“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.”
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.
“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.
“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.)
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.
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.
“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.)
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Here’s the back cover:
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.
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.
Here’s the finished drawing.
“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.
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.
If you have any questions or feedback on these tutorials, please send me a message.
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.
“An Incomplete History of Zany Brainy” is a 20-page zine about a U.S. retail chain from the 1990s. These stores focused on affordable, educational toys for children.
The zine includes background on Zany Brainy, my favorite toys from the store, and what happened to Zany Brainy after the company declared bankruptcy in 2001.
Copies are available on Etsy.
I also made a digital version that is available on Ko-fi (free or pay what you want). You can download the zine as a PDF to read on your favorite screen. Note: This is not formatted for printing and folding a paper copy.
I had a lot of fun collecting info and reminiscing about Zany Brainy while I made this zine. I hope you enjoy reading it!
“Playground games in the 1990s” is a pros and cons list of recess activities that were popular in elementary school. (At least in central Pennsylvania, in the 1990s.)
Each page includes small illustrations relating to playground activities. I drew on Whitelines paper so I could draw with a regular pen and then photograph the paper to use the drawings digitally.
Here’s an illustration of Bruce Wayne’s mansion (Wayne Manor). I really like how the blue highlights contrast against the black on the building and the trees.
Here’s the pencil sketch I started with.
Here’s an illustration of Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand from Arrested Development.
I started with a pencil sketch to draw the outline of each building.
“Movies I never want to see again” is about movies I watched one time and do not want to watch again. This doesn’t mean they’re bad movies! But something about them makes me feel like once is enough.
I drafted this zine by hand and then I made it in Canva. The popcorn bucket on the front cover is modified from Terrance Barksdale’s photo on Pexels.
Here’s an illustration of the Metropolis skyline at night.
I started with a pencil sketch to outline each building.
I started painting by covering the large areas first: slate gray for the sky, black for some buildings, and gray for some buildings.
Then I added in all the details.
Here’s an illustration inspired by a scene in Back to the Future: Marty walking into Hill Valley.
I made this as part of a course on illustrating with Posca pens. The assignment was to use two shades of the same color as the main colors in the piece. Since a lot of this image is grassy fields, I chose two shades of green. I kept Marty’s outfit realistic (orange vest and blue jeans) to signify that he’s out of place…or, more accurately, out of time.
Here are some thumbnail sketches I did prior to painting the scene. I wanted to test out colors–what looked good for the grass and Marty’s outfit.
And here’s the simple pencil sketch I started with.
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:
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:
And here’s the finished illustration:
I really enjoyed making this as my first attempt at a Posca pen illustration!
“My 20-minute rule for movies” is about how I don’t feel guilty when I stop a movie I don’t enjoy. I give any movie a fair chance, but I’m okay turning it off if it’s not for me.
I made this zine in Canva. It’s 12 pages, printed in black and gray scale on orange paper.
“How to Deal with Small Talk” is a collection of tips for how to handle small talk conversations.
Maybe you’re like me and small talk drags you down. And maybe, like me, you have to put up with it anyway. Hopefully this zine can help.
This zine is printed in full color. I made the background pages using blue, purple, and red inks. Some pages have digital illustrations. All the text is typed.
It might be difficult to tell from the photos, but I tried a new page size for this zine, and I like it! A 12-page zine, printed double-sided on one 8.5x11-inch sheet of paper. The finished zine is about 3.5 inches high x 4 inches wide and bound with staples. And these dreamy cotton candy colors are on every page.
Glorious.
