Time!  I need more time!!

I feel like I'm in college again, pushing against a deadline in 5 different subjects.  There is just not enough time in the day to master them all.
I want to tell you guys a little about the workshop I participated in last Thursday.  Julie Downing http://www.juliedowning.com/Pages/books.html did a wonderful job breaking down the process of illustrating a picture book.  She used her book "The Firekeeper's Son" ,written by Linda Sue Park, to demonstrate this involved process from storyboard to finished book.  Oh why oh why couldn't I have heard this information a few weeks ago as I was preparing my storyboard for submission???   It all makes such sense now!  Okay, I'll dial down the dramatic overtones and explain myself.
You have probably heard of the dramatic structure or arc of a story, but I'll give a little history.  In the mid 1800s, a German gentleman named Gustav Freytag wrote a study of the 5-act dramatic structure.  It became known as Freytag's Pyramid.  Now this was for a 5-act play, but the structure works for most any story. According to Freytag, a drama is divided into five parts, or acts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement.  Here is what that looks like for you visual people.

I had understood this in relation to my written story, but hadn't considered its connection to the visual 

images in a picture book.  In her storyboard this arc was evident.  The lines, the placement of picture on the page, the choice of a full-page spread or vignette was all presented with this same dramatic arc in mind.  I wish I had the time right now to redraw my storyboard to include this thought process, but it will have to wait.  

In the mean time, I am happy to say that I have a lovely friend and neighbor, Nikki, who has volunteered to give me a PhotoShop demo today.  Perhaps with her help I can make some of these adjustments in presentation for my dummy to take with me next week.  NEXT WEEK!!! Sorry, brief freak out.  I am very excited to be doing this conference.  I'm nervous too.  But most of all, I am enormously grateful for the opportunity.   

Hopefully I will get a chance to write one more time before I go.  Hope you have a great week!

Staying on Track

Ok, so I made it past Sweet P's 3rd birthday and am attempting to squeeze a few more finished pieces out of the next few weeks before the conference.  I am finding that I tend to make things too complicated for myself though,  and I am making a renewed effort to stay focused.  For example, since Sweet P wanted a Little Mermaid party, I thought it would be fun to draw each of the kids attending as a mermaid.  I need more portfolio material and this could kill two birds with one project.  In the end they did make nice additions to the goodie bags, but I was up till 2am the night before, exhausted, and not oh so pleased with the finished product.  Not portfolio material.  Later I decided to download a free trial of Photoshop and Illustration CS6.  I can just tweek the merkids in photoshop and turn them into something more interesting.  A few hours later playing with the lasso tool and a few dozen brush options, I closed the computer, moved to the dining room table and began to rework a current illustration.  Ahhh, my happy place.  I'm not saying that I won't learn how to use those programs or try to create fresh looking work.  I just had to accept that this may not be the time for it.  I've now made a list and am choosing the shortest distance between to two points to get there.  Short and Sweet lesson for the day, but it comes with pictures. :o)

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012
Not the best picture, but here are my MerKids.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012
Here is my reworked illustration.  The colors need to be enhanced a bit, but I'm fairly please with this one.
Done in Watercolor Pencil and Watercolor paint. 

Tomorrow I will be attending the SCBWI Illustrator's Series Event, which will include a hands-on workshop and lecture with award winning illustrator Julie Downing will focus on thinking about and creating a series of images that work together to tell a story. Can't wait!  I'll let you know how it goes.

I am now in the last month before the SCBWI Conference.  I just returned from a week up near Mt Lassen with the family.  I was able to put in the final hours of work on my "First Look" submission for the Illustrators' Intensive.  Here were my requirements.
1)  THUMBNAILS. 32 Pages.  Thumbnails should be small and loose because they are used to judge pacing and composition, not content.

2)  TWO CHARACTER STUDIES, showing the protagonist from different angles
3)  ILLUSTRATION.  One complete scene (whether a spot, single page or spread), finished in the style that would be used throughout the book.

