Test copies

This week I’ve been making minor edits to my new mini zine, Left-brained art.

After I drafted text and images, I printed a test copy. Then I used a red pen to mark edits and changes.

Back to Canva to make edits and then print a new test copy.

More red pen.

Repeat until I’m happy with how everything looks.

Contributor zine: Urban Legends

“Urban Legends” is a quarter-page zine that collects art and writing about urban legends, myths, and folklore. Eighteen people contributed stories, poetry, illustrations, and collages. Work was submitted from the U.S., Canada, Scotland, Belgium, and Germany

Auto-generated description: A hand holds a book titled Urban Legends, which features artwork and text about urban myths, folklore, and legends on its cover.

The finished zine is 36 pages (including covers); 4.25" wide x 5.5" high; printed in black & white; and bound with staples.

The cover is white cardstock. Interior pages are 24 lb white paper.

I’m mailing copies to contributors this week. Limited copies are available in my Etsy shop.

Urban Legends is also available as a digital zine. You can download it for free on Ko-fi (or pay what you want).

Check out a few of the pages:

Auto-generated description: A book is open to a page titled Crazy Jones by C.F. Robert, featuring a personal narrative about childhood experiences with an Indian Guides group. Auto-generated description: An illustration of a woman with long hair holding a scythe, seated by a moonlit backdrop with the title ARDUINNA at the top. Auto-generated description: Holding an open book, the visible page contains a story titled Ogopogo by Christine Hart, discussing a personal experience with the legendary creature.

Zine station success

Yesterday I ran a zine-making station at a public library fundraiser. 🙂

The library had a Fall Fair with a bake sale, raffles, magic show, and games. Arts and crafts tables were inside the library. Here’s the zine-making station.

Auto-generated description: A library table set up for a crafting activity is covered with art supplies like markers, glue sticks, and colorful paper.

The library provided magazines, scrapbook paper, markers, glue sticks, scissors, and plain white paper. I brought copies of How to make a mini zine and What’s a zine?

This is the first time I’ve done a zine event with kids. Having collage materials definitely helps, so kids don’t have to write something on the spot.

Two girls spent about an hour and a half at the table, making two zines each, because they said they were having so much fun. 🥹

I think if I do more kid-focused zine events, I might make some kind of template that they can fill in. Having more of a guide might be a nice option besides having a blank piece of paper.

Here’s a zine I made during some downtime.

A hand holds a small zine titled My favorite Fall Things with autumn leaves on the cover. A hand holds pages 1 and 2 of the zine, which includes the text: apple pie, apple dumplings, apple cider, and apple turnovers. At the bottom of the page, there's a photo of a basket of apples. A holds pages 3 and 4 of the zine, with phrases like Fall colors, changing leaves, sunsets. There's a small sun illustration. A hand holds pages 5 and 6 of the zine. The text says, holidays, Halloween, Nov. 14 is my birthday! and Thanksgiving. Decorative orange and brown patterns are on the edges of the paper. A hand holds the back of the zine, which features floral and celestial designs, titled Mythical Type, with event details for the Wernersville Public Library Fall Fair in September 2024.

What's a zine?

“What’s a zine?” is an 8-page mini zine that you can download and print on your own. It includes a brief introduction to zines: what zines are, some historical highlights, and common formats.

Auto-generated description: A hand holds a mini booklet titled: What's a zine? a brief introduction.

The zine is available on Ko-fi for free (or pay what you want).

The PDF is sized to print on one sheet of 8.5 x 11-inch paper (standard U.S. letter size).

This zine is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which means you’re welcome to distribute and share copies for non-commercial use.

If you don’t know how to fold this kind of zine, search for “how to fold an 8-page zine” on YouTube to find tutorials.

Washi tape as collage pieces

I’m working on a new zine, and I want to share some process pics with you. 🙂 I’m making pages with black and white illustrations and then using washi tape to make collage elements.

Here’s how I’m doing it.

