FAQs for Kastemel and Weight-Gain Illustrated on DeviantArt:

Who are you?  How did you get in my house?
-I'm a 20 something male student and I draw WG/BBW fiction, that's everything I think is really important.  Also, you should lock your windows more carefully, I can climb like a spider monkey.

What's 'Kastemel' mean?
-I could get smartassy and existential here, but I'll leave out the semiotics for now.  It's not Kast a Meal, it's not Kastamal, and it's not an anagram of Let me sak, Stale Kem, or El Kats Me, although really no one has ever thought it was. Ka-Ste-Mel is the combination of the beginning of three girls' names, the first three girls that were privy to my WG fantasies in real life.  If I were to come up with a new handle now those three names would be different, but Kastemel is pretty recognizable I suppose.  I've been using it for 7 years online.

Who's your avatar?
-That's Stacy!  A character I had(have) grand designs for, but haven't been able to really use much yet.  She's a cute character, and I know she's still skinny but that makes her like a clean slate in my book.  She's sort a mascot for me.

How did you get started in the first place?
-I discovered the WG/FA community very soon after I discovered the internet.  Back then it was all Dimensions for stories and Stuffed Online for art.  My earliest artwork dates back to 2001, I believe.  In April 2002 I founded my first Yahoo group to host my art and promote sharing of other's artwork in the absence of the now-disbanded Stuffed Online.  In the winter of 2004 I got my scanner and was able to make the shift from mouse-drawn images to hand drawn art, and began the clumsy self-tutelage in the ways of digital image alteration and coloring.  In November of 2006 I signed up for my DeviantArt account, and by 2007 I had basically abandoned the Yahoo sites due to a lack of space, an abundance of spam, and lack of a decent discussion space.  In the future I would like to have a website separate from DA for hosting and sharing my work, but don't have any current plans to  acquire a domain.

Explain yourself!  Why do you draw what you draw?
-Go-Go Psychoanalysis!!:  I drew fat girls when I was a kid, almost immediately after discovering sexuality.  I don't know from where this impulse arose, but I have analyzed my current interests lately and come up with the following:  I draw women who either are already fat by society standards, are gaining weight, or both.  I have an appreciation for the curvy female form that is congruous with classical standards of beauty and with my own ideals of what the feminine body means as opposed to the male body.  At the same time I also find pleasure from the process of weight gain itself, separate from it being a means to an end (the end being a curvy woman where once was a thin one).  This can be classified as a fetish, where the object of arousal is the fat itself, not the body it constitutes.  The process of weight gain also establishes a narrative of power in which the female body is subjected to change, often against the will of the female in question.  Creating weight gain art and stories is a means of asserting power over female subjects within the narrative.
Drawing these drawings and telling these stories is a means of expression and release for what is often a frustrating set of desires.  While appreciating curvier women is accepted to a (limited) degree by society, the weight gain fetish is almost entirely frowned upon.  Representing it in my art is an outlet.  It is inherently sexist, because this material is inherently about sex at a deep level.  Even though my work is never pornographic in nature, it is erotic on certain levels, and it is always about the framing of the female body as an object.  I acknowledge this but do not apologize for it.  I do my best not to dip to distasteful levels of misogyny, and I regret if my work is construed as such.  I hope that the appreciation of the female form and the representation of my characters as slightly-more-than-pure-fanservice is evidence of my respect for women, even while my manipulation of their bodies belies my frustration and desire for them.  I draw to complete what is absent, making my art itself a fetish.  (thank you Freud)

Do you do requests/commissions?  Are there kinds you won't do?
-Sometimes?  Honestly I'm pretty bad about this.  I abandon projects all the time if they don't really hold my interest, and sadly other people's requests often mean something to them but there's little satisfaction in it for me.  As for commissions, I haven't deduced any way to get money from the internet yet, so for now that's also a no.  I could conceivably work for money if I could guarantee that I'd be able to deliver on time and of suitable quality, so once I figure that out maybe we'll talk.
As for request I will probably never do?
-Most anime characters.  Nothing personal, it's just that I probably am not familiar with them and therefore would not be able to produce a good picture of them.  It's just not something I'm into.
-Most superheroines.  Odd, because I dig comics and superheroines, but most of them don't connect with me in the sort of way I could sexualize and add weight to.  I'd honestly have a hard time fattening most superheroine's up because their physique is such a vital element to their character.  I'm weird, I know, I just know this is something that I'm likely to not wanna do.
-Furries.  Once again, outside my realm of interest, even though I do enjoy some furry art if the basic human aspects of the figure are appealing.
-Inflation.  Tangental to my line of work, and once again, sometimes catches my interests, but outside my comfort zone for drawing.
-Male WG.  While I'm not going to disapprove of this, as a heterosexual male I'm afraid that combining the male figure with my own fetish for females would break my mind.  Not to mention I'd have no idea where to start.  Sorry guys/ladies.
Those are most of the things I've been asked to do.  I'm partially open to other suggestions.  What you CAN do is offer requests for things you like to see worked into my next pinup or WGIU.  Offer some suggestions for attire or poses, and I might be inspired by it.

