Another down-to-earth way to be responsible for the products we purchase: Eco-Libris encourages avid book lovers to donate $1 for each book they purchase, which will go towards planting trees to offset the consumed paper. You even get a nifty recycled sticker to put inside your book to boast it’s new green qualities.

While book publishers are starting to print books with more recycled & FSC-certified content, they are still a far cry from making books sustainable, which means the books we purchase & love are still not as “green” as they can be. While many other companies are going paperless, the book publishing industry depends on paper consumption as alternative resources are still too expensive for their bottom line. The more book lovers are concerned & aware of the impact the publishing industry has on their environment, the more pressure it will put on them to make changes towards sustainable books.

So booklovers, think of putting a little something back in the ground for the little something that was taken out to make your book. Check out Eco-Libris and donate to plant trees for each of your favourite books… or go all-out and make your home library greener! Buy a few extra stickers to stick in the books you give to your family & friends.

Illustrators & Authors can take it a step further… consider buying stickers to give out at your next book signing. Or check out Eco-Libris’ Publishers & Authors program to find out how you can print Eco-Libris’ logo on the cover of your upcoming picturebook!

Thought I’d share a photo of my little bundle of joy with you all… our daughter, Hera Castles, was born safe & sound on Feb 18th! Both Hera & I are doing well, and loving being at home with Daddy and Grandma & Grandpa. Such an incredible feeling being a mother now, I am loving getting to know our little girl and have just fallen in love with her. SO… back to maternity leave for me, baby & I need our rest.

“Fairy tales have always got to have something a bit scary for children - as long as you make them laugh as well” – Roald Dahl

Thanks, James, for making my day and sending me the link to this hilarious blogpost on Google Blogoscoped, Color Pencils Reviewed. It reads like a computer programmer’s review of a new software or electronic equipment… and the issues they’ve taken with the “color pencil devices,” such as “shrinking device size” and “sparse documentation” are a hoot! Here’s a little sample from the article… :

“Comparing the output from different devices. To the left is the original Garfield. In the middle, the disappointingly crude output of the color pencils. To the right side is something a Google search brought up in seconds; while in lower resolution, the colors and expression are a much closer fit.”

Environment Canada’s new website has a regularly updated list of rebates for going green by offering rebates & incentives on everything green from free energy saving lightbulbs to money back for monthly transit passes, making it that little bit easier to run a green illustration or design business.

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” – Pablo Picasso

As of this weekend, I’m going to be taking a “holiday” from illustrating & blogging for the next couple months, as my baby’s due on the 20th of February! While I likely won’t be able to respond to comments to my blog while I’m on maternity leave, I’ve put together some fun posts over the next few weeks to keep ya’ll interested ;) Will post a picture or two once the watermelon has been delivered… wish me luck!

Diane & Rich Cantrell just passed this review by Ernest Dempsey onto me for our book, “Good-bye, Baby Max:”

“Many children books are printed each month to amuse kids of varying ages. This colorful, hardcover children’s title Good-bye, Baby Max (Bridgeway Books, Texas, 2007) by Diane Cantrell & Heather Castles is special in its purpose of teaching an invaluable lesson: that of properly saying the final farewell to a loved one who is no more. The book tells the story of the unfortunate baby chick Max who doesn’t make it into life while his twins Dora and Spiderman appear healthy out of their shells. The kids, eagerly awaiting the birth of the chicks, are heartbroken over the death of Baby Max and so their teacher uses her wisdom and care to lead them toward the appropriate way of showing their love and expressing their grief.

The importance of involving children in mourning is increasingly being acknowledged by developmental psychologists since children do sense the loss no matter how much they are coaxed into believing that ‘everything is ok.’ By being left out with the ‘mystery’, their wee minds are inclined to conclude that something terribly wrong has happened; something that is not worth speaking. This sows the seeds of fear and detachment in their mental development. Being a Licensed Professional Counselor and former KG teacher, Diane Cantrell has created a very purposeful book for children-one that is at once a story, a poem, and a healthy course of helping children get over grief. The book’s illustrations by Heather Castles are very appealing to a child’s imagination. There is a good deal here in Good-bye, Baby Max to learn for children ages 4 to 8 years and the 32-pages book is a must read for all kids of this age category.”

I just finished painting the last of the illustrations for Tom Krause’s “The Little Boy’s Smile” Not a day too soon as I’m taking some time off for maternity leave tomorrow! I will to leave you in suspense as to how the rest of the illustrations turned out until they are all approved & sent to the printer… but in the mean time, here are a couple of my favourites from the book  :)

To see other posts about “The Little Boy’s Smile,” check out :

• The Little Boy’s Smile | One last sneak peak…
• The Little Boy’s Smile | Another Sneak Peak
• The Little Boy’s Smile | Step-by-step painting
• The Little Boy’s Smile | Sketches

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I illustrated this card last July for Hazy Jean’s 2008 Valentine’s line. I always like illustrating whimsical fairy tale castles… could have something to do with my last name, who knows. I used mainly watercolour with a smidge of coloured pencil, then added the linework in Illustrator afterwards to tie in with the font Hazy had chosen.