http://blog.illustrationcastle.com - ramblings & advice from illustrator Heather Castles Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:52:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have been doing these big colour & play drawings for my kids over the last couple years... I find attention spans of toddlers & preschoolers can dwindle pretty quickly, so I draw a big picture that we can work together on a bit each day until it's finished. We ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2012/02/10/crafty-big-colour-play-drawings/ I stumbled across this tip at Stubby Pencil Studios... breathe life back into dried out water based markers by dipping them in water! I had a bag full of dried out markers I hadn't quite found another use for, so gave it a go. The method I used was : • ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2012/02/03/green-craft-rejuvenate-dried-up-markers/ Well, I've been off maternity leave, freelancing part-time for the last three months, only to go back on it again... am delighted to be expecting my third baby in August. So, I will be continuing my casual approach to blogging for a while longer! If you were thinking of contacting me ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2012/01/27/on-maternity-leave-again/ This is your (belated) holiday card :) Hope you had a happy and safe holiday with your family and friends! Was fun making Christmas Cards out of some of Hera's old drawings, a great way to reuse them. Hera & I glued the drawings down onto cheap holiday cards from ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2012/01/20/happy-holidays/ I've wanted to do this for years, and having a 3-year-old to do it with gave me the perfect excuse to have a go at making potato stamp holiday paper. Was an easy, quick craft... all you need is a small potato and knife to cut the pattern out of ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2011/11/20/christmas-craft-potato-stamp-paper/ I've just started working on illustrating and designing a new children's book, eeeeeee! Now that the contract was signed, the deposit received, and I'm ready to put pencil to paper, and thought I'd share my process as it's happening. 1) Setup :  30 minutes • Printing out copy of contract • Print ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2011/11/18/childrens-book-in-progress-step-1-setup/ I had the pleasure of receiving the news that another one of my children's books won a Mom's Choice Award (will keep you in suspense as I get more details!) Shortly afterwards I started to receive emails from Terry Doherty, Director of New Media & Alumni Marketing, with tips on ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2011/10/28/have-you-visited-your-website-today/ Has been a while since I've posted... still loving being off on maternity leave, my kids are keeping me busy! Halloween is around the corner... paper bats, kleenex ghosts, and paper mache pumpkins adorn our windows... and here in South Australia spring has sprung and the birds are singing, the ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2011/10/27/happy-halloween-free-colouring-page/ Hey guys, unashamedly asking for some Likes on this photo of my humble workplace up on ImageZoo's Facebook page! If I get the most Likes I'll get a lovely prize for having the coolest workplace among my colleagues with illustrations available at ImageZoo.com! Just click on this specific photo, and ... http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2011/07/14/coolest-workplace-in-the-zoo-contest/ I'm excited to announce that four of my illustrations are now available as royalty-free illustrations on ImageZoo.com! I did these watercolours nine months ago, right before Hank was born. You can check them out, along with the rest of my illustrations available royalty-free at ImageZoo. http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2011/07/13/four-new-royalty-free-images-up-on-imagezoo/