  1. Draw the picture in black ink.
Auto-generated description: A drawing features a simple depiction of the Earth with stylized continents and a smaller circle resembling the moon, both using striped and dotted patterns.
  1. Lay a piece of tracing paper over the drawing. With a pencil, outline the area where washi tape will go. For this page, I wanted a curved shape around the planet.
Auto-generated description: A hand-drawn design of Earth and a crescent moon is shown on a piece of tracing paper placed over a cutting mat.
  1. Use washi tape to cover the area outlined in pencil. I kept even lines of tape but you could overlap pieces or rip the tape into smaller pieces.
Auto-generated description: Decorative tapes with star patterns are arranged on a piece of paper, all placed on a cutting mat.
  1. Flip the tracing paper over. Use scissors to cut along the pencil line.
Auto-generated description: A collection of colorful brick-like shapes arranged in an arch pattern is placed on translucent paper over a cutting mat.
  1. Glue the washi tape piece onto the drawing.
Auto-generated description: A paper cut-out art piece features a stylized Earth with textured continents and a cosmic-themed crescent shape, accompanied by a dotted moon above.

Zine: So You Met Your Past Self

“So You Met Your Past Self” includes tips for what to do when you meet a past version of yourself. This fictional zine is a handy guide for the time traveler in your life (even when that’s you).

This zine is available on Etsy (U.S.) only.

Auto-generated description: A booklet titled So You Met Your Past Self: a practical guide is displayed against a red background. Auto-generated description: Tip 1 suggests ensuring time-travel permits and avoiding interactions with one's past self to prevent complications. Auto-generated description: Tips for interacting with Past You include staying calm, being reassuring, and lying if necessary to protect them, with the understanding that future knowledge gives you an advantage. Auto-generated description: A blue card with tips about interacting with the past and timeline risks is shown on a red surface.

I made the background for this zine by hand. I diluted blue fountain pen ink in water. Then I painted the ink on to watercolor paper.

Auto-generated description: A sheet of blue watercolor paper is placed on a measuring grid.

After the paper dried, I drew an abstract design with a dark blue marker and white gel pen.

Auto-generated description: A series of abstract, interconnected geometric shapes are drawn on a blue watercolor background, bordered by a ruler grid.

This kind of line drawing is a technique I learned from Katie Gebely.

First you draw dots on the page, at random. Then you connect the dots with straight lines. That’s what I did with the dark blue marker. Then I added shorter lines in white gel pen.

Visuals in Barbie and Pleasantville

I wrote an essay for The Wrench Dispatch: The Movie Issue about visuals in Barbie and Pleasantville. The zine came out in January 2024 and collected essays about recent movies.

The essay is about 900 words, so I’m going old school and putting it under a Read More. So retro.

Five ways the Barbie movie uses visuals to share information about the world

The Barbie movie starts with a reference to the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that’s how I knew that visuals would be important in this movie.

Barbie isn’t the first movie to share so much information about the world through visuals, but it’s the first one I’ve seen in a while to do it so well. Pleasantville (1998, directed by Gary Ross and starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) uses color and 1950s sitcom tropes to share information about the world.

Let’s take a look at how these movies use visuals.

1. Saturated colors are positive

In Barbie Land, colors are saturated and bright. The color palette leans heavily on pinks (so many shades of pink!). The sky is a perfect shade of blue, and the grass is a perfect shade of green. Nothing is out of place. 

When Barbie and Ken go to the real world, colors are not as saturated. They feel more grounded. The outfits that Barbie and Ken wear while rollerblading have neon colors and busy patterns. They stick out immediately in the real world, even though the outfits would have been normal in Barbie Land. 

In Pleasantville, David and Jennifer are transported to Pleastantville, a black and white 1950s-style sitcom. When everything is normal in Pleasantville, objects and people are in black and white. As Jennifer starts influencing the town, objects take on saturated colors, starting with a red rose. Characters appear in color after they express themselves or reach their potential. 

Barbie uses colors to differentiate between Barbie Land (vibrant colors) and the real world (grounded colors). Pleastantville uses the transition from black and white to color to show changes in the sitcom world and characters.

