Arrrggghravation

It has not been a good day for art.
Mostly.
We had a homework assignment due for Intro to Drawing today..and since I only got my materials yesterday, I started it this morning. Pastels, pos/neg space; I was gonna take a photo and post it, but by the time my camera batteries were charged, the light was no good, and using an artificial light caused blinding glare off the fixative (more 'bout that in a bit..), and now the teacher has claimed it.. But anyway, so when I left for my driving lesson, I picked up the pastel drawing, but I left some newsprint lying on the floor. Terrible idea! You see, our dogs are a bit..well, spontaneous about doing their business, so we often leave newspapers on the basement floor to minimize the damage. And with the newsprint lying there, I guess Mozie thought his litterbox had moved upstairs..because when I came back, there was a puddle there. Right by my backpack. Which contained my comic sketchbook. Yes..my comic sketchbook now has dog pee along the bottom edge >.<
It's been such a crazy day, even up till now I haven't had a chance to fully assess the damage. At first glance, it seemed relatively minor. But still..I think I have to trash that sketchbook, save the comic pages if I can and cut off any..er..colored parts..
That wasn't the end of it, though. That pastel drawing? I spent about three or four hours on it total. It wasn't great, but it looked pretty good, and pretty much like what the teacher had indicated. Then I went to spray it with fixative. Well..I don't know if I sprayed too heavily or what..but by the time I was done, the whole thing looked chunky and nasty, like it had been done with crayola crayons or something! I was upset for quite a while. I even tried coloring over the fixative, but that didn't work so well.
I was sure everyone would scoff at my gunky drawing and the teacher would have some harsh words. Turned out my terrors were unfounded, though. This is gonna sound terrible but most of the other kids' homework assignments looked like they were made by elementary schoolers. They didn't even follow the teacher's directions. I guess there are only a few people in that class who actually know or care about drawing..this may be a long semester :\
But anyway. At least a new page goes up today! And page 22 is almost done.