Hey! I’m Heather Castles, a Canadian illustrator and designer based in Adelaide, Australia. I studied at Capilano College’s Illustration & Design Program from 1999 - 2002, and since then have been busy illustrating & designing to my heart’s content. My portfolio is full of children’s books and greeting cards… and if you really want the technical details of what I can do, you can check out my resume.

The journey is just as important as the final product for me… my goal is to make the process fun & worry-free for my clients by happily accepting feedback, providing prompt communication and clear concepts, and deliver on-time.

If you’d like to chat about an upcoming project or shoot the breeze about illustration in general, feel free to contact me!

Environmentally friendly design & illustration : I’ve taken steps to green my small business (read about how you can be a green designer / illustrator here!) While it’s taking a while to unlearn bad habits, the transition to a greener way of working has been worth it.

What’s in my supply kit : Derwent studio coloured pencils, Arches medium 300lb watercolour paper, Windsor Newton finest pure red sable watercolour brushes, Windsor Newton / Daler Rowney tubes of watercolour, Georgian Rowney / Windsor Newton oil paints, Van Gogh oil pastels, Grumbacher charcoal, no-name brand masking tape, no-name brand kneaded erasers, Tuff Stuff eraser pencils, and Staedtler pencil sharpeners.

What’s on my bookshelf : My favourite book in my collection is The World of the Dark Crystal. A few of my favourite children’s books include ‘Santa Calls,’ ‘Tub Boo-Boo,’ and ‘The Leaf Men’… you can check out all of the children’s books in my library here. For young adult books, Roald Dahl is hands down my favourite author… and you can check out some of the other young adult books in my library here.

My loverly my studio :

What I’m listening to while I’m illustrating : the Just One More Book podcast; The soundtracks to Juno and Garden State; the tv series’ Black Adder I-V, Arrested Development (1-3), and most essential, the original, The Office (1&2 plus the Christmas special).

My daily blog intake : GreenBiz, Drawn!, A Green Idea, Craftzine, No!Spec, AdVerbatims, SomethingCreative.ca, AccidentalCreative.com, How Design forum, Designwire, and On-My-Desk. If you really want a peak into the extent of my internet geekiness, these are all my saved links at delicious/heathercastles.