Randomly generated drawing of a panda

yoko.cool / Yoko sends a zine, Issue 3

  • A jpg export of the cover. It says: Summer is ending. And it has a bunch of sad faces.
  • A jpg export of the first spread. I talk about the last weeks of summer when the days are already getting short, but it's still warm at night, and how the city looks and feels beautiful. And then there is a self portrait of the top half of my face, emphasizing my fringe cut that I got recently.
  • A jpg export of the second spread. I'm talking about thinking about work during my time off. It's actually a decent feeling if I can put enough distance between it and myself in my head. There's a drawing of me looking out of a car windo with a bunch of cutesy UI floating around my head.
  • A jpg export of the third spread. I'm talking about a volunteer thing I did recently with a bunch of coworkers who I'm sure were much younger than me. There's a cartoony drawing of these people, with me off to the side absorbing their youthful energy like an old witch lol.
Cover and spreads from the zine!

In this issue:

  • I’m bummed about summer ending.
  • I took some time off from work, and it ended up being good for my work brain.
  • Feeling fine about feeling old ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Plus, a bonus chart thing I drew on the back side of the zine!

I recently discovered the halftone feature on Procreate, which is the iPad app I use to draw these zines. Halftone is a technique for creating the effect of shading using dots, and in the world of manga (which often are printed in black and white), this effect is achieved using adhesive stickers called “screen tones.” I had been searching for Procreate brushes that accomplished this without realizing it was a built-in feature!

I’m still getting used to using halftones, even the simplest patterns. I’m excited to see where I can take this.

My mom reads my zines and gives me feedback on each issue (lol thank u mom 🧡). One of the things I keep getting back is that, with the low-fidelity printing, the writing can get challenging to read. So I’ve been trying to write bigger, which also means I need to be more concise with my words. It’s a challenge! I’m a rambler lol.