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KEY COLORS painted accordion Zine

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 Pride month!  It's June, the world is bursting with color and flowers and creatures (at least here in Maine) and I was struck with the urge to PAINT!!!  I had wanted to make KEY fashion zine for years, but never could quite figure out what approach I wanted to take.  The colorful world inspired me: make a rainbow. I had been itching to use my restocked gouache to paint for months, and wanted to use this an an exercise in drawing directly with paint: no sketches or pencils, just build form with color.  It ended up being challenging to abandon line-based drawing but was so fun and exciting, I painted for four solid days to finish it.  It was a cool process, so here's how it progressed. I started by poring over reference images and calculating the size and shape of the thing.  Always trying to be frugal, I aimed for a standard paper size and landed on 18 inches wide, then figured out how I would divide that up into eight panels- not the standard spectrum OR pride rainbow, but the
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Zinemaking: Flying Electric Guitar

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 With about five days left until Small Press Expo, I'm hit with inspiration (a bluesky post by a friend) that solves a problem I'd been wrestling with (I don't have anything new that's QUITE silly enough!) Which lead to the four-day marathon completion of a zine called Flying Electric Guitar: Five anime opening theme songs that absolutely did not have to slap as hard as they do. The premise is that it's my favorite 90s anime openings from anime that I didn't watch or think was particularly good.  The idea being...the greats from Utena, Escaflowne, Dragon Ball GT, etc. wouldn't make this list because those anime DESERVED the amazing opening themes they got.  Yeah, it's a little sassy.  A little mean.  But what better to direct some sass at than 30 year old media properties that we're all properly nostalgic for and embarrassed by? The process went as usual, aiming for another quarter-letter saddle stitch, using my usual tools: Paper: Midori MD grid pad
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Zinemaking: I Like Masking, Actually

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 This month I'm making my way back to the Small Press Expo in Maryland, my first book show since 2019 (Which happened to also be SPX!) I'm always super motivated to make new zines for a new show, and I was also on the cusp of making my 100th zine!  I'd calculated that I'd made 99 zines ( list here ) and so my 100th aught to be a triumphant one. This triumph would be a quarter-letter saddle-stitched zine with a hand-stamped cover called "I Like Masking, Actually!" Some process photos follow.  It was a pretty smooth draw, using all my usual tools Paper: 5 mm blue grid notebook (Reeden Reed-Jr. Note or Kokuyo campus) Pencil: Pilot Color Eno soft blue mechanical pencil (.7 mm) Ink: Zebra disposable pocket brush pen I originally had an elaborate plan for the cover... involving a pop-up, full sized mask, but once I was done drawing the book itself, I decided I wanted to use my favorite illustration from the book as the cover image, and went with that. However, since
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Inking "Winter Wind"

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I’m working on a short comic I’m making in collaboration with my patient friend Masha Zhdanova. It took me over two years to pencil because of family emergencies and priority paid work, but now that I’m inking, I’ve somehow finished half the pages in just three days. Hopefully the rest goes smoothly too. I used to hate the inking step of comics, but I’m having fun with this one. I think 1.) Because I’ve gotten better at pencilling and 2.) Because all I want to draw is flowing anime hair and gay kisses so it’s a joy and I look forward to it. It’ll be in black and white- probably with screen tones since it’s a shoujo manga homage (obviously 90s CLAMP inspired) and we will self-publish. I love collabing with friends. I think you should only collab with friends. I just want to appreciate this moment, when drawing feels good and makes me happy. It’s a struggle sometimes, but these moments are worth it.
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Resin Cameos of SHINee Key

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  One of my “refuse to monetize” hobbies is resin pouring. Lately I’ve been having fun expressing my kpop fandom through charms reminiscent of the decorated cases that people make for idol photocards. Key, a member of the Kpop group SHINee, is a favorite icon of mine because of his integration of fashion, dance, music, and theme in ways that are simply…deeply to my taste. Anyway, I’ve been pouring resin charms styled around Key’s iconic outfits from his GASOLINE music video. I’m using molds by CindyJJang (link to etsy shop) for the cameo and the diamond charms (the icon of SHINee.) I’ve been using custom stickers I printed last year and whatever baubles I could find around my studio (like the disassembled gold bead earrings above.) I have a couple more in the works, but it’s been a fun project…just for me!!!
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May 2023 New York City Travel Journal

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In May 2023 I returned to one of my favorite places: New York City.  I haven't visited my friends there since before the pandemic, and it was such a monumental occasion for me, I wanted to keep a visual journal. I'm still catching up with the last 1/3 of the pages, but I worked at a pretty good clip while I was there.  I worked in a Kokuyo campus grid notebook, with a Zebra fine brush pen and a red marker for accents. I documented who I saw (people AND pets,) places I went, food I ate and stuff I bought. I also made a point to keep journalling when I got high in the evening, which resulted in, I think, some of the best drawings I've ever made. Hee hee hee... It felt really good to document my trip this way.  Especially since the friend I stayed with didn't get up until late-- I'm an early riser so I had the whole morning each day to peacefully scribble away at my comics. The current pages I'm working on (now months later while I catch up between other projects)
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