Just checking in...

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Dear Diary,

There are days when I don’t have anything to say. This is one of them. I just want to drop by to see how you are. I don’t have any pictures to show you today. I haven’t sketched for weeks, maybe months. Book #3 is bogged down. Working on it feels like walking through heavy mud that clings to my legs and gets heavier with every step, every day. But, I want to at least check in and say hello.

It’s 7 pm and I’m yawning. My tank is empty. I just want to do nothing for an hour, a day, a month. But, you know how it is. It’s always one foot in front of the other. Just keep going. An inch at a time.

Page 49 with Some Shadows on the Tabby Cat/Volcano Demon

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49_some_shadows.jpg

I’m still chipping away at this page, an inch a day. I’m going to paint the cat’s stripes tomorrow, perhaps, if I’m lucky, maybe, if I get around to it.

I Struck a Blow for Art Today

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Today I pounded the keyboard doing technical writing at my day job until long after the closing bell. It had to be done. To save the day, I managed to show up at the drawing board, if only to open Krita to the page I’m working on to take this screenshot. I just want to say, my dear third book, that I’m thinking of you every day and I’m here to check up on you. You’re here, and I’m here. The day will come that I can give you some love.

In the meantime, my wife is flying off to visit her sister for the weekend. I’ll be in charge of the boys for four straight days. I can do it — I know I can. Between the two them they don’t even weigh 20 pounds. I’m 800% heavier than the two of them. My strategy is to wear them out by taking them on very long walks. Of course, that may also wear me out.

Page 43: The One Where Tuca is Being Heroic

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I’m working quickly these days. I start working on my book at 2:30 pm and end it at 6 pm. As you can tell, I’m not one of those artists that works in my studio 8+ hours a day. Hey, I have many other duties and chores during the day, including working out for an hour, either by walking or by lifting weights (tiny weights) or by doing 45 minutes or cardio on the exercise machine. I also spend at least a half hour a day learning Swedish. After all is said and done, I have three and a half hours to work on my books.

My part-time job starts at the end of August. Once that starts, I’ll have one hour to work on my book. However grim that may sound, I’ve made two books while I’ve been working on my outside job. I remind myself to do an inch a day. It works for me.

Chore day, May 1, 2021: Covid-19 Vaccination and Another Inch

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Today I drove to Riteaid for my first Covid-19 vaccination dose. I have the second does in a month. My pharmacy is giving the Moderna vaccine, which has a 94% effectiveness, the same as the Pfizer vaccine. I was warned about side effects, but I’ve had none eight hours later. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll feel something. I’m not concerned about side effects, which are described as muscle aches and a mild fever. Those are trivial compared to the possible side effect of Covid-19 — death.

My inch of art for today is to change the proportions of the jaw and forehead of my giant sleeping moai. The screenshot shows the Clip Studio Paint marching ants.

On the new puppy front, I’m happy to say that our puppy is responding magnificently to training. He has learned to sit, stay, and come. He can do all this at the age of 12 weeks, which is better than I could do at that age.

Page 17, cleaned up

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Today was a busy day at my Real World job. I knew that today would be crazy — I have to review and critique about 80 submissions. I started yesterday and hope to be done by tomorrow night. I wish myself luck!

Even though I had a crazy day, I still had enough time to make one inch of progress on page 17. I cleaned up some of the paint, fixed some shadows, added some more moai on the volcano’s slope, and added a text bubble. Besides all that, I added some comix fonts to my pc — I lost all of my comix fonts when I made a fresh install of Windows, but I may find them yet on my previous startup drive.

I’m always surprised at how much I can get done when I have little time, when I’m in the right frame of mind. We’ll see how that works out when our new 10-week old puppy becomes part of our family next week.

Pages Two and Three A Little More Developed

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I trust in my one-inch a day mantra. Sometimes I do the math and think, one inch a day is too slow to meet my deadlines. The truth is that one inch is all I can do. I’ll just keep plugging away.

It’s not that I work on my book eight hours a day. I do think about it most of the day, but I have other things I want to do. Family time comes first — I’m not an artist who will sacrifice his family to the Art goddess. I work out everyday for about one and half hours. I usually get to work on my book at about 1:30 p.m. and work until about 7:30, at which time I make my daily journal post to this blog. Sometimes I feel exhausted and drained and decide the best thing to do is to get a few moments of sleep. I also like to walk my dog for about a half hour a day. I have a rich life, one in which every important person in my life gets my time and gives me some of their time.

An inch forward everyday is a good thing in my world.

Chore Day, and a New Goal: Learn Japanese

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Today I created a plan to learn to speak and read Japanese. I will accomplish this task over the next five years. In 2026 I will move to Japan to live. I’m going to apply my “inch a day” strategy to learning Japanese. I understand that only a consistent effort will work. I’ll be self-teaching myself Monday through Friday for 30 minutes a day in the morning before I go to work. I’ll be using the lessons in Japanese for Busy People. I’m going to start on Monday, June 29 and I’ll complete the book my June 29, 2021, at which time I’ll continue on to Japanese for Busy People, Book Two. One inch at a time works. You just have to do it patiently and with true dedication.