Well, it’s been two years since Kevin & I shared a cuddle at the Toronto 2005 Sci Fi / Horror / Comic Book / Anime Expo… sigh. And he still hasn’t called. hee hee.

Another tasty tip from Ideal Bite for designers (and everyone else) to save energy… set your computer to go to sleep automatically when not in use, and schedule it to shut down at night. My mac is set to sleep after 10 minutes of not being in use… but (gasp) I’ve been a bit bad with remembering to shut down at night. Thanks to Ideal Bite I’ve discovered Mac has a has an Energy Saver mode in the Preferences where you can schedule shutdown… so now that it’s set up I don’t have to feel guilty for not remembering! Yeah Environment! And when I’m feeling especially like a green geek, I can check how much energy I save with the Mac Energy Calculator.
So not all designers work on Mac, right? Check out this post by Ideal Bite, they have a few more helpful links for you PCers out there!

Ah, I’m really enjoying painting this last stretch… it’s all faces, and I’m one of those who subconsciously makes the same faces as the characters while I’m illustrating… a bad sign when the story’s about potty training! These still need some small tweaks to them, but are pretty close to done.

Another great post by Ideal Bite this week… I’m always on the look out for green alternatives to my art supplies, and the team at Ideal Bite did all the hard work for me with sourcing a few brands of environmentally friendly recycled pens & pencils available online & in shops. So keep your eye out for ‘em next time you’re in the market!

• Woody Pen - refillable pens made from sustainable birch wood ($13).
• Triggerwood Pencil - biodegradable, and created from scraps of wood from a sustainably managed forest; uses Pilot BeGreen refills, below ($6).
• Pilot BeGreen Rexgrip Pencil - made from 100% recycled plastic; refills here ($2).
• Wheely’s Pen - ballpoints made from plastic and recycled tires; refills here ($1).

And here are a couple I stumbled across as well :

• Recycled Jeans Pencils - made from min 20% recycled denim ($6 / 12pk)
• Forest Choice Coloured Pencils - made from sustainably forested California Cedar ($3 /12 pk)

Was shuffling through my library of children’s books again and stumbled across “The Leaf Men,” an oldie (published in 1996) but such a goodie. An endearing story about how even the littlest of us can do good in the world to make other people happy. The moment you start reading William Joyce’s children’s books, you feel like you’re a little kid again being read to by your parent… that feeling that you’re being told a grand story and are about to be taken on an adventure. There are stories written between the lines that aren’t even explained, but are left to your imagination which is really lovely. Coupled with the marvelous writing, William’s illustrations are delicious… one of my favourite children’s book illustrators, I particularly love his nostalgic style, mixing vintage colours with the modern stylization of characters. And most of all, I love his stories because they make me cry each time I read them.

© Heather Castles / Elizabeth Badowski

Thought I’d post these three illustrations for Elizabeth Badowski’s “The Brotherhood of the Stinky Underpants”… they’re about 95% finished, just some minor stuff to fix up.  Feel free to comment if you have any suggestions for me, now’s the time!!!

To see the previous step in the illustrations for “The Brotherhood of the Stinky Underpants,” click here.

A tasty coupon came in my email today for 25% off one full priced kids book at Borders in Australia, click here to print the voucher. (Valid until August 23, 2007)

Illustrations © Heather Castles, Story © Nina Saab

I’ve been having fun working with author Nina Saab on her first children’s book, “Bookie and the Scoliosis Diagnosis.” Scoliosis is when a person’s spine grows in a curvy ‘S’ shape rather than straight (you can learn more about Scoliosis on Wikipedia.) The story is a lot of fun, with great characters to illustrate. The book is going to be published in time for for the National Scoliosis Day in Ottawa, Canada this coming November 2007, so the deadline is tight, tight, tight! The sketches were approved just this week, and I’ll be starting the watercolour illustrations next week, so stay tuned! Here are a few sketches from the story…

The book opens with Bookie’s ballet teacher phoning Bookie’s Mom to tell her she thinks Bookie may have scoliosis. I love the ballet classroom setting, especially for little kids, as I always imagine the cute chaos as all the little angels attempt to do these beautifully graceful poses, all the while simply looking like a bunch of little girls pretending to be princessess in their tutus.

While Bookie’s mom is calling Dr. Healy (love her name,) Bookie and her brother listen in. I love it how kids sometimes have to peak up over tables and rails to see what’s going on.

Throughout the story, you’ll notice Bookie’s little brother, who is probably like most little brothers and wants to be included in all the action… and he’s right in the action here, whether he’s wanted or not! I love his enthusiasm for what his sister’s going through… even if he’s a little annoying at times, rummaging through doctor’s drawers… but I think he’s cute even if a little too curious!

This might be a bit oversimplistic… a big scary box for the X-Ray machine! I went and had an x-ray a few months back, and even though I’m an adult, I still found the unknown machine in front of me a little intimmidating, and couldn’t even remember what it looked like… just that it was big & scary! Which is why I didn’t try to make it exactly like a real X-ray machine… just big & mysterious and a little domineering for poor Bookie!

I love the expressions kids get when something scary but fun is about to happen… like getting told you’re going to get hit with a snowball. You tightly close your eyes and bunch up your fists and wait excitedly for it to happen! That’s the feeling I wanted to capture when Bookie was having her first X-ray done.

Heh, again Bookie’s little brother is interrupting Dr. Fixie Bones… gotta love him.

Okalie dokalie, will post some snaps of the watercolours once they’re all set up!

This reprinted Threadless Tee, Defend the Kingdom by kiwi illustrator Glenn Jones is my new favourite… it just captures so perfectly the warm childhood feeling of going to the beach and building the best sandcastle ever… and defending it from every stray beachball, foot, dog, and wave until it’s inevitably knocked down. Brilliant. Glen Jones just has such a playful style and brings a lot of humour to his illustrations… I didn’t realize I was already a fan of his work, Ben & I have a couple of his tees in our Threadless collection, including Dark Side of the Garden & Calling Home,

Well I’ve been a bit neglectful of sharing some of the things that captivated us while we were in India… we toured literally dozens of temples and tombs. The one I think we most amazed us were the Ranakpur Jain Temple, which had different carvings on over 1400 marble pillars, all unique. The marble ceiling carvings were my favourite though, as you look up and these perfect dials thirty or so feet above you while you find your way through a maze of pillars. It was overwhelming at times how much pattern & carving was everywhere… you almost get a bit desensitized to it. Here are a few of my favourites from all over India…

(Read on …)