When "Work" Gets in the Way of Work

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Sketch of Buddy’s new wing design, as inspired by my paper cutout of a Monarch Butterfly

I have one real job — doing art. I also have a “square” job that supports my real job — doing comptery stuff for a large organization. When the square job is on, as it is now, it completely engages the left side of my brain every morning for about 6 hours. When it comes time to put on my artist hat, I go into a deadspin for about two hours while my brain adjusts and switches to the right side. During that process I become drowsy and fatigued and end up sleeping 45 minutes. When I wake and I’m ready to go, guess what? It’ evening the the day is done.

Then there are annoying tools. Today I used my Wacom Intuous tablet because my Huion pen display can’t take advantage of some Photoshop brush features, such as stylus tilt and pen direction. The Intuos tablet does all of these things perfectly, but I’ve never mastered the hand-eye coordination for drawing on a tablet while looking up at a monitor. Switching back and forth from the Huion Pen Display to the Wacom tablet is as confusing to my medula oblongata as switching from my square job to my real job. Man, I’m bitching a lot today! I’m going to go sit by the window and look out the window at the clouds. That always help me get a grip on my ennui.