Focus

Thinking a lot today. Did more thinking than drawing actually. I'm really into working on the Donkey in the Garden, which I see as the first part of a trilogy. Today, Susan received her issue of More magazine, and Kathy Giusti, the founder and CEO of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation was featured. She spoke of the doubling survival rate of people with multiple myeloma, thanks to new treatments. Very hopeful.

Simple

Started my morning watching the Mexico-Netherlands game and then continued in the afternoon with the Costa Rica-Greece game. Gosh, I love the World Cup!

My days are defined by World Cup, packing, and graphic novels. Aaah...a simple life! 

Prism

I'm excited about this. Perhaps I'll finally learn how to write a grant!

http://prismcomics.org/aboutus.php

Field Trip

Spent the day with family at the Academy of Sciences. I'd always gone there during the school year with 20 or so second-graders, so it was much calmer going with a handful of family members (although one family member is 4-years-old; kinda like a bunch of grumpy second-graders). When I came home, the light upstairs was perfect, so I went right to work on yesterday's blue penciling.

Teach

Began the blue-pencil drawing of the next page of the teaching book. Once a curriculum is out of the hands of teachers and mandated by nonteachers, doing anything out of the box is nearly impossible. 

This page is about how teachers should do as much creative teaching as they can, weighing meanwhile job security and good working relations with their grade level team. I'm realizing that you can't really see this sketch. It's of our second-grade team. I'll darken the blue line. 

Black and White

Today I went out to lunch with my daughter to Zachary's. While waiting for our pizza, we decided to hang out in Pegasus Bookstore. I, of course, made a bee-line to the graphic novel section. I picked up a book that had drawings that were simple, striking black and white. Reminded me of Marjane Satrapi's work.

I wondered what my work would look like using this style. Couldn't wait to get home to try it out. It's kind of fun, but decision-making is just as, if not more so, difficult than using values.

Meanwhile, I continue working on Stella.

Comfort

Started working on the next page of A Donkey in the Garden. I try to rotate the three books, working one day on Stella, the next on Donkey, and the following day on the teaching graphic novel. Susan and I are in moving mode, so much of the daylight hours is taken up with packing boxes and running errands. I work on the teaching book in natural light, so I haven't been working as steadily on that one. I'm beginning to crave it big time!

The other craving I'm having is comfort reading. Moving is stressful even though I'm retired, so to keep myself sane, I need to engage in some self-soothing in the form of Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal! Yes, I read and reread the Harry Potter series all in Spanish. I didn't pack the first of the series. All is right in the world.

Fetch

This is all the drawing I did today, less than 5 minutes sketching out the next page of the teaching graphic novel. You could probably be asking, "Well, what the hell has she been doing all day?" 

Here's a few words to describe my day: Bath, Blasphemy, Fetch, Packing Tape, Shredder, Navajo Spindles, James and the Giant Cupcake, Unleaded, Fetch, Mexico VS Croatia, Sixties Oldies, Berkeley Bowl, Fetch.

Reggae and Soccer

Worked a bit on Stella this evening. Hooked up to headphones. Am on a reggae jag these days. I switch between Pandora stations of Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley, and Dr. Ring Ding. I'm leaning more toward the ska station and managed to buy a Hepcat song called "Marcus Garvey". My next purchases will most likely be Barrington Levy and Bobby Babylon.

I've also been catching a game or two of the Copa Mundial. Today there was a close game between the U.S. and Portugal, including a tying goal with less than 5 minutes to go in the match! A couple days ago (I think it was a couple days ago; the days are beginning to blend together) I caught a glimpse of the Argentina VS Iran game. Wow! Iran played really well (of course, until Messi scored the winning goal). I received a post from Marjane Satrapi stating how pleased she was with Iran's game. Cool.

Memory

After talking with Debbie yesterday, I awoke this morning with a strong urge to work on the cancer graphic novel. Although Susan's cancer year was 3 years ago, the sensory memories are still fresh.

Certain smells and sounds take me right back to the hospital room. The number of sounds in a hospital is unbelievable, at all hours of the day and night. In one of Susan's hospital rooms the circulation machine malfunctioned, and it beeped loudly for days. The hospital staff even switched out the machine, and the new machine beeped steadily as well.

Openings

I love showing my work to people. My friend Lisa has a friend who's worked in the publishing business for about 30 years. Lisa asked Debbie if she'd be willing to talk with me about my work. I was thrilled that Debbie'd said yes, and today we met. I showed her what I have so far of all three graphic novels, and she gave me concrete suggestions for next steps. One of the steps was to attend Comic-Con! YES!

