Today I worked late. I’m cleaning out my desk, so to speak. Tomorrow is my final day at my part-time temporary substitute position. Rather than work over the weekend, I worked late tonight (Thursday), and I’ll wrap it all up tomorrow. Starting Saturday, I’ll be a full-time artist/illustrator for the next three months, at which time, I’ll be a part-time, temporary substitute again.
That’s it for today.
My 16-week contract has expired and all of the clients have gone home. I have a few more days to work. I’ll be doing evaluations, removing the my projects from the web, and turning out the lights…until it all starts up again in 6 weeks. Yes, I re-upped.
Over the next 6 weeks I’ll be working on my children’s picture book in every free hour. Now I’ve feeling burnt out. My p-t job requires deep focus and lots of dealing with people who aren’t well-prepared for what it takes to complete the course. I do admire those who “get it” at some point. It’s a good feeling to see someone take a few concepts and run with them.
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.
Today was the first day of work at my part-time job. All went smoothly, but only a fraction of the expected customers checked in — there are always late comers who don’t quite understand that the program doesn’t have any slack time. Once everyone is here, it will be chaos until I can get everyone acclimated. It’s go, go, go from day one.
I was able to work on page 14, the drowning page, and also add in page 15, which means that I’m about one third of the way through the book. I hope I can maintain a good pace even though I’ll be spending six hours a day on my part-time job. If I start to feel burned out, I’ll lower my expectations for the next couple of months.
Doodle from 11 months ago. Photoshop
Besides doing my usual chores today (laundry and vacuuming), I spent several hours working on the project I’m in charge of at my part-time job. I made a screencast to explain a few details that always cause new customers to stress out. When I make videos, I just go for it and never edit.
I don’t normally do “job” things on the weekend, but I wanted to clear out the left side of my brain before work starts officially on Monday.
Sketch
Today was the final day of my part-time job. I wrapped up many details, filed end of project reports, and collected my things. I’m scheduled for another job, part-time of course, next year. After that, I don’t know what will happen. In my line of work, conditions change every day. Funding goes foul and budgets gets cut and there layoffs and down-sizing galore. I’m glad that I’m no longer living my life for that job, the job that I enjoyed for many years. Times have changed, and I’ve changed. I’m no longer doing what other people think I should do — I’m doing what I know I should do, with is to paint and draw and make books about animals.
In a few days I’m going to lay the foundation for my third children’s picture book, starting with the dialog. The plot will involve a dramatic sea voyage to Easter Island. There will our known friends — burros and blue jays — and new characters who rescue their friends from danger. I’m looking forward to the grueling writing and painting process because that’s what I love to do. It’s not even work — it’s a labor of love.
