Cupcake monster!

Sigh, only a small post for now, and it's a little canvas painting! I've been working hard making loads of these (plus cards!) as there are many birfdays fast approaching, so I need to create ART (cheap) pressies for my friends :D I'll post 'em all once the birfdays have take place...don't want any sneaky eyes getting a preview of their pressie...¬_¬

1 birfday passed tho - a friend had her 30th, and so a cupcake monster was born!

Om nom nom

Overgrown office

Next environment! An overgrown, abandoned office, no-one's been here in awhile...(human at least!) so now it's been left to nature. :)

The birds like it!

Enjoying doing these, maybe I'll do a character next! Ooooorrr...I might redo Flea's Journey but in Illustrator so it's all in vector, much handier. :)

Red Riding Hood's Rainbow Forest

As the title says! Red Riding Hood's forest isn't suuuuch a creepy place to live in, but it's still for sure pretty unusual. :) The wolf hasn't yet been sighted...

I'm sure it's safe..

Next up I did a painting for my bf, to celebrate our one year anniversary, aaw :3 Kebab also turned  this day!

Kebab!

More environments to come! Maaaybe an interior next...

Mountains and monsters!

Hallo! Ooo it's been awhile hasn't it? Sorry I haven't updated in a month or so, I've been a lil bit busy! Firstly, I have a job atm with Finger Food Studios, doing secret stuff, but it's great fun :) Secondly I was in Vancouver seeing my twin sis for 2 weeks - loved it! But yes, time for an update.

So, did another environment piece, this time incorporating lots of textures, so it's kind of mish mash matte painting/concept. I quite like working this way :)

I drew somewhere I'd quite like to visit...

Secondly I did a little painting for a wedding I attended last weekend - congrats to Stefan and Tobias! 

Love!

Ooo and don't forget, you can still buy a copy of my children's book 'Flea's Journey', it's quite cute, both little kids and big kids will like it ;) Click the link below to take a look! (and make use of Google translate, I'm afraid it's only available on German Amazon for now)

http://www.amazon.de/Fleas-Journey-Astrid-Castle/dp/3937194584

Flea's Journey is available to buy!

Great news!! My childrens book 'Flea's Journey' is finally available to buy, yaaay! It's hardback, and very pretty indeed :) Why not pick up a copy? For all of this month it's 8.90, bargain! 

Click the link below!

http://www.amazon.de/Fleas-Journey-Astrid-Castle/dp/3937194584

I'm so chuffed to have this book finally published, have wanted it for a long time :) Am hoping to make more, that's be wonderful!

Yay!

The Cavern Guardian

More playing around with palettes and environments :) Here we see a tiny lone warrior, who has made it through a dark creepy cave, and is near the very end of his journey, and has entered the last cavern...but a large Guardian awaits. : | (this place has a bit of a 'boss arena' feel to it, hehe)

Uh-oh...

I wanted to play with a nice palette, and make it look almost dream-like :)

Environments galore!

Yay, environments!! I'd promised to do more of these ages ago, so here are some! More will be coming, I bet :) First off, we have a more traditional style one, haven't done one like this in awhile...There's a sorceress lady looking out to the horizon - what on earth is that in the distance?? Giant statue? Or is it...alive? And is it good or evil? Hmmm....

Next are 2 'environments' that are more like screenshots for a game..they were for a little test I did, with a Little Big Planet vibe. :) This was great fun to do, loved doing all the different textures :D

A funky forest! (The black silhouetted character was placeholder)

A desert scene :)

Pre-order Flea's Journey!

Hey guys n girls! My illustrated children's book, Flea's Journey will be published next month, so why not pre-order a copy now? And for the first 2 weeks it'll be 8.90 euros! Bargain! It's not out til later in August, but won't it feel good to have a copy saved? :D

Click the link below to pre-order your copy on Amazon! 

http://www.amazon.de/Fleas-Journey-Astrid-Castle/dp/3937194584

Creepy Friday fun!

