Rule 7. The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something It's the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things. -John Cage
Author: Mark
I grew up in Hayward, Ca. I am avid traveler, artist, writer/blogger, reader, grappler and language enthusiast.
It’s been a long time since I posted. Why write blog posts? Why not.
I always feel guilty about not writing blog posts. No one reads it.
I should follow my own rules. Who am I doing this for? I’m doing it for me.
So if or when the time comes that I will need to write something important and meaningful to others. I would have already had the practice by writing for myself.
3 things.
I am a substitute teacher. I drive for a ride-share company. I still want to do art.
I left my elementary teaching position from last year. The job was so stressful and overwhelming. I can’t see how anyone can do that job. There are just so many responsibilities. I appreciate every job in a school because of my experience. The job is impossible to do perfectly. I can go on and on. Fast-forward to now. I decided to substitute teach to see if there’s some other aspect of education that I want to explore. Started in October. I should give updates of my experiences.
A gift during recess
I substitute in my old school district. Sometimes I see former students in 5th or 4th grade. When I subbed for my old school. A former student hugged me. A student that gave me a some trouble here and there. He gave me a gift (pictured above) while I was hanging around during recess. I’m not sure if he liked me as a teacher or not. Nonetheless, I appreciate it and I keep it on my shelf of student gifts.
I drive for Lyft. Truthfully, I always wanted to drive a cab. Just to try it out. In my mind, through media and pop-culture, the cab driver is very knowledgeable with city streets, traffic, establishments in their respective city. Think Jamie Foxx’s character in Collateral. The first month was fine and pretty fun. I’m in my third month. The honeymoon phase has worn off. It really is a grind. It is work. I do enjoy the stories. I will share some next time. (I like to practice my Spanish when I get fares that are hispanohablantes.)
A good friend keeps asking, “Is it worth it !? “
I still want to do art. I don’t really know how to start. I don’t know if I go on a path. Will it lead to something? I’m I wasting my time? I have a lot of insecurities.
This is not a review. This is not a persuasion piece telling you to purchase this book. I wrote this post for myself. I finished reading it. Cover to cover. I took notes and extracted value from it
One of the important parts of being a self-taught artist is study. An artist has to self educate themselves on artists before them. I will make blog posts on my favorite artists, their books or resources, and how it can help my art. I will provide some examples.
The Artist’s Guide to Sketching by James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade
I bought the reprint of this book. The whole story of Mr. Gurney and Mr. Kinkade jumping on trains, hitchhiking around the country and drawing is so romantic to a young artist. Not only did they do that, but they used the images they made from that trip to create a how to sketch instructional book. James Gurney wrote Dinotopia and Color and Light. His videos are an amazing resource for inspiration and methods. Thomas Kinkade was notorious to have galleries in quaint beach towns in California. Paintings of picturesque America. Some say sellout. This book gives him street cred. I have more respect for him now, seeing his drawings and learning about this drawing adventure.
Any artist who put the work in deserves respect. Rest in Peace Thomas Kinkade.
Take Aways
4 different ways to sketch people
Drawings take a long time
Make different sketchbooks for different purposes
Mood
Four Different Ways to Sketch People
Scribble Approach
Gestural Approach
Tonal Mass Approach
Mannikin Approach
I made notes in my sketchbook on the different approaches. I tend to just draw contours or mannikin. I think these approaches are good tools for my tool box.
Direct copy from book.
Drawings take a long time
I knew this fact. I just haven’t put this theory in practice. Like any art form or craft. It takes hours of deliberate practice. I need to devote actual time to do this activity if I want to improve. A lesson from the book is to plan your drawing with thumbnails and accurate measuring, then and only then can you proceed with your drawing. The time for your thumbnails and measuring depends on your total drawing time allotted. I often watch Mr. Gurney’s videos, and he has an analog watch sitting on his easel. For example, if you have 45 minutes to draw. Set 5 minutes of the session to map it out or draw thumbnails.
Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet
Make different sketchbooks for different purposes
I have several sketchbooks or notebooks for a variety of subjects such as language learning notebooks, guitar notes, watercolor books, writing journals, etc. I can make this practice more deliberate with art. I usually have one sketchbook and I use that for many things. Two sketchbooks that I will take away from this section is a studio sketchbook and a specialized sketchbook. A studio sketchbook is for notes, drawings, copies of masters, and prep work for paintings. A specialized sketchbook is for concentrated study on one subject. That could include notes, diagrams, or nomenclature. I think my next one will be the human form/portraiture/drapery.
