medications and probiotics to help allay some of the side effects of antibiotics. He seems spunky, but I’m cautiously reserved. The doctor is, too — she gave me her number in case I need to text her over the weekend.

I’m also preparing for a big influx of clients on Monday…about 70 fresh faces will be joining the project for the intensive 8-week challenge. It’s going to be more hectic than usual for the next two months. I don’t expect to spend significant time on my book during that time, but after the second week of December I’ll be on a six-week break from my contract job. I’m hoping that I can miraculously complete my third book in that brief spell of calm between the storms.

Willy in the hospital with an infection, but doing better, and a sketch with Krita

A disappointed youth

When in doubt, sketch. So, today’s sketch wsa done with Krita 5.0beta. I used the RGBA 0il Brush for the hair and a pencil for the linework. Krita has great oily brushes.

The vet discovered that Willy the Pomeranian has an infection of the bowels. He has to stay overnight at the hospital, but I expect him to be home tomorrow. He’s on antibiotics and probiotics. It feels weird that he’s not here with us.

Monday Blues

Sick puppy. Willie became nauseous and started vomiting after lunch. Six hours later he’s listless and shivering. I think it’s my fault. I gave him noodles from my vegan soup. It’s the only oddball thing he ate today. I feel like shit.

So many Fridays

Every time I turn my attention away from my day job, I realize that another week is receding into the rear view mirror, and I’m still on page 49 of my book.

Today was another busy day. I rewrote one of last year’s assignments to make it simpler. I have a tendency to believe that everyone’s as enthusiastic as I am and I end up overloading the assignments with too much good stuff. Hey, I’m a cockeyed optimist who believes that if I like it, someone else will like it.

So, to work with those unlucky souls who are just going along for the ride, I have to rework the project so that it’s more appealing to other people. Simplifying things isn’t always a bad thing. As I’m rewriting the project, I see that it will be even better than last year’s version.

To reward myself for working so hard on other people’s projects, I’m going to indulge my urge to watch some British cooking shows tonight. I’m proud to say that cooking shows are one of my many guilty pleasures.

Refrigerators and Buddhist Wisdom

Today was a busy day at work with about 25 presentations to critique. That’s just normal stuff. The unusual thing that happened today was that the refrigerator stopped refrigerating. Over the years we’ve had several incidents of the defroster not getting rid of the ice built up in the air passages that cool the top section. I had no clue how to get the thing to do an extra defrosting…until today. After hours of web searches I found diagnosis codes for forcing the refrigerator to defrost. As I write these words, the internal temperature is dropping about 10 degrees every hour. Small successes give me goosebumps.

All the same, this cooling machine is, as the Buddhists tell us, already broken. It’s inevitable that it will break down and be irreparable. It’s already got one foot out the door. Now that I think of it, everything has one foot out the door. That’s a deep thought, if you want to go there. But, don’t go there. Just enjoy today. It’s we have.

The Magic of Tiny Bits of Dried Bananas

Today would normally have been chore day, but I spent the day as a dog walker. I took two long walks with Nacho. The first was in serious downpour. It was fun watching him trying to bite the rain. The second was a lovely, balmy evening walk. The exasperating thing about my dogs is that Willie the Pomeranian hates Nacho’s puppy high jinks. Nacho can’’t help but annoy Willie. Whenever they’re in the same room, I have to find something they’re more focused on than each other. The magic that keeps them focused on me is a pocketful of tiny bits of dried banana. While I’m training them to sit, wait, come, down, they’re all ears.

Anyway, I’m working on a line drawing of Jane Austen. Maybe I’ll be able to finish it tomorrow, so long as I don’t run out of banana treats.

Sep 9, 2021 -- A No-art Day

No time to work on my book today… Though I didn’t work on my book, I was able to do my one-hour workout, my 30 minutes of practicing Swedish, and another 15 minutes doing the back stretches I’ve been doing since my injury a few months ago.

My contract job is going eerily smoothly — all of the participants have completed the prerequisites, and that’s weird. Usually I have to do remedial work with many of the clients. But not this time. It’s great to be working with so many smart people.