Color

Finished the first two rounds of editing: symmetry and shoes! Then, I could wait no longer. I had to add some color. So, I did, and it looks pretty good. Naturally, I forgot to upload a visual here. Gotta do that tomorrow.

Running

Took a four-hour spinning class, then went right to playing music with friends. Only gave myself a half hour for editing. It's an amazingly simple drawing of two running legs, not from the same runner. One's winning. I could only come up with a sketch. This is HARD!

Editing

I realize that this editing process is multilayered. First, I'm fixing symmetry. Next, I'm gonna have to fix the shoes--I haven't decided on which shoes I'm wearing in this graphic novel. After that, I'm gonna play around with color. I'm very excited because I'm almost finished with the first editing.

Congratulations, Silvano!

On a Roll

I've been having a blast editing on Photoshop! Hooked up to my reggae and ska, I can work for hours. I love this particular page--how this kid is completely oblivious to my teaching.

Fun Again

Had a fabulous time working on the teaching graphic novel! Being able to replicate a portion of a drawing in Photoshop is just magical.

Discovery

I enjoyed a lengthy editing session today. Still working on symmetry, but noticed an urge to add color to the drawings. I also noticed that my beautiful line work looks brittle and digital once scanned into the computer.

Luckily, this week the Professional Bull Riders World Finals in Las Vegas takes place. Five days of the toughest cowboys on the rankest bulls!

Wednesday is Alpaca Day

Today was all about alpacas! Susan and I spent the entire day visiting Puerta del Sol alpaca farm. We helped to weigh about 35 alpacas, and I scooped up poop. On the way home, Susan and I picked out the two crias we are going to buy in June!

Symmetry

I'm noticing, but not surprised by, asymmetry in places that should be symmetrical in my drawings. It's the frontal facial drawings mostly. So, I'm fixing those today. Thankfully, it's easier to fix in Photoshop. It's fascinating how our eyes will see what we want them to see!

I was in my teens when I decided to see what my drawing looked like in the mirror, and was I shocked! Eyes not aligned in any way; the entire portrait leaning to one side! Years later, I looked at myself in the reflection of two mirrors and discovered to my dismay that one of my top front teeth is out of alignment. Oh, well...symmetry isn't everything!

Scattered

I actually began to edit the pages of the teaching graphic novel (for which I should come up with a title soon). Not bad, considering I felt unsettled today. All over the place. Probably began with going to sleep at 2:30 AM, getting up to feed the dogs at 5:30, then waking up to the 7:30 phone call from the crew that's putting our modular home together. By 8:00 the tree trimmer arrived. 

Anyway, after a Frito pie dinner, Susan and I had a cozy evening by the fire, and tonight I'm getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

Contrast

Today I was highly productive! The editing process began with unifying the line darkness of all the  images. You see, when I first started the comic book, I was using a Mars Staedler brush pen. Eventually, the ink ran out, and the Artists and Craftsman store didn't have any more. So, I had to buy a different brand of permanent, archival brush pen. It was a much better tool, darker and more uniform. But when I looked back at the first 10 pages or so of the graphic novel, the Mars Staedler ink work was anemic. Thankfully, I discovered today that Photoshop actually has an Enhance menu, under which is a Contrast continuum. I was able to make all the drawings have the same percentage of ink darkness to contrast with the white of the paper!

Okay, not the best photo of some of the pages of the teaching graphic novel

Plants

Nope. Didn't do any editing at all today. Instead spent much of the day buying bushes and trees to replace the elms we'd had chopped down. We purchased some great plants from Nanise Native Plants, and I managed to transplant 3 of the bushes in our backyard (I'm pretty good with a pick axe).

One of the trees we bought is a choke cherry tree. I've never tasted choke cherry, but a jam from the fruit can be made, and I plan on making some!

Set Up

This evening I set up my new Wacom tablet and downloaded some free software which included Sketchbook, Corel Painter, and Anime. I got stumped on removing the nib from my Wacom stylus, but I'll figure it out and perhaps begin editing tomorrow.

Out of the Cold

Today I scanned the remainder of the teaching graphic novel into Photoshop, and tomorrow (which really is today, which means the first Today is really yesterday) I'm gonna set up my new Wacom tablet and begin editing!

Today was also a day of learning about the animals that will come inside your house for warmth and comfort as the days get colder. One of our neighbors was surprised recently by a bull snake on his bedside table!