A page from my jiu jitsu journal. Specialized Sketch book
Mood
This is a rather new concept to my lexicon. I interpret it as putting the pathos or emotion into your drawing. If you are drawing a landscape at night, and it feels lonely and cold. As an artist, you will try to communicate that feeling with exaggeration, placement or value. The artist has the license to alter the reality to communicate the desired mood. I will wrestle with this idea more in the coming years. The following paintings have mood intertwined within it.
Rene Magritte. Since I saw first this painting in high school, I loved it. I feel hope but the world is still dark.
Edward Hopper. A classic painting. Mood. I’ve felt that I have been each of those men at different points in my life. A shift worker, a solitary man at a bar, and a man with a beautiful woman in a restaurant late or early in the morning.
Conclusion
This is not a review. This is not a persuasion piece telling you to purchase this book. I wrote this post for myself. I finished reading it. Cover to cover. I took notes and extracted value from it. I am not a professional artist, but I wish to become a better artist. Studying from books from artists that I admire is one step to improvement. Thank you for your attention.
Sharing your art is the price for making it. Exposing your vulnerability is the fee.- Rick Rubin
Despite that I am bedridden and non-ambulatory, I am in good spirits. Why? I have my whole life ahead of me. I WILL get better and I WILL get stronger. With age comes experience and wisdom. I have more clarity to my life.
I think about what I learned this year. Know thyself. Go towards that. Who cares what other people think.
I want to be an artist.
Page from my current sketch book.
I have had this on and off relationship with art. This past year made me really think about it. I am 40 years old. I am going to die. We all are going to die. I really want to be an artist with the time I have left. What does that mean? I want to express myself. Not for fame, not for monetary gain, just to express myself. I want to put art on my walls that I like. That’s why I want to make art.
Sharing your art is the price for making it. Exposing your vulnerability is the fee.- Rick Rubin
I think about this quote from The Creative Act by Rick Rubin a lot. I always fear this. This is one of those unique things that I cannot get away from. The ridicule or disapproval of my art has always been my biggest fear. Now is the time to face it.
I’ve never had this feeling in Jiu Jitsu or language learning. I’ve never associated those activities with me. It is just a skill that I do. If I am awful at it, it’s not a big deal. But with art or drawing. When ever I share this with an audience, I truly feel like I am bearing my soul. If people dislike it or make fun of it. They are doing that to me. That is the vulnerability of art. Despite, that is the feeling I get. I still want to make art.
How do I learn art?
I’ve been reading and taking notes on James Gurney’s book
I am an art school drop out. I am proud of that label. My favorite artists are art school drop outs; Dave Choe, James Gurney, Joe Bluhm, and many more. I dropped out of art school because they didn’t teach fundamentals. They taught abstract concepts that involved art. Which was good, but I wanted to make strong work. Now I know that fundamentals in drawing was what I need and want to continue to make art. I didn’t know that at the time. So how do I learn fundamentals in 2-d representational drawing? In my amateur opinion, an old school atelier. For example, Watts Atelier in Encinitas, California. They teach representational drawing with busts, casts, figure drawing in several mediums. This is something that I wanted to do for a long time. At the current moment, I do not have the funds or resources to make that move.
The alternative approach is that I teach myself. Which is the harder route. Without a mentor or guide in this journey, I will be struggling for a long time. That’s why I always gave up before. It is really difficult to grow as an artist without a community, a nurturing community. It is possible. I’ll give you one example. I learned jiu jitsu by myself.
Jiu Jitsu
A page from an old jiu jitsu journal
I have been doing Jiu Jitsu for over 15 years. I did have teachers in Jiu Jitsu, but I did use agency to supplement my learning. I went to Jiu Jitsu camps, bought dvds, took notes, bought private lessons from instructors. I took my learning into my own hands. I can say that at this point, I am comfortable with my level. Am I unbeatable? No, of course not. Anyone can be beaten. I do have a depth of understanding and a philosophy that I feel strongly about. 10 years ago, I was hungry for knowledge and skill.
I am a brown belt. There is still so much to learn. I will not stop learning, but the hunger to beat people has left me. I suppose that comes with age. I stopped caring about achieving the rank of black belt. What matters more than that your belt color is growth, depth of understanding, and proficiency of skill.
I will not quit Jiu Jitsu, but it will not consume me as it once did. It is an excellent form of exercise and good thing to bring with you when you travel. Anne Lamott said this about writing.
I’m good at it and I like it.
