BTS: Zine #003

All of my zines are composed with love, but this one especially so. This was the culmination of reoccurring motifs across years of sketchbooks. Growth, self-actualization, fear of the unknown, purpose realized, and (of course) the unstoppable dandelion. This is largely a reflection of my own journey through adulthood and the chaos of the changing world.

 

This Spring’s pop-up studio •ᴗ•

I’m already so grateful for this experience, spending the last six weeks in new and old parks across Chicago while Spring turned to Summer around me… I’m already feeling nostalgic over it. I even hosted my first (hour-long!) livestream from a nearby spot to share the simple peace I got to enjoy while bringing this idea to life; it was fun to chat with some of you while I painted amidst the birdsong of my neighborhood. ♡

 

(Scored a pondside picnic table this time!)

Not every day was a walk in the park though (hehe)

 

This is my “waiting outside the laundromat” setup
(the unstoppable force here is actually laundry)

 

The last to be painted were (counterintuitively?) the front and back panels

I paid special attention to the skyscapes in this series not just to build the atmosphere, but also introduce another character into this story: Time.

The final sum of my efforts: dry, flat, and ready to be digitized.

I use these magnetic tracks for hanging wet paintings where they won’t be disturbed or take up space on my desk, and so far it’s worked out great (plus it lets me easily re-examine new work with fresh eyes later on). Sometimes with heavy water applications your paper will buckle, and misting the back of the page will help it to accept reconditioning, but this could cause the magnets to leave little impressions on your page if they’re too strong. So if you’re planning to sell the original work, it’s best to flatten them the old fashioned way (nested in tracing paper and placed under a precarious stack of heavy books); but I planned to scan and crop these panels before adding the speech bubbles in Procreate, so preserving the margins wasn’t a concern this time.

 

One of the most exciting parts of finishing a new zine is getting to design the stickers that will go along with it, and I’m especially happy with this set! The cloudscapes are perfect for accenting a sketchbook cover or tablet shell (or both in my case ˶•⤙•˶).

 
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Sketchbook Tour #2 (Technical Studies)

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DIY: Seed Paper