Destination from Discipline

Be hellbent on the destination but flexible in the path to get there. If we get stuck in our ways and discouraged when things get tough along this creative filled path, we’ll lose our way entirely.

Metaphors aside, I forgot the ‘Word of the Year.’ So I found a new one.

Discipline

Discipline is the practice of training yourself or others to follow rules, maintain self-control, and reach specific goals.

We have always struggled as a DID system with self discipline and just tend to gravitate to the less resistance in any path. Our health isn’t at the peak we would like it to be. We could always push farther for our Studio work. And money has just now became manageable now that we found the right tools and systems to not hurt future us when we finally get ahold of it.

We wouldn’t be as far as we are in our creative practice if it wasn’t for the support of our partner. I don’t think he will even see this but he is told any chance we can about how great he is and how grateful we are. Hopefully you have someone like that in your lives as well. And if not, maybe we can be that for you! Having a support system to do something creative is a blessing we are loosing in this world.

Stay creative, Shadow Drops~ <3

that time of year again

Main welcome and directional sign for Chautauqua in the park, Chillicothe Missouri

It always starts to feel like fall when this market rolls around. [Even if we are still being bombarded by summer heat]

This will be our third year selling as a vendor at our local Chautauqua in the Park~ 2 different shows with our eyes set at Artist Alley at anime and MLP conventions. Still feels so far away but with each new set up, we are learning more and more to what it means selling our art in person.

Still, I can’t wait to sell ceramics. It’s sorely lacking in this town and would be a nice breath of fresh air to create something our degree would have some weight in!

Above are images of things we normally sell at in person markets. Art prints, handmade A5 6 ring binders, stickers, felt flowers, poseable art dolls, and fleece dragons. Just to name a few. Not pictured are 2.25 pinback buttons~!

Eventually, we will finally get stock updated here in store as on our Etsy to reflect all that we sell. Motivation has been slow though the want is still there~ If you are interested in anything pictured and it isn’t in the storefront please leave a comment, send a message via Discord app or Email and we will work with you for whatever sparks your creativity!

Cutting Stickers, in real time

Ahh~ The whirring and gears of ‘older’ tech.

Full video showing the time it takes to cut one of our sticker sheets into individual, matte stickers.

I love the thunk-a-chunk noises my cricut makes. It does give me troubles sometimes but it has earned its living here with us in the studio.

Really not much more to say other than, look forward to the new stickers in shop soon!!!! We have another blog post “Pride~2026” showing off what is to come but a few others are in the Shop tab as far as new merch, coming soon.

Is there anything you guys would like to see as far as behind the scenes in the studio? All is fair game! We haven’t really shown much yet. Comments are welcome~

PRIDE~ 2026!

Coming soon to a market near you~ Okay… cheesy, but here are some new products that you can find at Pride this weekend (6-26/27-2026). They will also be added to the shop soon as well! Bellow are images of fresh off the press merch~

Getting ready for a Pride market really kicked my butt into gear with finished these WIP that have been on the shelf for over a year… oof. Hurts to type that out, but here we are.

Keychain hangers for Pride Keychain~

The printer we have makes everything look like it has a noise filter when printing matte and honestly, we fucking love it.

Money Shot

I love how detailed my camera can get. The phrases Archer (alter) came up with are great~

On the whole

TADA~ Here is what the product will look like all together~ Designing the card to match what we will hang our buttons from as well was more fun than I thought. Cutting it out, not so much.

Next time, I’m using the cricut.

MLP on the brain

Just recently, we (Astel system and our partner, Chris) went to Whinny City. A ponycon local to Chicago. It was the first time we went to that specific con and because of it, I can’t stop drawing ponies!

This particular design is older but it still holds up to our main style. Reminds me I wanna let loose and do more with sketchy lines for other designs.

Liked the design so much, we made a sticker out of it~

I think my printer was getting tired. They aren’t as vibrant as they should be.

Can’t forget the fanart!

This particular design has been in the works for over a year~ Finally pushing to round out the sticker roster!

Find other stickers from Hazbin Hotel here!

WIP ~ The making of

Charlie stickers are in the works! Hope to get them added to the shop soon but they will be available at market this weekend for Pride~

Vaggie Enters the Chat

Another long awaited design by a few fans. She also waited more than a year to be completed. woops~ ‘>w>

Thoughts Under Construction…

Not sure if other artists are as scatterbrained as we are. But when you have multiple souls clamoring for useage of one outside vessel… it can be pretty chaoitc.

This page will more or less be trial and error for the lot of it to have a spot to post that isn’t other social media.

So far, it feels off… Not sure how well the whole site even does but at least we have it.

We miss streaming…

Streaming for about 2 years consistently and internet issues forced us to stop.

We miss it.

The partner hopes that we can get better (possibly fiber) internet when we get our house.
{When and if we get our house. HA}

06-17-2026 ARTFIGHT

We have done Artfight since 2018. It’s been a fun challenge to keep us drawing. Mostly digital but now with our interest back to our sketchbook, it may prove that we can do both this year.

https://artfight.net/~AstelianStudio

I’m personally tired of talking instead of just action so I won’t allow any promises like “A drawing a day” or “Draw for everyone that draws for us”

We will do what we can in the time we have. Market season is sketch as it is. ~Syn