Saturday

If there's one day I like better than Friday after work, it's Saturday! Got to work on the teaching graphic novel. I finished penciling in the entire page, but I had to wait for Susan to get home before I inked it.

Susan reads my pencilled pages. She told me, "Sarita, I warn you: I know next to nothing about comic books, but I'll read it anyway." Susan is the perfect reader; she let's me know right away if something I wrote or drew is unclear.

Fridays

Gosh, I love Fridays! Once the students are gone, I see open-ended time stretched out before me. I take my time cleaning up my room, working on newsletters, getting Monday's homework together, feeding the pet snake. Most Fridays I leave school at 7. When I finally arrive home, I just want to stay up all night, knitting, spinning, watching TV. Tonight I worked on Stella. 

Trying to balance fur with solid contour line is tricky. I gotta work on this one.

It's Like That Sometimes

Still didn't work on anything this evening. Today was my last day of working after school with a small group of kids. Shortly after that I had to scold (and not very skillfully, I'm afraid) two of those kids who'd decided to harass the custodian because he is Mexican. I stayed after and straightened up my numerous piles, fed the silk moth larvae. When I finally got home, I managed to do nothing but eat dinner, take a bath, and watch Grey's Anatomy. Oh, well.

Grounding

The end of the school year heralds a huge transition. Teachers are mentally taking down classrooms while conducting end of year assessments. Students who have trouble with change start freaking out at this time, and next year's second graders are already on our radar. All in all, everything's shifting, and we all eventually have to just let go for the summer. 

Today, this groundlessness was very unpleasant. Sometimes working on my books is the only antidote.

This is the Stella page I'm working on, now (I've positioned the tablet cord correctly tonight).

Rest

Didn't work on anything this evening. Usually after work, I'm able to spend 30 minutes on one of the graphic novels, but not this time. After an all-day field trip with 19 second graders, on one of the hottest days of the year, I was way too tired to do anything once I got home. It didn't help that it was the second consecutive spare-the-air day, and my allergies were at their worst.

Doesn't really matter what the excuse is. When I sincerely can't muster the energy to draw, I don't. I know that I always get back to it with joy.

Technology

There are some advantages to working on more than one graphic novel in more than one medium. My Wacom tablet is on the major blink! Yesterday, I got it to work, but the day before--NOT. The problem is that the cable is not a detachable kind, so after about 5 years of bending the cable as I wind it up after working, it's now got some kind of kink in it. 

Only after many attempts to straighten, push, and just hope, I can sometimes get the cable positioned just right for the tablet to work. It's time for a new tablet. Oh, and ever since I got the printer cartridges refilled, our printer hasn't been working, either. Hmmmm.....

Works for Me

Once I've written and sketched in my journal, I then draw and redraw a page with nonphoto blue, as accurately and honestly as I can.

I also find that I have difficulty working on any of the graphic novels without something to listen to. When I'm working on the computer with Stella and Donkey , I'm hooked up to headphones, listening to my playlist (an eclectic list ranging from Aretha Franklin gospel to banda with Julian Alvarez) or old timey and reggae on Pandora Radio. 

However, when I'm working on the teaching book, I actually listen to dharma talks from the San Francisco Zen Center. I think this works for me because meditation and practicing a big picture view of human life is very healing for me. This teaching graphic novel retraces my life as an artist and teacher, and the mere writing and drawing of this autobiography is also healing for me.