Inspired Again

Late last night on Facebook, I read a post by graphic novelist Gene Yang. He announced that his brother-in-law wanted to write a comic book, but didn't really know how, and that Gene was going to walk him through the process. They decided to create this comic book publicly so that all of us can witness this venture. So cool! Anyway, Gene told his brother-in-law that he's not only creating a comic book, he's creating the life that makes it possible to create a comic book. In other words, his life might have to change to make room for drawing and writing. And Gene also told him that he must make a commitment to working on the comic book: an hour a day, 3 days a week, whatever suits him.

I took this to heart and finished inking the teacher graphic novel. Tomorrow, I begin scanning the images into photoshop! 

Day 7: Another Day Off?

Yeah, another one. Today was dominated by watering gardens, bringing potted plants in for the winter, training 3 dogs to stay in the truck when windows are down all the way, a neighborly visit, a jack russell escape artist named Charlie, a dead battery and anti-theft mechanism gone wrong, the most beautiful and delicious chicken soup ever, 6th day of sourdough starter, and home-made chocolate kalua ice-cream to die for! And then once the sun goes down and I start spinning the most rewarding of alpaca fleece, there's absolutely no hope of getting back to work on my books.

Day 6: Day Off

Yep, I took a day off from working on the graphic novel. I had other things to focus on, like the approaching PBR Finals and this lovely specimen that scurried across our bedroom floor late last night.

Day Five: Inking with a Dharma Talk

This evening I inked the second to the last page of the teaching graphic novel. I listened to a dharma talk from the San Francisco Zen Center, and before it was over, I'd also begun to ink the very last page! The next stage will be uploading images into photoshop and editing.

Day 4: Inking

This evening I inked a page. It touches on what I call historical trauma--post-traumatic-stress-disorder that's passed on from generation to generation--as in the case of an entire ethnic group that is systematically brutalized. Anyway, sometimes it's hard to teach kids who are reeling from trauma.

I was thrilled to learn that I wasn't the only person who believes in the existence of historical trauma. Dr. Joy Degruy has studied the current effects of the enslavement of African Americans. She calls it Post-Traumatic-Slave-Syndrome.

Day 3: The Rereading

This evening Susan my live-in editor read the entire teaching graphic novel and found that there was one page that just didn't fit. So, we took it out. It's a nice page of my second grade teaching team. Perhaps I'll find some way to use it in the acknowledgements.

Day Two

So far I'm sticking to my plan. Worked again on the penciling of the last page. Showed the last three pages to my fabulous editor who gave me the go-ahead to ink! Tomorrow she will read the entire book to check the transitions and connections. I suspect I'll have to insert another page toward the end, but I'm happy to do so.

In the evenings I relax with spinning and TV, of course. After watching all of "Damages" and "Longmire", we started watching "Scandal". We're hooked!

Enough (Day One)

Okay. I could stand it no longer. After talking with my daughter who's also having difficulty staying focused on her art, I've decided: Enough! From this day forward, I'm gonna devote time to graphic novel work each day until they are finished. I began today. Note: I've been known to make decrees that I never follow for more than 3 days.

Sunday

Today was a perfect Sunday! It was lazy, slow-moving. Time flowed. Neighbors made their appearances. Susan made sourdough bread which we ate with peach freezer jam. Bull-riding came on, and I worked with fleece.

Taos

Went to the Taos Wool Festival this weekend. Had a great time--bought a fleece. On the way home, there was an unexplained closure of interstate 25, and to cope, I rocked out on Brad Paisley's "This is Country Music" and "Mud on the Tires".

Failure

Well, actually I devoted the natural daylight hours to catching up on Facebook  and filling up another bobbin with woolen yarn.  I noticed a lot of Facebook posts having to do with failure. I enjoy the counterintuitive notion that failure is valuable and good.

Return

I actually got down to writing the text for the next two pages of the teaching graphic novel. Then I began blue-penciling the text into the cells. I'm hoping to devote some natural daylight to drawing/writing on a regular basis.

Here's what my workspace kinda looked like.

Swirl

Today, everything swirled around construction in our lot next door, watering chores, playing music with friends, fiber processing, and thinking about my future part-time job. Drawing didn't quite make the cut, today, although I just remembered that the next step is actually writing the text for two pages I'd blue-penciled.