Who is Oscar Astoria Anyway?
It’s me, Heather! I’m a writer, illustrator and teacher based in Astoria, Oregon. I love satire, zines, comics, dopamine art and quirky illustrations. I gravitate to bold color and especially humor. I love being in the forest under a canopy of trees and even the Pacific Northwest rain as long as it’s punctuated with a few sunny days. I am really happy that you stopped by! If you’d like to take a deeper dive into my story and process, please see below.
Contact
GET IN TOUCH BY EMAIL OR THE SNAIL VARIETY!
oscarastoria.art
(at)gmail.com
P.O. Box 1092
Astoria, Oregon 97103
What I Make. . .
I create hand illustrated stickers, greeting cards & art prints. Common themes are dogs, cats, animals, nature & Oregon and/or Astoria designs. Please check back in for my Etsy store launch in May 2025!
I teach community writing workshops. My favorite workshop to teach is zine making. The world needs your zine! For examples of past workshops, click HERE. To hear about new workshops, follow my newsletter HERE.
ETSY SITE launching May 2025!
My Creative Background. . .
Growing up in a rural logging town, my access to art was through my mom who is an artist and community programs like 4-H. I like to say that I’m a “4-H trained artist.” As a child, I was obsessed with animals—particularly horses and dogs, but I also had guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, mice, hamsters and a turtle. I drew a lot of real and mythical creatures on scraps of paper or doodling at school.
Fast forward to my 30s. I spent a decade as a fine dining server and decided to go back to school to pursue my Master’s, but graduated at the exact worst time, 2008. When the recession forced me to seek work overseas in South Korea, I didn’t realize that it would be some of the best 3 years of my life. I returned to the states after a tragic event landed me in a rural hospital in Asia.
In 2015 created two illustrated coloring books to distract me through a period of intense trauma. It also helped to ease the strange kind of culture shock I was experiencing from coming back ‘home” when Korea had actually begun to feel more like home.
I started creating art on scraps of paper and eventually was able to round it all up into two books. When they were published, the encouragement and response was great, but I couldn’t keep up the momentum for very long because I was too busy with my teaching career. I have been selling those books sporadically for about 8 years wholesale and limited retail.
For years, I have been wanting to start an ETSY shop, and expand my wholesale offerings to stickers, greeting cards, art prints and who knows what else! I’d like to think I’m able to “run with all the horses” as my mom always says. This is why I’m launching an ETSY store in May of 2025. Please check it out!
I send all my heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported my coloring books from the very beginning! I’m excited to move to the next phase with Oscar Astoria.
Thank you again for visiting my site. Please visit again to see what’s new!
The name Oscar Astoria is from my dog Oscar who lived to be 20 years old. He even lived with us in South Korea for 3 years. He was a legend in his own right, a good chaos maker who could jump 5 times his height. He was tiny but mighty. Also in memory of “Trask,” “Lucky,” “Bodie,” “Jen-Dog”, “Ruffy,” “Reddy” and “Peaches.” My current dog is Walter, a Blue Heeler.
My Process. . .
I start with a sketch. . .
Materials
- Pencil, Pen, Paper Scraps & Gum Erasers: I still love the grip and texture of regular pen or pencil on paper. I have never been able to confine myself to an organized sketchbook. Ideas are jotted down on anything I can find to write on.
- I am a die hard fan of Palomino Blackwing Pencils for sketching.
- Micron Pens: I created my coloring books with Micron pens and Sharpies and I love combining Sharpie with other mediums.
- Procreate: I can’t recommend Procreate enough, especially for someone like me who is intimidated by expensive art supplies and struggles to keep them around. It’s very friendly to a person like me with no “formal” or traditional art training.
- Watercolor, Oil: I watched my mom oil paint growing up and did some paintings alongside her when I was learning. But the mediums I enjoy working in are easy to grab quickly when I have an idea, inexpensive and compact. This is why Procreate is such a great fit for me. I can digitalize my quirky ideas into finished
- Screen Printing and Fabric Stamping: My sister is an amazing screen printer and sold her t-shirts at Interzone Coffee in Corvallis. She taught me some tricks and for a time I sold my screen prints on canvas bags at the Sunday Market back in 2015. I sold at the Sunday Market back in 2015, but I stopped that because keeping inventory in my home was near to impossible for me. I don’t know if I will get back into screen printing, but I may do some limited runs of block printing on fabric in the future.
- Gouach: I am learning to paint in this medium currently.
- My Studio: I was lucky enough to secure a very tiny studio space in downtown Astoria at “The Maker’s Space/Art Collective.” I quickly discovered that I pretty solitary creator and going to a studio didn’t inspire me. After reading Stephen King’s Memoir about how he worked from a tiny corner of his attic, I gave my self permission to work in the quirky way that I like–impromptu drawings and ideas on scraps of paper. I simply work out of a converted closet space and part of a bedroom in my home.
This is a sketch I did in my notebook of my professor at OSU reading Chaucer in 1997. I love Procreate because I can now digitalize and share work like this one.
Thank you for visiting my site. Please come back again!
Website Designed by Oscar Astoria 2025
Made in Astoria, Oregon
Oscar Astoria News
Keep up on new products and general musings. . .