Who/what inspires your characters? Random strangers, loose acquaintances, close friends?
-Several of them are based on ex-girlfriends, simply because their forms and personalities have made a strong impression on me.  Others are based on some of the first BBW models I swooned for back when I discovered the online FA/WG community, with their personalities developing to fit.  In the past 2-3 years I have gotten involved reading tons of webcomics, ones like Questionable Content and Scary Go Round feature largely female casts and inspire other characteristics for the behavior of my characters.  Sometimes a random stranger will strike me with a certain outfit or pose or body type, and if possible I'll apply it to one of my characters.  For instance,  Heather's brown tracksuit was inspired by a girl I passed on the way to class.  Lastly, my characters develop based on narrative need.  I try to make my characters varied in personality and style so things don't get boring, although I admit that Brigit and Danielle share a lot of stylistic inspirations.

Who are your influences?
-Anything worth it.  I've often said I draw upon a massive collection of photos of both BBW's and skinnier ladies for my drawing purposes, and I'm not joking.  This "library" might be considered a "vault of smut" to some, and it is!  But it's also essential to my artwork.  Most of it.  Some of it's just for fun.  I am but a man.
In terms of other artists, I have long considered SketchVG to be one of the masters that got me into this.  His take on SuperSized women is very crucial to how I envision and represent these larger than life figures.  More recently, I have considered Ramstar a sort of textbook on inking and line technique, while I look to The American Dream for his sense of volume and size apparent in his larger ladies.  Whenever I find myself stuck or looking for something new to try, I look through my collection of other artist's work and try to synthesize something new out of it.  Sometimes I will redraw another's work, but only for the intention of posting it as an acknowledged tribute.

What's your favorite thing/part to draw?
-Faces are a joy to draw when you're on a roll and they come naturally.  The prettiest drawings I make are the ones that come out on the first try.  It's a luck thing, or maybe a matter of being in-the-zone.  I also find great joy from drawing the torso in profile, I enjoy curved spines and prominent bellies, making Megan, Lindsey and Katie a lot of fun to draw.  The fatter girls are nice too, but drawing them requires more thought and planning.
What I DON'T like to draw are hands (like face, if you don't nail it on the first try, it's going to be hell to fix), architecture, and male characters. I'm slowly getting better at the latter, though.

Do you have a favorite character?
-If any of these girls were real, I would hang out with Danielle.  In my imagination, she is playful, cheerful, defiant and warm.  Also, she secretly loves video games.  
Meg is one of my favorites to draw, and I empathize with her for some reason.  She's a deep character in my mind, something I hope I will able to portray in the comic eventually.    
Katie and Brigit sprung from my mind fully formed, and together they represent the kind of girl I am most interested in currently.  I look forward to the story I have to tell for them.

Describe/draw your perfect lady.
-Brunette or Black Hair, Blue or Green eyes, fair skin, 5'5"ish, 160-170 (with possibility for growth) pounds well distributed with a little extra in the back and bit of a muffin-top, artistic, stylish, classy but sexy.  (or, just combine Katie and Brigit.  I only just now realized that, while typing.)  Of course... it's silly to describe my perfect woman, both because I really haven't met her yet, and because I've met several of her.

Pepsi or Coke?
-I'll drink either (diet of course) if I'm out and about, but for my fridge I only buy Diet Coke because it mixes better with whiskey.  True story.

Do you prefer to draw the detailed pinups or the lively WGIU episodes?
-The pinups are more tedious, but paradoxically less time consuming.  WGIU's are in comic form, which is where my interests and passions have been focused for some time now.  My perfect world would involve me owning a wacom tablet and a faster, stronger computer so I could draw WGIU digitally and in half the time, while also possessing better clarity and possibly (gasp!) color.  To answer more concisely, I enjoy the comic more, but I'm burdened by the process.  The pinups, however, give me a chance to define the girl's faces better, and that in turn influences how I draw them in-comic, so they are a usefull exercise.  I also enjoy the finished-ness of the pinups.

