When Watercolor Textures Turn Into Tiny Storytellers
A simple watercolor texture exercise unexpectedly turned into a series of tiny storyteller artworks. These pocket-sized ACEOs grew from painted experiments, old ideas, and the hope that someone might take home a small piece of Jonesborough’s storytelling spirit.
Inside my winter sticker sketchbook
A quiet return to drawing this week, working on winter animals and bluegrass charm in a behind-the-scenes peek at how this year’s sticker collection begins.
How to make a zine habit: four in and still rolling
Online zine-making seems to have gotten easier after only four issues, maybe because I’ve streamlined the process (or at least stopped reinventing the wheel each time). The idea and draft It starts with the idea. Some weeks it comes fast, other times I spend a couple of hours thinking it through. The easiest ideas show […]
The Birth of a Zine Habit
A behind-the-scenes look at creating my first illustrated Substack zine — why I made it, what I learned, and why this might be the start of a new creative habit.
February through May Compilation
2026 Post Script: I wrote several blog posts in 2021 that were lost when I transitioned the blog from annettezimmerman.com to realmscapes.world. I’ve been able to find the images that were in the posts, but not the actual posts themselves. For my own archive, I’m posting the images here with what I can remember about […]
Learning to Illustrate a Story
Last week I wrote a short story about a koi and an otter. I think it would be fun to illustrate it and put it on the blog. I already have a few ideas in my head about what I want the pictures to look like. But how do I get those ideas out of […]