Rooms That Rock 4 Chemo- Oakland Children's Hospital

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.
To give you a better scope of the project, the entire second floor of the Outpatient wing of Oakland Children's Hospital Hematology/Oncology department was shut down for the weekend for dozens of artists, designers, carpenters, and big hearted people of all walks of life to bring a little color, creativity, and cheer to this place of survival and healing.
Please take a moment to check out RTR4C and help them rock some more rooms in San Salvador.

Milestones or maybe just pebbles

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.

Property of Carrie Cartier Copyright 2013

Property of Carrie Cartier Copyright 2013

Happy New Year: Part 2

 A few more fun examples of all the painting drawing and loving experienced over the last few months.

Collage made for my mother-in-law using a small autographed
painting by illustrator Melissa Sweet

Love the dog

Love the family

LOVE

LOVE

LOVE MY GIRL!

Before
Thrift shop cherry cabinet

After
Bronze Antiqued credenza
for private client

Warm golden glazed wall at Quince in SF, CA

Another shot of Quince's elegant dining room
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

               

Before

After
Faux woodgrain on paneling, cabinet, and patched
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

Happy New Year

So it is a new year, though this post comes closer to the Chinese New Year.  Time to catch up and get back at it.  I was beginning to get down on myself because of the lull in illustration activity on my part, thus the dead air concerning this blog.  There just hasn't been time.  I know I know, they say that there is always time if you want it bad enough, but I say prioritize.  If shuffling off to a paying job or caring for your family fills 14 to 15 hours of your day, it gets a little hard to squeeze out those creative juices.  Sleep takes precedent.  Anyway, I realized this blog is called Paint Draw Love.  It doesn't always have to be about illustrations.  I have been painting and drawing and love love loving.  So I decided to post a little photo recap of the last few months' projects.

Outdated velvet painting with awesome frame

Remove painting and spray frame white

= Great wedding menu for great friends

Raw wood custom nightstand

Becomes elegant bedroom addition
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

Tedious taping

Fun fresh stripes
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

Classy bedroom

Classy textured wall finish
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

Dining Room walls

Beautiful strie'd and waxed finish with silver leave detail
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

Before 

After
Faux Marble on mantle 

Faux Marble painted over wood mantle
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

Process shot of composition silver leaf ceiling

Library ceiling: glazed composition silver leaf
contracted for Philippe Grandvoinet Decorative Finishes

The Slow Trudge

I've missed you guys.  No really, I have.  Doing this blog and pursuing my dream of becoming a children's book writer and illustrator makes such a difference in my life.  But let's be frank, (no not you, Frank),  this isn't an easy path.  I have the wonderful problem of being totally booked with decorative painting work all over the Bay Area for the foreseeable future.  This takes me from being primary caregiver to my lovely Sweet P to only seeing her for those busy couple of hours in the evening and bye-bye kisses in the morning.  Ugh... this really pulls at me.  

Last weekend I had a deadline with my agent so I gave up sleep and muscled through.  I'll post those pics in moment. This week I will be finding some time to add color and a storyboard to them to present to the author.  I also got the bad news that the publisher we were pursuing with this doesn't take submissions from unpublished authors/illustrators.  That is truly frustrating news when all you want is to be published.  There are publishers out there who do still take submissions and that is where we have to focus our energy.  Thank goodness for SCBWI.  This organization keeps me hopeful and also does a tremendous amount of work helping to direct newbies like myself to those open channels.  

This may not be a very informative post, but part of this journey is the slow trudge through life's challenges.  I am not discouraged.  I am continuing my work, even if it only seems to happen in weekend spurts.  

Well, please let me know what you think of my blog and/or my sketches if you get a chance.  I love knowing that you are out there and that you care.   Bon Courage!

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

The Church of SCBWI

Kid Lit Saves/Opportunity Knocks

Hi there!  I'm back from my post-conference blogging break.  To those of you who didn't follow my updates on facebook and twitter during the SCBWI Conference earlier this month, I do apologize.  I don't have time to go into all of the speakers again, but I will try to come back to them in future posts.  This is mostly a catchup post.

 What an AMAZING opportunity this was for me and the 1000+ others who attended!  My days went a little like this....

Arrive at the Hyatt, quickly prepare cup of tea, and sit down to listen to an amazing speech by one of many amazing keynote speakers.  Stand in line at ladies room and exchange business cards and pleasantries.  Find a new seat or spot on floor to hear yet another great speech.  Repeat line waiting routine.  Move to a smaller room for the "workshop" of my choosing depending on whether I wanted to hear from an illustrator, writer, editor, agent, etc. Break for lunch. Two more speeches. One more "workshop". Another speech.  And then off to the social activities of pizza parties, book sales/signings, hippie dance, chapter meetings....

Can I just say how delightfully exhausting it was to know that no matter who you happened to sit, stand, dance, wait, or dine next to, you always had something to talk about.  By the end I was overflowing with inspiration and just wanted to lock myself in a room and draw/write.  But... 

I missed my Sweet P too much and knew that was not an option.  

I have done what I could to keep the creativity flowing.  I have joined a local illustrators online critique group to inspire me to continue to put out my best work and to look at my work and others' in a questioning way.  I have also joined The Illosphere, a site specifically for SCBWI illustrators with fun weekly challenges that just keep the pencil moving.  

Another thing happened quite by chance and forgive me if I get longwinded here.  Just Thursday after my return, I had a friend refer a local book agent my way.  He was looking to pair some illustrations with a manuscript he was presenting to a publisher and art director the next Monday.  I received the story on Friday, but between my decorative painting work, family, and painting signs for a friend's wedding, I was left with one day to complete something...anything.  Then on top of that, the agent calls to invite me to attend the meeting with him.  So I really have to produce something now.  I work until 2am sketching, copying, cutting, and pasting.  I do not at all claim this to be my best work, but my goal was somewhere around "Don't embarrass yourself, Carrie!" 

Property of Carrie Cartier copyright 2012

Again, I am feeling so honored and blessed at the opportunities coming my way.  I have no expectations about this piece, but I was given a chance to listen to an agent and publisher at work.  That is priceless.  They also happened to be very nice men and I did not embarrass myself.  In parting, they left with my sample illustrations for the agent's submission, business cards, and my own manuscript.  

I'll talk more about my manuscript later, but for now I will just say that I am in that waiting place.... and just so happy to be in the game!

SCBWI Summer Conference 2012

So I am on my way to the conference. Car to train to plane to shuttle to hotel. My dummy book sits next to me in a bag , waiting to be assembled from the pile of papers it is now. I was able to get a slight handle on Photoshop and illustrator.  Thank you again, Nikki! Time got pretty squishy over the last few weeks, which leaves me feeling under-prepared.  I am so very happy to be on my way though.  I am so grateful for all the support that continues to come my way. This book journey is long and after months of preparation, I know that I am still only at the beginning.  I will try to keep you informed over the next few days should anything interesting occur.
My traveling partner, once I reach LAX will be the talented Miss Madelaine Standing.  You can check out her work Adventures in Ink, International on Facebook or her website www.grandstanding.com. 
You can also check out the official SCBWI conference blog or Twitter feed to get a general idea of events.
Have a great weekend, I sure will!
I apologise for any mistakes in format or spelling. This is my first blog post via cell phone.