4)  ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTIONS of
      A) the characters
      B) the setting
      C) the dilemma
      D) the point/resolution of the story

I thought I would share the drawing portion with you, so here it goes.

Storyboard Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

  

Balloon Character Study Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

Little Girl Character Study Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

Finished Illustration Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

I was able to get these off last Friday 2 hours before deadline.  I may not be the earliest, but I did get it in under the wire.  So now I am just crossing my fingers that my work will have the opportunity for review.
I did a little research as to what is to look forward to on the day of the intensive.  Apparently last year there were seven of the top illustrators who did live demos.  It all sounds pretty inspirational.  Yay!  I can't wait.
Well, I still have a lot of work to do before I go, so I better get to it.  Have a great day!

Socializing

Hello friends!  How are you today?  I have had a good week.  Life sometimes changes things up on you, and I am going with the flow.  For those of you who don't know me very well, I am a decorative painter by trade.  I work by contract and when work is slow I am happy to be the one cooking breakfast for my daughter in the mornings and taking trips to the park.  I am also very grateful when my painting schedule fills up and I get to load up my ipod for a day of painting and podcast listening.  I am all up to date on my "This American Life", so I have been searching for informative podcasts that inspire and expand my mind.  

I had listened to one woman's podcast a few times, but hadn't really got into it until recently.  Katie Davis's "Brain Burps About Books" is all about kidlit and the business of writing and illustrating children's literature.  http://katiedavis.com/category/podcast/  This past week, I decided to start at the beginning with her episodes.  Only just this week has she reached 100, but I am still in the 20's at this point.  Long story, short, I am learning so much.  One of the big themes so far has included the dual challenge of marketing yourself as a writer and/or illustrator and connecting on a personal level with your audience while doing so.  I, frankly, am so grateful for the small audience of supporters that I have ,and I would love for you guys to challenge me to stay connected by letting me know you are out there.  

Marketing these days is heavily influenced by Social Media.  Facebook has been vital in me sharing this blog so far, though I still need to set up a professional Facebook page.  I also use my Linked In account to share the news, but until recently that is as far as I dabble.  It can definitely be a time sucker if I allow myself to just browse mindlessly.  I discovered that when I set up my new Pinterest account.  However, it can also be utterly inspiring.  The ability to have others at your fingertips who share your passion or just believe you are worthy is priceless.  So, I decided to take Ms. Katie Davis's advise and set up a twitter account @paintdrawlove.  You should also be able to find me through my name.  

Please, if you follow me, give me time to figure out the lingo.  There is definitely a learning curve to this form of communication.  After my family goes to bed and the house settles down, my computer comes to life.  

I am also still working towards readying myself for August's conference.  I have been going through my check list and when I start to feel stuck in one area I can always find something else with a different slant that needs my attention.  Tonight I felt like drawing something and decided on my logo.  I will be needing business cards to share with any new contacts.  Please take a look at the sketch I came up with tonight.  Thoughts?  I would love to hear them.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

Thank you for reading!

Carrie

I've gotta make this one quick.  I feel terribly guilty for not keeping up on my once a week blog schedule and leaving folks hanging about my trip to the library.  Man out of town, sick baby, new all consuming pinterest habit... I know, Excuses! Excuses!  I'm back though and I have been working.  Let's get down to business.
The library reading went okay.  I learned an important lesson about proofreading materials before a presentation.  I decided to redo my dummy book to allow for larger pictures for the kids to see, so I used a folder with clear plastic sleeves.  Well, in filling the sleeves, I managed to reverse two of the pages.  I had even drawn on the pages that way and still didn't notice it.  It only became clear when somewhere in the middle of my reading I thought, hmm, that didn't make sense.  I'm sure none of the kids noticed, but it kinda threw off my flow and concentration.  Oh, well. C'est la vie.  It was fun practice chatting with the kids about how to make your very own book.  And when asked the question, "Did you think the story was interesting or boring?", they were nice enough to say interesting.
I also had my book club (generally grownup books) humor me and give me their input on the story.  And finally, I read it to a dear friend from Portland, OR, who was visiting.  She is an educator and was very helpful in reminding me about my grammar rules.  I get a little sloppy with independent clauses apparently.
So in the end, (that was an independent clause right there :) I was able to get my manuscript in the mail to arrive in L.A. yesterday for the professional consultation I will subject myself to at the SCBWI Summer Conference in August.