What I enjoyed about meeting with Debbie is that she was patient, not assuming that I knew a lot about how to get my books published. She was also very clear and encouraging. I felt that she helped open up options for me. While creating, my head is down, my sight focused on executing the story, but every now and then I look up and survey the world in which my stories are to be a part. It's nice having someone like Debbie nearby. Many thanks go out to her and Lisa!

The Gift Jay

Had a productive day repacking boxes with Susan and transferring images of Stella, and Donkey in the Garden from my desktop to my laptop. Tomorrow, I'm gonna show them to a friend-of-a-friend who can give me feedback and advice on what to do next.

Yesterday, I'd forgotten to mention that the art teacher at our school gave Susan and me a print. Jai Waggoner is one of the most creative, prolific, and dedicated artists that I know, and as a going away present offered that we pick out a print or painting from her studio! I chose this one:

This Is It!

Today was my last day in my classroom. I successfully cleared all my junk out. Shared heartfelt farewells with fellow teachers. I couldn't quite believe that I was leaving this great school forever. Had to stop and take a picture:

To celebrate, Susan and I went to Off the Grid and ordered decadent and greasy food. A burger from the Bacon truck and the best tater tots ever! 

Cemented

Another day of clearing out my classroom. But today's work was rewarded with a farewell lunch treated to Susan and me by my second-grade team! I have been so fortunate to have had such wonderful colleagues to teach alongside. And the day had begun so frighteningly: As Susan was getting into the van to take me to school this morning, the door swung closed right against her compressed vertebrae! Luckily, thanks to the vertebroplasties, the cement injected into her vertebrae protected her fragile spine. She's sore but fine.

Susan and I both took it easy when we got home. No repacking of boxes. This is what our upper basement looks like.

End of an Era

Very tired tonight. Spent the day cleaning out my classroom. I then took Susan to her last California oncology appointment.

Afterward we had to get new phones since our "old" ones (two years old) conked out. That all took a while. After dinner, I helped Susan repack a few boxes. Now, I'm gonna take a shower and go to bed.

Apprentice

Finished inking this page for the teaching graphic novel.

Watching the World Cup soccer games really does help absorb my agitation. Today the French played a great game against Honduras. Final score 3-0.

The best time for me to read is while taking a bath. Except when I'm meditating, that's really the only time I'm not doing anything else. So today in the tub I read all of Gene Luen Yang's Saints. While reading this well-told story of a horrific time in Chinese history, I was paying close attention to Gene's craft. I noticed he used mostly flat values, simple shadow,  and black.

I thought I'd try my hand at this. I found that this method is easier of course than shading every little thing. The last cell I'm happiest with. By the time I reached that cell, I was already working more fluidly. Still, I feel clumsy.

Movement

Well, I am officially done with school! Gotta clean out my classroom to make room for the teacher who'll be moving in. I'm setting out tons of supplies for other teachers and parents to pick over. I noticed how much of the supplies thus far are art supplies.

I am not a party person, but this week I attended 4! Four parties! Well, mostly because I was the guest of honor. There's a lot of excitement in the air due to the big changes. I couldn't settle down to drawing, not without the help of a dharma talk on Happiness, and the World Cup game between Uruguay and Costa Rica on my laptop. Here's a detail of the page I managed to finish pencilling:

Last Day

Oh, am I EXHAUSTED tonight! Last day of school, popsicle party, and kids testing the loosened boundary. Stayed past 7PM to begin emptying out my classroom. Am yawning nonstop. Yawned through this drawing, too.

Cusp

Tomorrow will be my last day of school. Of teaching full-time as a classroom teacher. Ever. And am I happy! I really feel as if I'm jumping off a cliff because I don't really have a solid idea of what's in store for me. Yeah, I might work with teachers. Yeah, I wanna get a couple sheep and an alpaca. Who knows how that will all pan out? But what is clear is that I am working as consistently as I can on my books. Here's a detail of tonight's work:

Path and Saints

Found this Andy Warhol quote posted on my Facebook. I need reminders like this because I tend to work in isolation--it's just between me, the story, and my visual honesty. It feels like there's a path I'm following, and every once in a while I stop and listen to others' visual honesty. I can take it or leave it. But what is certain is that I must continue on this art path.