How long it takes you do to a WGIU, a pin up, a more general sketch, etc.?
-This depends.  A pinup can be done in one night, 5-6 hours (usually not focusing all my attention on the computer in the coloring stages, this is while checking emails, chatting, looking at pictures, etc).  Often there are a few days where I sit down and make a wild sketch but it doesn't grab me, then eventually I come up with something.  Other times I realize I have 2 days before the first of the month and force myself to get it right on the first try.  Most typically, the drawing, inking, and coloring are all done on separate nights.
WGIU episodes vary.  I can draw one full 9.5x11 page in one sitting, over the course of anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours depending once again on how focused I am.  With recent WGIU's using up to 7 pages of drawings, this can take a while.  Honestly though, I cheat a lot with these in terms of poses and anatomy, I tend to place a handful of full length body shots in to give the readers some eye candy and the rest is just faces and exposition.  If my comics ever get too talky I hope someone sets me straight.  After scanning, the formatting and writing of the comics (I only have vague ideas of the dialogue in mind while I write, these aren't "written" until I have to figure out what's going to fit in the bubbles) takes from 1 to 2 hours.
I can do quick sketches if I'm warmed up or in a drawing frame of mind, otherwise I usually have to usually work through a couple that suck and labor over them.  I can do a simple funny-paper cartoon from idea to complete execution in 1-2 hours.

How do you know every time what size to make your character when drawing them, i.e. how do you know how big X pounds is?  
-I have no idea, which is why I tend to not declare what weights the girls are at.  I only have a vague notion of their height, and while some girls I imagine having greater muscle mass, the variables involved make estimating weights a nightmare.  When necessary though, I base the estimates on real life situations (you'd better believe I keep track of what my girlfriend's have weighed).  This gives me a few specific sizes and weights I can go off of for different body types, and I just give or take as needed.  I have a few photos of larger gals with the weight referenced and these come in handy where my personal experience is lacking.

When you make a girl gain, do you make her lips bigger or the same?
-The same.  I find that less is more when fattening up the face.  I even hesitate to draw the cheeks puckering up over the edges of the mouth so you get something like this: )=(  It just doesn't look right.  I do indulge in double chins, but with restraint.

What are your upcoming projects? Is there an "end" in sight?
-WGIU has a long running plot ahead of it.  There are multiples trajectories for different characters, some will interconnect and some will not.  I was concerned when I began that in a comic with "Weight Gain" in the title, all of my characters would wind up becoming immobile, and I'd be left with a stable of helpless women.  While this is not entirely undesirable, it doesn't leave much room for the narrative, so I've devised a few situations where characters can hit a stable weight and continue being interesting.  A few girls will hit immobility, but I have no plans for a permanently immobile character.  Even in my twisted reality, I can't see much of a point to it.
As far I planned the storyline for WGIU, the end of the major big arc I've already started will finish just as another side story comes into effect.  I don't know where it will go from there, but it will still have momentum.
I have other stories I would like to tell, but I have to wait when the time is right.
I have a couple awesome story premises in my mind, but I don't know how to see them through.  We'll see if I get the gumption anytime soon to throw down the couple hours it takes to pour out a shitty story and go from there.

Will the Junk Food Pageant ever come back, hopefully being won by Miss California? :D
-I was thinking that the Junk Food Pageant idea could be ressurrected in the form of a collaborative art trade event, with each artist picking a representative contestant.  Each artist would submit images according to the different events of the pageant (many would be analogous to the Miss America routine, others would be twisted in typical WGI fashion) and other DA-ers could vote for the winner.  I haven't asked anyone if they'd be interested yet.  This was not the super secret collaborative project I announced in September.

Will [X] be continued anytime soon?
-Bloaters:  Yes.  It has one more part to it, which I have plotted out but not written.
-Tribal:  I don't know.  I'm kind of not inspired by this one anymore, I didn't realize it was such a favorite.
-Fatgirl:  I'd actually love to resurrect this one as a slick, vector art comic but it's just not coming together.  Fatgirl's not gone however, you'll find references to her in WGIU.  She's actually running around in that universe.
-Any other stories:  I've mentioned before that I really don't think I'm so great at written fiction.  My prose is hopelessly purple, like the worst kind of fanfic only with better grammar.