Today has been fun and exciting in my little world. I climbed over the mountainous obstacle that is Photoshop and finished a long overdue project. Step one came this past week. I decided to start working in a larger scale a while back, but encountered a problem when it came to getting them scanned and into my computer for cleanup and sharing. I like to use local copy centers, but found that most do not have the equipment capable of scanning larger items. Some will put it together digitally for you, but this can be expensive. I settled on Kinkos for $3.99 a square foot and they did a fine job, though I did have to leave my work with them overnight.
Once my work was available in digital form, it needed a little spit and polish to smooth out the blemishes. I sat down at the computer ready to work and stood up an hour later with nothing accomplished. Whatever I had learned before had magically "poofed" away, as my daughter would say. Over the weekend, in a moment of desperation, I offered to pay a friend just to get these finished. She kindly declined my money and invited me to work at her house today, so that she could be on-hand to answer questions and get me moving again. With a few reminders, quick fixes, and simply talking through a myriad of options for accomplishing any one task, I got the hang of it. With a few solid hours of work, my illustrations were completed. We may have to have a repeat to get me rolling in Adobe Illustrator again. Adding text in an artful manner is a true skill in itself. Thank you, Nikki, for your help and the inspiration that comes with spending an afternoon with another creative individual. Priceless.
I was also inspired to tackle some rewrites on my story picturing the balloon and the little girl and another I've been working on lately. It had been so hard when first suggested, but a few months in the drawer helped it to feel like a natural progression. So with two new stories and two new page spreads complete, I feel pretty good about this week. And I'm looking forward to more.
So here is what I have to show for this long overdue project. I can't share the story with you, as it isn't mine to share, but it's charming and I hope that one day you will be able to read it yourself.
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| Property of Carrie Cartier Copyright 2013 |
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| Property of Carrie Cartier Copyright 2013 |
Last weekend was a fun one for me. I had the amazing volunteer opportunity to paint and spread some love at the same time. This opportunity came from a fantastic organization that will from now on be close to my heart Rooms That Rock 4 Chemo and another talented decorative painter and illustrator Melka Myers. Melka designed this fun "Tropical Lagoon" private room and bathroom, which now resides at Children's Hospital Oakland. Her diligent preparation of stencils and colors allowed us, with the help of a number of other volunteers (particularly Forest Aliya and Danielle Billingsley), to complete the process in only two days. 
