Honestly, waking up at 4:30 in the morning has never felt so great for me. And I'm NOT an early riser or much of a morning person on the whole.
But when an opportunity like this arises, I take advantage of it. And I'm really glad I did.
About a month back, my pal Andy Fish had been asked by the Marblehead Public Schools if he, Veronica, Alison and myself would talk with the students about graphic novels and what are process was. He contacted all of us via e-mail and asked if we would be interested.
Keep in mind, I'm not a big fan of driving or long travel. I think it's more just the whole preparation and whatnot because usually when I finally get on the road I'm fine.
But in this case I immediately I e-mail him back to say that I'm in.
I should mention that Andy's very particular when it comes to art and teaching gigs. So, when he makes mention of something I know it's a good lead. Despite the long travel and the traffic which can be notoriously bad heading towards the North Shore, I knew this was an opportunity I should not pass up.
Well, at 5am I make myself a hash and egg sandwich and have my first cup of coffee of the day. I know the concept of a hash and egg sandwich may sound awful but it's actually very good. That and I knew I was going to need something extra than my normal bacon and egg that I have every morning.
Then as I head out on the road I stop by the nearest Dunkin' Donuts and pick up a large iced coffee with lots of cream, lots of sugar and a tripleshot of espresso.
I had it once before when I went out to Boston for the day and it did the trick. So, I was certain to get one to give me that adrenaline boost for the drive.
Traffic wasn't bad and after a few miscues I finally get out to Marblehead. Andy, Veronica and Alison were already there. Andy was already setting up everybody's images on his laptop. I handed over my thumb drive for him to expunge a few choice pages from there.
Student work was hanging up around the wall so we looked around at that. It was all very good.
The day ended up having two groups come in. One from 10am till 12noon and the second from 12:30pm till 2:30pm. It made for a great day. Not only answering the students questions but finding out as different as Andy, Veronica, Alison and my styles are artistically, our approach to how we do our pages as far as thinking in movies and gathering reference material is very much the same.
That and it was just great to look up and see everybody's work.
I think we all gave the students some really excellent advice from our own experiences. I think the overall theme of that day and we all said it at one point or another is not to give up. Despite criticism or anything just keep trying and use the technology and information you have to get your work out there.
It made for a good day with some very good friends.
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