2. No liquids in Barbie Land

There aren't any liquids in Barbie Land to fit the concept that there aren’t any liquids in Barbie playsets. Barbie takes a shower, but no water comes out of the shower head. She gets a carton of milk from the fridge, but the carton is empty. Barbie can walk across the pool because the surface is a sheet of blue plastic. And even the beach doesn’t have water, which is why Ken bounces off a rigid wave when he tries running into the ocean. 

Pleasantville does have liquids. There's maple syrup at the breakfast table, and characters drink soda at the diner. But one thing Pleasantville is missing is toilets. In one scene, Jennifer goes into the bathroom at the diner and pushes a stall door open. It’s an empty space. This is a reference to TV standards in real life. In the 1950s and 1960s, American TV shows did not show toilets. It was considered bad taste.

3. Vehicles are props

Barbie knows how to drive but her car seems to go on its own. In one scene, she waves to other Barbies and even takes both hands off the wheel. The car continues on a perfect path on the road. Also, the car’s rear-view mirror is a sticker, playing into the idea that it’s there for show instead of function. The car is a toy and Barbie doesn’t actually need to look in the rear-view mirror while she drives.

In Pleasantville, the firefighters drive the firetruck, and they know how to use the ladders to rescue cats. But they don’t know what the hoses are for, since there weren’t fires in Pleasantville before. The firemen are surprised that the hoses work, because they never needed to use them before. 

4. No one uses the stairs

All the dream houses in Barbie Land have stairs, but no one uses them. Barbies appear on one floor and then a different floor, much like how a child would move a doll from one floor to another in a dollhouse. 

A similar thing happens in the sitcom world in Pleasantville. Scenes take place upstairs or downstairs, but we do not follow characters up or down the stairs. This adds to the construct of sets for TV sitcoms. 

5. Physical appearance isn’t natural

Barbies in Barbie Land move in realistic ways, but details remind us that Barbies are dolls. When Barbie steps out of her slippers, her feet stay on tip-toes, as if she’s wearing heels. When Barbie walks, sometimes she poses her hands with straightened fingers (much like a Barbie doll's hands), instead of relaxed hands. There are moments when Barbie sits up or stands where her upper body moves as one, reflecting how Barbie dolls bend at the waist but otherwise have limited upper body movement. 

After Barbie has thoughts about death, she loses some of her doll-like features. On the beach, she notices her feet are now flat. When she’s talking to Weird Barbie, Barbie notices she has cellulite on her thighs. These two examples show Barbie connecting with the real world. 

In Pleasantville, there aren’t body changes, but there is a notable shift in how people look and carry themselves. Early in the movie, characters conform to each other. The women are in cardigans and poodle skirts with perfect makeup and hair. The men are all clean cut in tidy clothes. Everyone has good posture.

As the movie progresses and colors seep in, we see variations in their outfits and more relaxed body language. 

Barbie and Pleasantville use visuals to tell the audience about the world. Both movies deliver visual information through colors, deviations from objects in the real world (liquids, vehicles, and staircases), and physical appearance. All these visual details enrich the characters and stories in Barbie and Pleasantville.

Zine: How to make a mini zine

“How to make a mini zine” is an 8-page mini zine that you can download and print on your own. It includes a brief introduction to zines and instructions for how to fold an 8-page mini zine from a single sheet of paper.

Auto-generated description: A hand is holding a small booklet titled How to make a minizine with decorative patterns on a checkered background.

The zine is available on Ko-fi for free (or pay what you want).

The PDF is sized to print on one sheet of 8.5 x 11-inch paper (standard U.S. letter size). No access to a color printer? No problem — the zine looks great in black and white, too.  

To fold the zine, you can follow the instructions directly on the PDF. Or if you prefer video instructions, search for “how to fold an 8-page zine” on YouTube.