Some Friday creepiness! ...Or is it really creepy? There appears to be a ghost approaching a tent surrounded by glowing candles and butterflies; but what's the meaning? Is it like a moth to the flame...or some sort of sacrifice? : |

More playing with Illustrator (with some help from PS!) Don't usually do environments like this, but thought it'd be fun to try, something bold and vectory :) Have a nice weekend!

 

Cuties and a cup!

More playing with illustrator, thought I'd do a little gang of cute things! A proud frog, a fluff with a pet butterly, a clueless tortoise, happy cupcake, angry dog and a scared hedgehog awaiting the popping of the balloon!

:D

Next is a teacup and saucer for a friend visiting soon, with 2 fluffs collecting magical pollen plants. :3

Excuse my hand in shot, was difficult to stop the cup rolling around!

2 Sparkly bags!

The bag sparkles!

A lil Kebab

2 bags, for 2 lovely ladies! One is a pink bag with blue and black glitter pen, featuring a tree spirit guarding a sleeping spirit underground, for a fantastic friend I haven't seen in ages who is visiting later this month. :D The other is a mini bag with a mini Kebab, for a friend and her cute daughter! A digital pic coming up next!

The mum birfday update!

An update purely for my mum :) (and mum if you're looking at this, look away now!)

It's her birthday on the 9th, so I wanted to make a few things for her - first off a bag with the picture I made a few posts ago - glitter pen for the tree, lady and Flea! Next are 3 little canvas paintings mum had wanted of our 3 past cats (the grey is George, the tabby Cid, and the black Raz) Lastly we have mum's birthday card - she won't be happy with me putting her age on there, haha ;)

Blorange!

George, Cid and Raz

Kebab riding a giant fluff!

So Happy Birthday Mum!! xxx

Water beasties!

A little gang of underwater beasties (but is the big guy hiding in the background friend or foe??)

Raaawr!

More Illustrator fun - tbh it's hard to draw here at the moment tho, as it's ridiculously hot and my room has turned into a sauna! I'm not cut out for hot weather - gimme rain, mist and gloom anyday (then I can see my Cintiq screen better too, haha ;)

The Haunted Tree

More playtime with Illustrator :)  This is a very worrisome tree...a ghost haunts it but it is bound to the tree; nevertheless, it must be guarded at all times!

Just a quick reminder that Flea's Journey (my little children's book) will be released in the next month or 2 - more news when it's finally out! :D

Click here to see more info!

The front cover :)

Ice-creams and dinosaurs!

Grrrr!

Lalalaaaa

More playing with Illustrator, just simple cute lil pics (the sort of thing that could work on a t shirt or a card, maybe?) Here we have a monster who's dropped his ice-cream - devastating, we can all agree. : | Then a very happy dino, singing in the rain!

Sequin the Mermaid meet Flea!

More Illustrator fun :) Loving the crispness of those vectors...*drool* So I decided to take a page from Flea's Journey (where Flea meets Sequin the Mermaid) and do a coloured vector version; I quite like the result. :)

Hi Sequin!

Also made another bag for a friend who loves a very particular paw-print design, as seen below!
 

All hail the paw!

Kebab Bags, Illustrator and more!

A mix of media! All sorts in this update :) Firstly, we have 2 bags - Kebab bags! Kebab the hedgehog likes to be seen, and what better way then on a bag? Hard to tell from the photo, but it's actually a glittery black, very fabulous ;D

Just a textile pen on a usual type of canvas bag :)

Little Kebab! Kept my hand in shot for size comparison

  

Next, I've been playing with Illustrator too, just doing a colourful silhouetted piece, featuring Kebab and Brush and friends :) Would have been nice to make Flea's Journey with this, I think...

The coloursssss!!

  

It was also my boyfriend's birthday recently, so I did a painting for a butterly for him - yes it sounds silly, but I joke with him a lot over the German word for butterly, which is 'schmetterling', which to me sounds like some sort of war cry ;)

*Screams in a loud voice* 'SCHMETTERLING!'