It will be the same reason why I continue to do it. I will take the things from my jiu jitsu journey and apply it to art. Investment in time, money and other resources.
A page from my current jiu jitsu journal.
Conclusion
I want to be an artist. I have to teach myself. I will take the lessons from my jiu jitsu journey to become a better artist.
It is my sister’s birthday today. I would like her to wish her a Happy Birthday. I got her a gift while I was in the Philippines. I will have to remind myself to wrap it.
I got ankle surgery today. I will have to be on crutches for the next 3 weeks. I have my mom and sisters coming to help me out for the first week. What will I do for the following 2 weeks? I didn’t think about that. I just realized that I do have a lot of hobbies. I’m improving my Spanish. I’m learning Portuguese. I draw and paint. I also picked up learning the guitar. I have a lot to do. I would include blogging, but I don’t do this as frequently as I would like.
I would like to write more but let’s just get started.
An artifact is a human-made object that provides evidence of a past culture or period.
Today was the last day of school. The last day that I spent as a 3rd grade English Language Arts Teacher in 2025.
Straight to the keyboard.
What did I learn from teaching a full academic year?
I don’t want to do this. That is what I learned. There are too many responsibilities and tasks to do on a given school day that it is overwhelming. The learning curve is too steep to be a proficient teacher right after school. Teaching students who are disrespectful, rude, or unwilling to put the effort don’t make the job enjoyable. I found very few moments in my year and half where I enjoyed teaching. I will further to add to this laundry list of why I don’t want to be a general education teacher at a later date, but the moments today were good.
Last day
Somewhere along the way, I learned that elementary teachers will get their class a gift. When I graduated from student teaching, I gave my class Frisbees. I taught them how to throw and play a modified version of ultimate Frisbee. These kids were from the bilingual class, and they choose to play Frisbee over soccer. So, I gave them all Frisbees. They signed the Frisbee that I used throughout the year. Last year, I gave all my students a picture of themselves with a quote I wanted to give them. All of them were different.
This year, I wanted to give them a portfolio or book of all their writings. I was their ELA (English Language Arts) teacher. The end of their book would have a message from me. Think Lisa’s Substitute. Then I wanted their parents to create a message that makes them appreciate their parents. Think Iron Man 2, when Howard Stark talks to his son from the grave through a secret recording. I kept this sketch and idea in my head for a long time. I didn’t do this. I still feel it is a strong idea that should be thoroughly planned out. Maybe someday.
Today, I gave my students a photo of themselves. They were props like 80s sunglasses, a blow up novelty 80s cell phone, a blow up novelty boom box and a vuvuzela. They also showed the camera a printed QR code. The code is an unlisted YouTube video. I made a slideshow of pictures of their 3rd grade year. I printed the 4×6 photos and framed them. I had 44 students this year.
My closing remarks to my class
” I learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”- Maya Angelou
I put this quote on the board. I thanked them for the opportunity to be a first year teacher. I apologized for the mistakes that I made. I paraphrased the quote to fit my situation. You will probably forget what I taught you, you will forget what I did during the class. I think that you will not forget how I made you feel. I hope you felt safe, listened to, and cared for. I told them that the quote will also reflect them when they grow up. People will not forget how you made them feel. Then I passed out the framed photos. I did this to my morning class and my afternoon class. For some reason, the afternoon class started bawling for 10 minutes after I left their room. That class was the most difficult in diversity of behavior issues.
Why?
Why do this at all? … As a teacher, we do take pictures of our students. I thought that I should give back all those photos to them. I take pictures and give them Fuji Instax print-outs. So they do have most of those physical photos. One of my students showed me her teacher’s slide show of last year. So I stole the idea. It does not carry the weight of the Iron Man 2 idea. Regardless, the photo and the QR code are an artifact. Not the education definition, but the normal definition is just as strong. An artifact is a human-made object that provides evidence of a past culture or period. A year book is an artifact. Some of them bought year books. I just made them a video slideshow of their year and just for their class. Again why? I would want someone to record the happy childhood of my life. Perhaps, that is why I became a teacher. To give them a better education and childhood than what I had.
I never remembered this week when I was in school. I’m glad we have it. It makes my grateful that I have this job. It also makes me reflect on the people that have affected my life.