Auto-generated description: Instructions for folding an 8-page mini zine from a single sheet of paper are shown on a grid-patterned surface. Auto-generated description: A hand holds two small booklets titled How to make a minizine, set against a black grid background.

This zine is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which means you’re welcome to distribute and share copies for non-commercial use.

Zine: The antidote to social media

“The antidote to social media” is a mini zine that looks at how negative things are outweighing positives on social media. But social media platforms are still a good way to find people to connect with. The zine suggests ways to work around the negative aspects of social media.

The cover a zine titled The antidote to social media. The title is printed in black on bright yellow paper. On the left side of the cover, there's a large potion bottle. Near the lower-right corner, there are small circles with Like and Heart icons.

Copies are available on Etsy (U.S. only).

Auto-generated description: A person holds a yellow paper with handwritten notes about the negative aspects of social media, including ads and privacy concerns. Auto-generated description: A hand is holding a yellow booklet with text discussing the positive aspects of social media and ways to counteract negative influences. Auto-generated description: A person is holding a yellow paper with handwritten suggestions and reflections on going offline and social media.

A lot of my zines start in a notebook page. Here’s where I started writing out what I wanted to include in this zine.

A notebook page with handwritten notes about the zine.

Zine: Children of Immigrants

“Children of Immigrants” is a half-page zine that collects art and writing about immigrant experiences. Thirteen people contributed stories, poetry, photography, illustrations, and collages. 

The finished zine is 8.5" x 5.5", 28 pages (including covers), and printed in full color.

The cover page of Children of Immigrants, a zine that collects art and writing about immigrant experiences. The image behind the text is a collage of passport stamps in various colors, from various countries.

Everyone who contributed to the zine received a complimentary copy. The rest of the copies sold out, mostly at Lancaster Zine Fest. 😃 So, no more physical copies but you can download a digital version from Ko-fi for free or pay what you want.

Note: The digital version is a PDF meant to be read on a screen. The PDF is not formatted for printing and folding a paper copy. 

A page spread from the zine Children of Immigrants. This is a story titled Horrors within the Household. Two pages from the Children of Immigrants zine. The left page has a collage of Mexican-American imagery including colorful flowers, a rosary, an image of the Virgin Mary, a cutout image of Selena (the singer), and playing cards. The right page has a double-exposed photo of a man at an amusement park.' ATwo pages of the Children of Immigrants zine. The left page has a series of handwritten phrases and questions on the theme, Where are you from? Sentences are examples of questions and comments that immigrants hear about their background and language. The right page has a colorful world map. Black text says, Two homelands, two languages, two cultures. Two names, two identities.

Zine: Shoveling sand - My favorite writing advice

“Shoveling sand” is a 20-page zine that collects my favorite writing advice from several writers. I grouped quotes by themes including “keep a notebook,” “don’t worry about being popular,” and “get the first draft down.”

A hand is holding a zine titled Shoveling Sand: My Favorite Writing Advice, featuring a typewriter design on the cover.

This zine measures 5.25 inches high x 4 inches wide. The cover is printed in full color on white cardstock. The interior pages are printed in black and white on 24 lb. white paper. Designed and laid out in Canva.

The first 2 pages of a zine about writing advice. Black text is printed on white paper. The left page says, Keep a notebook, and has some commentary. The right page has two quotes from writers. Page 14 of a zine about writing advice. Black text is printed on white paper. The top of the page says There's more to writing than writing in a large font. Below that, there's a couple sentences of commentary in a smaller font. Four copies of the zine Shoveling Sand: My Favorite Writing Advice are arranged on a red surface.

Zine: Useless Venn Diagrams

“Useless Venn Diagrams” is a mini zine with random observations, put into Venn diagram format. Topics include puzzles, note-taking, and movies.

Printed in black on teal paper. I drew this zine by hand and then adjusted spacing and layout in Canva.

