January 2023

The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron

/ Drawing, Process /

I took an online course on illustrating with Posca pens taught by James Chapman. He has posted lots of his sketchbook pages to his Instagram.

I had a couple Posca pens for a few years, but I hadn’t done much with them. I saw this course and thought it would be a great way to practice with Posca pens.

The course covers how to create a pencil sketch to get the composition down. Then it explores various color schemes to determine how to color the illustration. I especially like the challenge of limiting the number of colors used.

I like the process I learned in this course. It takes me several hours to finish an illustration, but I really enjoy the time I’m spending learning and practicing. I’ll share my illustrations here as I finish them.

The course encourages choosing a theme that will motivate you to keep working on sketches. I chose places in movies, TV shows, and books. First up is The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron.

Here’s the pencil sketch:

A pencil sketch of The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron. The Candy Bar is positioned to the right of the page's center. Behind the Candy Bar are buildings on the right and left.

I chose to go with realistic colors, so I used Posca pen colors that are close to what this location looks like in the show.

Here’s a progress photo, with the larger areas of color done:

Progress on the illustration of The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron. The sky, buildings, and street are colored in. What needs to be done includes window panes on the buildings, details on The Candy Bar building, and details in the street (like lane lines and shadows).

And here’s the finished illustration:

An illustration of The Candy Bar from Jimmy Neutron. The Candy Bar is positioned to the right of the center of the page. Behind The Candy Bar are buildings on the left and right sides.

I really enjoyed making this as my first attempt at a Posca pen illustration!

A book about writing better

/ Books

I’m not much for writing book reviews but I do like talking about useful things I read.

Cover of the book "This Book Will Teach You How to Write Better" by Neville Medhora

I saw This Book Will Teach You How to Write Better on a list of recommended books for copywriters. It’s paperback, only $5, and so I thought, yeah why not?

The book arrived and it is thin. Like, I might call this a zine except it’s bound like a book and has an ISBN. Thin isn’t bad. I was just surprised when I opened the box.

The book has practical advice and clear examples about writing effectively. Tips like writing in a casual voice, focusing on how the reader benefits, and simplifying complex ideas.

My favorite tip from the book is this: If you’re stuck on how to write something, try talking through it out loud. Record yourself. Transcribe the audio. Now you have a rough draft to work with. (This is what I use Day One for.)

If you want practical advice you can start using right away, this book is perfect.

If (like me) you’ve already read a bunch of books about writing, there’s probably nothing new here for you. But still, it’s a good refresher.

New category in my Etsy shop

/ Updates

A quick update.

I added a category in my Etsy shop called “Last chance.” This is for zines that I’m going to stop selling after my current stock runs out.

If you’ve had your eye on any of these, maybe get them sooner rather than later.

2022 zine stats

/ Zines

In 2022, I sold 330 zines! Here’s the breakdown by month:

MonthNumber of zines sold
January39
February27
March36
April20
May10
June21
July37
August28
September32
October27
November31
December22

I put my Etsy shop on vacation mode for at least a week each time in May and December, so I’m not surprised that sales were lower those months.

To date, these are my most popular zines (by number of copies out in the world):

I’ve really enjoyed making zines the past few years and meeting zinesters in the community. I’m looking forward to more of that in 2023. 🙂

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