This time of year is bitter sweet. It is sweet because I enjoy the end of the year and I look forward to summer. It is bitter because of the finality of possibly never seeing my students again is depressing. Why? I will have no idea how their story will continue. I want their journey to be successful and enjoyable. I suppose that’s what makes teachers naive. That’s what make me naive. I’m a sap. I got into this profession thinking that I can make a positive impact on every student that I encounter. In reality, after they leave your classroom, their life is entirely out of your control. Their journey will be filled with the ebb and flow of life. I have no control over it after they leave my classroom.
The big takeaway from this week is gratitude. I really don’t expect anything from my students. I’m glad they got me stuff, but I treat all of them as I would like to be treated.
I’m a first year third grade teacher. I have a few boys that constantly argue and antagonize each other. They never get classwork done because they constantly have conflict. Their compliants are petty and tattle tale on each other everyday. One time Jim (psydonym) was telling me that the girls were passing notes to each other. I thought to myself, that’s not worth telling a teacher about. I’m glad they are writing to each other though. Third graders are still at the age where they will write to each other. Once they get a cell phone, all they will do is text. This gave me an idea. What if I made those boys that tattle tale on each other write their compliants to me on post its or sheets of paper.
I tried it today. I made boys that never write in class, write their compliants and gripes. When they brought it to me, I corrected their grammar usage and punctuation. Jim wrote “making fun Steve and Matty about brokn fence.”
I asked Jim, ” Who is making fun of you?”
“Steve and Matty.”
Put the subject in front of the sentence.
I told him to rewrite the sentence as “Steve and Matty are making fun of my broken fence.”
Jim fixed it. I got four boys to write formal complaints about each other.
You might say I made them go “Karen on each other.”
I have to trick my students into practicing handwriting and compositional writing. This was absolutely worth blogging about. It’s the little wins at this job that I have to appreciate.
I feel that my Spanish is at a basic level, some would say intermediate. I feel that I am still not at a comfortable level. maybe I will never get there. I feel that my level and understanding and use of the language is still broad. I can communicate. I can comprehend spoken converstation. If something is too complicated, I can get the gist of it. That’s not good enough. My goal is precision. I want to be able to use the language with precision and accuracy.
I don’t think I will attain the proficiency I desire by just passive listening and reading. I think to reach the next level, I will have to study and improve with small increments. Eventually, along the way I will begin to dream in this language. Then I can maybe slow down and passively learn, like English.
I think, we, as learners learn what we want to learn. Ultimately, the student will put in the majority of the work towards mastery.
Also, those AI generated featured images are too attractive. I want to give you the reader real images of my life. If no one reads this, I want to give my future self real images of my life.
Siento que mi español es de un nivel básico, algunos dirían intermedio. Siento que todavía no estoy en un nivel cómodo. tal vez nunca llegue allí. Siento que mi nivel y comprensión y uso del idioma aún es amplio. Puedo comunicarme. Puedo comprender la conversación oral. Si algo es demasiado complicado, puedo entenderlo. Eso no es suficiente. Mi objetivo es la precisión. Quiero poder utilizar el idioma con precisión y exactitud.
No creo que alcance el dominio que deseo simplemente escuchando y leyendo pasivamente. Creo que para alcanzar el siguiente nivel tendré que estudiar y mejorar con pequeños incrementos. Con el tiempo, en el camino empezaré a soñar en este idioma. Entonces tal vez pueda reducir el ritmo y aprender pasivamente, como el inglés.
Creo que nosotros, como estudiantes, aprendemos lo que queremos aprender. En última instancia, el estudiante hará la mayor parte del trabajo para dominarlo.
Además, esas imágenes destacadas generadas por IA son demasiado atractivas. Quiero regalarle al lector imágenes reales de mi vida. Si nadie lee esto, quiero darle a mi yo futuro imágenes reales de mi vida.
The hardest part of writing is not the writing, it’s the sitting down to write. I heard that from somewhere.
The past weekend I was studying Spanish everyday. It felt good to be consistent and come back to a goal of improving on a skill. This is incredibly easy when I don’t have outside stresses or responsibilities. How do you continue towards your goals when you’re tired and exhausted from your day job?
I suppose that is the hardest part. Cultivating discipline.
La parte más difícil de escribir no es escribir, es sentarse a escribir. Escuché eso de alguna parte.
El fin de semana pasado estuve estudiando español todos los días. Se sintió bien ser consistente y volver al objetivo de mejorar una habilidad. Esto es increíblemente fácil cuando no tengo estrés ni responsabilidades externas. ¿Cómo continúas hacia tus objetivos cuando estás cansado y agotado de tu trabajo diario?
Supongo que esa es la parte más difícil. Cultivando la disciplina.
markmagpusao.com 