A Krita Day

I fell asleep at 6pm after work. It was one of my catnaps, a 15-minute snooze that refreshes me for a couple of hours. Afterwards I didn’t feel like working on my book. Instead, I watched a few videos about Krita — watercolor, sketching, some tips — that kind of stuff. Then I sketched this car with its cartoon tires and odd perspective, using Krita, of course.

Every afternoon I take Nacho the Pug for a long walk, rain or shine — as long as it’s not too rainy or too cold for either of us. He loves the rain and leaps up as he tries to bite the drops pelting him. He has a handsome goldenrod colored raincoat, and I have my blue raincoat.

Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of a project, I just want to keep working. I don’t feel like taking him out, but I do. He really needs the walk. He needs to smell every post, telephone pole, and tree. It makes his day. And it make mine, too. As I’m reluctantly walking, I begin to feel uplifted and I start thinking optimistically about the book I’m working on and about the books I plan to write. New ideas rise up from the well of humdrum thoughts I’m swamped with at work. Walking is a blessing.

Sometimes I take a picture of something that catches my eye. Today I saw a rock that I liked, something I can use as a reference the next time I’m struggling to paint a damned rock. Here it is, my fabulous rock.

One of those nothing-to-see-here-people days

I did go on two long walks with Nacho. He and I are now good buddies. We met another dog walker and, to my delight, Nacho didn’t immediately try to jump on her dog. He sat calmly at my feet for about ten seconds, then he tried to leap on the other dog. Ten seconds of Nacho time is the equivalent of 10 minutes of adult time — a great accomplishment for the young pup.

BTW, when I say he tries to “jump” other dogs, I mean he wants to play with them. Because his manners need polishing, I afraid he’s perceived as being an excitable boy. Just like me, he’s a work in progress.

Second Version of Page 8, Kids Swimming for Their Lives

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Here’s my second version of page 8, in which the kids are trying to get to a drifting rowboat. Waves are hard,

My day went like this: Up at 6 am, walked Willy, ate breakfast and studied Japanese for 45 minutes. After than I checked my email, and at 9:45 I worked out and meditated until 11:30 am. I then cooked lunch, ate it, cleaned up the kitchen and sat down at my desk to work on my book. It was 1:30 pm.

An hour later I couldn’t keep my eyes open. At 2:30 I took a nap and got back to my desk at 3:00 pm. At 4 pm I took Willy for his afternoon walk, then got back to work. At 6:00 pm I took a shower, then spent time working on this picture.

At 7:30 I started writing this post, and now I’m going to publish it.