 His presents were then presented to him in a brown bag...the brown bag looked a bit dull tho, so I spruced it up a bit! :D All for now! More Illustrator experimenting and bags soon, I suspect :)

: |

Cousin It's Cousin!

Ooh look - it's Cousin It's Cousin! He's enjoying a nice, summery evening, off for a walk...or glide. :)

Just a lil sketch, learning more on lighting and mood, tis fun!

Hiii!

More cups n coasters!

Birfday coasters!

The commissioner wanted a dog, a horse and a fish for his boy Valentin :)

Everyone's fave naughty bear...

A few bits and bobs I've made recently, mainly lil commissions and birthday pressies for friends! (Busy birthday time of year, this!)

Light and dark portrait sketch

Yay digital, it's been awhile! (my book Flea's Journey doesn't count, not ready yet ;) Just playing around with darkness and minimal light, in a quick-ish study here. It was such a dark piece I could only work on it at night, my room's too bright in the day!

I was playing some of the Rayman game on the PS Vita yesterday, and it's unbelievably gorgeous, must have been a dream for artists to work on! It totally inspirted me to do a stylised background tho, so I feel an environment piece in the works!

Colourful coasters :D

Just a lil update - absolutely loving making these bead things, addictive!! A digital update 
*will* be coming, promise!!

Some naughty amoungst the nice ;D

Nice little coasters! Chalky surveys in the background

Large paintings, coasters and cups!

Oops! Bit of an absence for a few weeks - but that's cos my mum was visiting me! :) I still managed to get stuff done though of course :D

So first off, I've been commissioned to do a large canvas painting, based on the bird colossus from Shadow of the Colossus, in silhouette form (my usual way of painting :) It's pretty large, at almost A0 size, was *great* fun to do! Pretty tricky at times tho, with 2 longhair persians being very nosey and wanting to see what's going on! Would love to do some more huge canvas pieces like this (feel free to request!)

The final piece!

Some WIP! As you can see, Curry and Chalky were very interested...

 Next up, I've been playing around with those funny little plastic beads that you can use to make colourful pics, or in my case, coasters! Why not have a nice colourful coaster to rest your cup of coffee/tea/alcohol on? ;) Some of these are gifts...I'm especially fond of the 'shit' one, it just looks so colourful and happy ;)
 

I know these are usually given to kids to keep them entertained, but hey, I'm a big kid ;p

A sense of scale for ya!

And of course, there's a new cup! This is for aunt back in England, she requested one of Kebab the hedgehog - here we see him inspecting a small flower in the snow! (He has his trusty friend Brush in tow too :)

 

Cups, cups n more cups!

All for now, I can get back to doing more stuff again (tho I am ofc sad to see mum go back home to London ;_;) Am sure there'll be another update very soon...

Cups, teacups and phone stickers :)

 Got a little production line of hand painted cups going! Trees, oggs, cat paws, whatever you want! ;) And if you reading this would like one, feel free to message me! I ship all over the world! And hey, it doesn't have to be only cups - plates too, whatever you like. :) This is good fun tho, all this cup painting :D
Coming soon....and A2 canvas painting request! I will post some making of images of it as soon as I start it...

This one's for a friend who wanted this particular style of tree :)

An 'ogg' cup! Actually quite small, but a little cutie

For a friend who loves this cat paw, and also the little poem from Big Bang Theory

 Oooo and hey look! I requested the 'Kebab and Brush' iphone cover sticker from my shop, and it arrived today! Quite nice quality, sticks very well. :)

Hunger Games cups gift!

More cups! Yes MOOOORE. A friend of mine wants to give a gift to her sister in America, and asked for Hunger Games themed cups, specifically 1 of Katniss, and of Finnick, so here we are. :)

The Katniss cup, with her famous bow and arrows. Also had the idea to have Rue sitting in the tree (and no she's not aiming at her!)

Finnick, with his trident, approaching a forest with the crazy monkey mutts, and then the bottom images shows both cups and saucer together. :)