A hand holds a blue sheet of paper labeled Useless Venn Diagrams with two non-overlapping circles drawn on it. Two Venn diagrams compare characteristics. Left page: People who enjoy Tetris vs. people who like jigsaw puzzles. The center of the diagram is people who enjoy organizing things. Right page: Typing notes vs. handwriting notes. The center of the diagram is people who document everything. Left page: Venn diagram shows work that is assigned to me vs. my job. The center overlapping area is very small. Right page: People who watch sports vs. people who say they don't have time for movies. The overlapping area is people who watch every professional sports game. Left page: People who quote movies vs. people who understand movie references. The overlapping area is movie buffs. Right page: Two separate circles. One circle is people who complain about waiting in line. The second circle is people who grew up with dial-up internet.

Zine: Cat's Cradle

“Cat’s Cradle” is a tiny story about mimicking someone. It’s not quite sci-fi, but it feels like it…maybe because it was inspired by a scene near the end of Annihilation. (I won’t spoil the movie and neither does the zine.)

A hand is holding a small booklet titled Cat's Cradle: a tiny story, with colorful lines on the paper. Colorful, curved lines swirl across a two-page spread with text, resembling abstract string patterns. Two zine pages with colorful flowing lines with text describing a rhythmic exchange of poetry, doodling, and yoga poses. A colorful, abstract drawing made with wavy lines is accompanied by text about a training protocol and progress reporting.

Here’s the full text of the story:

It’s like playing cat’s cradle, but we aren’t using string.

I do one thing. She does something else that feels like… an extension. A continuation.

And then we swap.

She does one thing— says a phrase, draws some lines, moves her arm just so.

I extend— a line of poetry, a floral doodle, a yoga pose.

And then we swap.

The training protocol doesn’t specify how to teach. Just that I’m supposed to.

I report progress back to the team.

And then we swap.

 A stack of five zines titled Cat's Cradle. The cover has abstract line designs.

Zine: Hipster Doctor Who

Doctor Who celebrates its 60th anniversary next month. I collected some quotes from the Doctor in a zine…with random hipster photos. 🤭 Saturated colors, vintage objects, and a soft tone—this style of photo was all over the internet in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Copies are available on Etsy.

A hand is holding the zine Hipster Doctor Who. The zine cover has a purple, blue, and red galaxy image in the background. Text on top of the image says Hipster Doctor Who in all uppercase letters. 'The inside cover of the zine Hipster Doctor Who. The page includes a series of quotes by the Doctor over a semi-transparent galaxy image. Two pages of Hipster Doctor Who. Page 1 is a vintage photo of a hot air balloon floating over Paris. Page 2 is a photo of broken glass. Two pages of Hipster Doctor Who. The page on the left has a photo of an ocean wave washing across sand. The page on the right has a photo of a sunflower with rain droplets across the photo.

Zine: Work in Progress

“Work in Progress” includes process photos and notes about how I made some of my zines. Not tutorials. More like DVD commentary, but for zines.

I designed this in Canva and printed it through Mixam. (Not an ad, haha. I like sharing how I make stuff. Hence, this zine.)

A hand is holding the zine Work in Progress. The cover of the zine has a light blue background. A photo on the cover shows an index card with notes, some illustrations of a man pushing a boulder up a hill, a notebook, and a purple zine. A close-up view of page 1 from the zine Work in Progress. Pages 2 and 3 of the zine Work in Progress. These pages show rough sketches and finished illustrations from a zine titled How to teleport safely. A two-page spread from the zine Work in Progress. These pages show initial drawings and completed pages from the zine Vignettes from Camelot.

Zine: Modern-day Sisyphus

“Modern-day Sisyphus” is a mini zine about 21st century tasks that never go away.

The zine is inspired by Sisyphus, a figure from Greek mythology who is tasked with rolling a boulder up a mountain, only for the boulder to roll back down every time he reached near the top.

Copies are available on Etsy.

A hand is holding a purple zine titled, Modern-day Sisyphus: 21st century tasks that never go away.

Page 1 has a summary of the story of Sisyphus.

Page 2 lists chores that are repetitive: washing dishes, doing laundry, dusting, and vacuuming. At the bottom of page 2, there’s an illustration of a man rolling a boulder up a hill.