"Don't think about making art, just get it done.
Let everybody else decide if it's good or bad,
whether they love it or hate it.
While they are deciding, make even more art."

At our school we have a Summer Reading Program during which students read a certain amount over the summer, and as a reward they get to enjoy a pizza party come September. To encourage them to read, parents and teachers donate books--TONS of books! Students shop for a free book of their choice. A volume of Gene Luen Yang's book Saints hadn't been snatched up yet, so...well...I had to take it! I wonder if I can convince a kid to give me Yang's book Boxers?

Excitement

Am excited about many things. Retiring and finally having enough time to get more work done on my graphic novels. Moving to a semi-rural area in an out of the way region where I can actually have a couple sheep and an alpaca. And creating another blog specifically for keeping in touch with school parents, students, and staff! I really like writing a blog. This blog helps me to keep drawing something. I finished this drawing (for now), and I like many parts of it.

This is the next page I'll be working on.

The Last Week

Yesterday, I was so giddy about the last week of school, I couldn't focus on much--my class newsletter, my teaching schedule, writing on the blog. So, I spun and plied alpaca instead and watched some of the second season of "Orange is the New Black".

The great thing is that I didn't fight my lack of focus as it spilled over into today. I'm aware that retirement is a huge change and that it's traumatic enough to make me a little spacey and forgetful, so when the surprise party did happen after school, thanks to current and former students and their parents,  I just folded it into my day. The party was sweet and very loving. Here's the bulletin board of memories and well-wishes they all gave me.

Something's in the Works

Went to see our grandson's first karate demonstration with Destiny Arts. He was in the Little Tigers' group for 3-5 year olds. Adorable! While there, I ran into a former student who told me that she's looking forward to coming to my party with other former students in tow. I nodded and smiled without any idea of what she was talking.

After the demonstration, our family went out to lunch to celebrate our 4-year-old's accomplishment. Before our food came, I invited him to my last day of school popsicle party. Susan gave me a disapproving look and informed me that something might be happening at that time on that day. Then she looked away. Okay. I'm guessing there's gonna be a surprise party for my retirement from teaching.  If there's one thing that makes me more agitated than drawing, it's a surprise party. 

Got home and right away started working on this page. A parent of one of my current students brought  Susan and me a complete home-made dinner he'd cooked. The generosity of students, staff, and parents at my school is unbelievable!

The End is Near

Finished my last, and I mean my last, report cards. Stayed at school past 7PM to finish them so that I wouldn't have to bring them home on my weekend. I've been able to not bring report cards home for the past two years. Wow, if we teachers could get paid for the work we actually do...

Anyway, to celebrate I went and copped an unagi fix at Kirala. Just think: no more reading, writing, and math assessments. No more report cards, and the weekend is before me!

Better

Feeling a little better. Headache subsiding. No wheezing. Unfortunately, I'm reading aloud my favorite children's book  The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, by Kate DiCamillo, and we're at the part where Sarah Ruth gets introduced to the reader. She's real sick. The spectre of death is intimated. So, my second-graders ask what's wrong with her? I tell them that her symptoms sound like tuberculosis. Then had to spend a long time convincing them that they all would not perish of TB! I'll be expecting some parent emails (sigh).

Sick

Headache, fatigue, a little bit of wheezing. Going to bed early (for me).

Thrilled

It's dangerous for me to get a good night's sleep. I'm so thrilled to have slept well and to feel the new evening stretched out before me, I am convinced that I could stay up all night working on my books. Uh...even though it's still a weeknight. I can barely stay inside my skin, I'm so excited about the ending of the school year!

Almost finished with this one.

In Need of Sleep

There are some parts of today I just don't remember.

Old Tools and New Skills

Had a productive day today! I got an idea from Ellen Forney, the illustrator for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. At the end of the book, she talks about her process of working with Sherman Alexie, and she tells what her drawing tools are. It's very important to me to hear what other artists use for drawing. I enjoy seeing how we're all different as well as alike. So, I thought I'd share my drawing tools that I'm using for the teaching graphic novel.

I took the photo after I'd finished inking the latest page below:

And then I bumped up with some frustration. It's not the first time. I love line. I love drawing it. But my drawings BEG for color or washes. I'd bought this wonderful graphic novel called This One Summer, by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. Everything is delicious about this book. The story, the line, the values!

So, I thought I'd try my hand at adding washes and highlights to one of my pages, just to see how it'd look. I have a long way to go to become truly proficient, but it's a start...