My next goal is to prepare to submit my story board, character sketches, and a couple of finished illustrations for July's deadline.  This will have to do with Illustrator's Intensive I'll participate in at the end of the conference.  Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been painting whenever possible this past week.  I'll leave you with one of my favorites.  I'm really working on improving my watercolor skills.  I will probably redo it at least one more time on nicer paper, but I think this captures some of the emotion I'd like my story to convey.  I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

Story Time

Our local librarian and 'Story Time' leader, Sheila, agreed to read my manuscript and give me her notes.  I definitely consider her an expert on reading to children, among other things.  Her story times have packed them in for years.  Here is an article from a couple of years ago, but it remains the same today.
http://richmondconfidential.org/2009/12/24/story-time-for-a-special-season/

She gave me some wonderful pointers for my next set of manuscript revisions and is encouraging me to read it at the library.  She said the kids will let me know if it works.  Yikes!  I suppose part of this business is an ability to do self-promotion and group talks.  I can read a book to a bunch of kids and parents....right?  I've managed to put it off until next week to rework my dummy.  I think it will be much easier to read if I have pictures to go with it.  They will just be black and white sketches, but it's better than nothing.  I expect this experience will allow me to hear some of the things that I can't when just reading to myself.

I really value women/people like Sheila.  It is so important to instill a love of books and learning.  She is someone who has dedicated herself to this task, remembering the dozens of names that pass through the library doors and making each child feel special and welcome.  That is really all it takes with kids.  They don't look for perfection.  They just want connection.  I'll try to remember that as I'm shaking in my boots next week staring into all those little faces.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012

Here is a happy little accident that happened while I was playing with some watercolors this week.  She makes me smile.

May 17th Illustrator Event

Tonight I went to a wonderful illustrators' event in Sausalito put on by our local SCBWI chapter featuring Lea Lyon.
http://www.lealyon.com/illustrations.html
Lea does amazing watercolor paintings and has illustrated several published books so far, with more in the works.  She lives not far from me and I hope to take one of her watercolor classes in the future.  She gave a lovely talk covering her path into the world of children's book illustrations focusing on the question of what makes an illustration work.  This was a small event, which allowed for participants to bring a favorite piece along with portfolios to be critiqued or analyzed by the book.  We weren't told until yesterday that this was part of the event, so I had a small freak out and then pulled a favorite line drawing from my files, traced it onto heavier paper using my light board, and started painting.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012.

Here is my original line drawing, which was obviously done on a sheet of notebook paper.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012.

Here is today's creation.  I used watercolor, some colored pencil, and ink.  I personally liked the original better, but I was encouraged by my fellow illustrators that this was good start.  Perhaps I'll try to redo it again soon and go with a darker background and scratch the silly star notes.  

The best part of this event was how it opened the group up to friendly and helpful conversation about our work.  It became a networking event.... or support group in a way.  I even connected with a couple of women who will be attending the L.A. conference in August.  Our work was all different.  Some people were skilled in digital illustration and had elaborate portfolios.  Several were like me with their book full of sketches.  One older gentleman came in with a simple folder, a few color copies, and one of the most beautiful prints I have ever seen.  His originals are on 1'x2' pieces of masonite, which he said will be left to his children, but he was hoping to sell prints and try his hand at illustration.  AMAZING work!  

Well, I don't want this to get too long.  I'd like to do a little painting before bed.  Sweet dreams all.