A summary of the Greek myth of Sisyphus is presented alongside a drawing of his struggle with the boulder, with a comparison to mundane tasks like washing dishes and vacuuming.

Pages 3 and 4 list tasks that are repetitive: making the bed, replying to emails, mowing the lawn, taking out trash, and paying bills. At the bottom of the pages, there’s an illustration of a man rolling a boulder up a hill.

A silhouette of Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill is depicted alongside a list of repetitive tasks like making the bed and paying bills.

Pages 5 and 6 list positive things that are repetitive: listening to favorite songs, making a cup of coffee, saying good night to loved ones, cooking favorite meals, celebrating holidays, and spending time on hobbies. At the bottom of the pages, there’s an illustration of a man rolling a boulder up a hill.

A silhouetted figure pushes a boulder uphill against a purple background, accompanied by text about repeating enjoyable activities.

Here’s the back cover:

The back cover of the zine features a thank you message, Instagram information, and a QR code from Mythical Type.

The hot air balloon in Elemental

I watched Elemental without knowing what to expect, because Disney’s marketing missed the mark (again). But I liked the movie overall. One of my favorite parts was seeing how each character used their element, like Ember inflating a hot air balloon.

I wanted to draw the scene with the hot air balloon floating over the city. I started with a pencil sketch. It’s rough. I wanted to figure out the foreground vs. the background and where the balloon was in the sky, in relation to the skyline.

A sketch showing a variety of abstract and geometric shapes resembling buildings and structures.

Here’s a photo of when I was painting the larger areas. I simplified colors and composition (all those buildings!) because it’s so much detail.

A drawing depicts a surreal cityscape with tall blue buildings, a hot air balloon, and glowing fires.

Here’s the finished drawing.

A vibrant, fantastical cityscape drawing that depicts towering buildings with brightly lit windows under a starry sky, featuring a hot air balloon.

Zine: Song lyrics I mishear

“Song lyrics I mishear” is a mini zine that lists lyrics where I hear the wrong words. Each page is about one song and includes the actual lyrics along with what I hear instead.

I wanted the interior pages to be a mix of typed text (the actual song lyrics) and handwritten notes (the words I hear). This way, the pages look like they’re annotated.

Copies are available on Etsy.

A hand is holding a mini zine titled Song lyrics I mishear. Misheard lyrics from All Star by Smash Mouth and Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads. Misheard lyrics from Somewhere Only We Know by Keane and At Least It Was Here by The 88, featuring handwritten thoughts on their lyrics. Misheard lyrics from Move Along by The All-American Rejects and I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles. The back cover of the zine.

How to design a mini zine in Canva

I made tutorials that show how to set up a design file in Canva to make an 8-page mini zine. The tutorials go over how to set up guides and what the page order will be. Everything in the tutorials is done with the free version of Canva.

There’s a video version you can watch on YouTube.

And a PDF version you can download for free (or pay what you want).

Here are a few preview pages from the PDF.

A guide titled How to design a mini zine in Canva with a subtitle about setting up design files and page order is displayed on a blue background. Instructions for using Canva to create a zine design are provided. A layout guide for zine page order, including instructions for rotating elements and the arrangement of the back cover, front cover, and pages.

If you have any questions or feedback on these tutorials, please send me a message.

Zine: Things we wouldn’t have to worry about if we didn’t depend on cars

I’ve been particularly annoyed lately about how much we depend on cars, so I made a little zine about it. I’m not saying we should eliminate cars completely. I want better public transportation so everyone has more and better options for getting around.

A hand holds a mini zine called Things we wouldn't have to worry about if we didn't depend on cars. The text is printed in black on a white background. Above and below the text, there's a black and white map of Chicago streets. A printed page features text about traffic congestion in Chicago and other cities, detailing car-related concerns. A paper with a printed list of driving-related tasks and challenges. Text that discusses the benefits of reducing car dependency and enhancing public transportation infrastructure.