New Website!

During this quarantine time I set a goal for myself to finally compile a portfolio! This is a task that has been sleeping on the bottom of my to do list for ages. When thinking about what domain and services to sign up for I was hesitant to dump some cash into it. After exploring a lot of options and pricing I decided now was the time to set up my Peachy Keen Press site. I recently started sending out monthly email newsletters and have begun forming the idea of Peachy Keen Press more clearly, so its a step in the right direction. Also sometimes you just need to get started ya know?

With my new Peachy Keen website I have a new blog platform! Which means I won't be updating this one, but my new one over H E R E! Right now it feels a bit weird and scary to change blogs over. Since its a service I pay for I figured I'd keep it all in one place. This is one of the steps in this progress of building myself up that has felt like a new chapter. I started this blog in 2013! What a life time ago! It has changed so much since then. My blogging has also been a bit inconsistent, but what do you expect in 7 years? I'm so proud of this little online catalog of art, thoughts and projects I've created.

I hope you join me as I start to build up this idea of Peachy Keen Press. I have done some serious goal setting. This is the most confident in my art plans that I have ever been. I'm excited, scared and full of hope and love!

May Art Journal!

With all this time on my hands I've really kept up on my art journal. I have started a routine of working on the pages as a warm up before starting on my larger projects for the day. It is a fun project to wake up to and get the day started. This book was really scrappy at first and I had to add a lot of thick paper layers so it didn't fall apart. I had a bit of a lazy book binding moment and compiled it poorly. Even though it was on the verge of falling apart I managed to make it work. I don't have much to journal about mostly because I'm not doing much. I am processing a lot of thoughts and feelings so it is a very good place for that. I'm curious this time next year how journaling will feel?

Hirsutism Zine!

My zine for the month of May was all about my struggles with Hirsutism! This is a zine that I have struggled for years to write. These past couple months I've had a lot of time to sit with my feelings and process a lot so it felt like the right time to create this zine. When I wrote this zine my purpose wasn't to educate people on this condition that affects lots of women, my goal was to share my story. I hope that within sharing my story it can help other find courage to share their hard stories. There is something magical and terrifying about writing your story down. It happens to breath new life into the emotions that it holds. Now that it is completed I'm finding myself sitting with a lot more closure then I thought I would. Honestly I feel so proud of myself. Letting this secret that I've been holding on to for ages float into the world is scary but also a huge weight off of my mind. It helped me grow and become more confident. That is the power that zines hold!

As always if you're interested in a copy of this zine you can email remikeahi@gmail.com

Mini Art Practice!

I have been trying to work on more mini paintings in between projects. Mostly for practice! I made this little watercolor illustration after a strange dream I had. I'm not sure if you remember your dreams, but whenever I have a strange one I write it down. In this dream I was taking a bath with a bunch of baby pickles. My watercolor skills are lacking, but this practice helps!

I'm sure you've seen the #sailormoonredraw challenge going around lately! I couldn't help myself. I've only seen a few episodes of Sailor Moon but the styling is super iconic even if you're not an anime fan. I did forget her buns on the top, ooopsy! BUT I do love the expression on her face. I used gouache for this illustration. I tried to do lots of layers because I have a hard time getting a consistently thick layer. I think taking my time to build up thin layers paid off on this one and helped me avoid light spots.

Incoming Mail!

Lately I've been doing lots of trades! As I mentioned in THIS and THAT post. I made a bunch of tiny cards to trade with people. I wanted to share the neat things I got in return. Also some new zines that I've bought and traded with people! I have been so completely over joyed by the response from this little card project. I started as a way to make and share cute things and had no idea how great it would turn out! It has helped me create a lot of great connections with some wonderful creators. With all the craziness going on in the world it was so nice to escape into this projects that made me feel so uplifted! If you're a creator I highly suggest doing some art trades!

How To Properly Read Other Peoples Minds and Why Does Society Care So Much About My Body Hair by Crash Reynolds. They make amazing zines and have a huge collection you can find HERE! I Know You're Sad But.. by Morg Cunningham. This is a tiny zine to cheer you up! You can buy one HERE!

Tiny zine Fruity by Angelina Han This zine is so cute and clever with little fruit cut outs. Greif by Rachael Smith. This mini zine is beautiful and came with a little pin! They make really great illustrations and stickers you can find HERE. Last a little drawing by Beth! They are making the cutest illustration zines lately! You can find them HERE!

A Bare Bones Guide to Pronouns by Morgan Stewart. This illustrations in this one are great! Also Pupper Supper by Mossy Bee! This fold out zine is also a board game! Its is so clever!

Last but not least two zines my Kels Choo! They are one of my favorite illustrators and I have to keep myself from buying ALL the things! This Kau Kau Time zine is one of my favorites in my zine collection! Anything about Hawaiian food makes me happy!

List of Thoughts + LINKS!

LIST OF THOUGHTS:
1- I've been obsessed with the Netflix show The Midnight Gospel. Its so mind bending, strange and beautiful. I love it so much I had to do a little bit of Clancy fan art!
2- One of the people featured is Caitlin Doughty who is my favorite author! She does a great episode about death. Which is the perfect lead in for the last episode which is so incredible!
3- Life sure does look different than I thought it would. I'm gaining more confidence in my art work and laying down some bigger plans. I mean I've always had plans just none that I could see this clearly! Its very scary and exciting.
4- We got some kiwis and limes which reminded me of that Friends episode where Monica makes a kiwi lime pie. I knew there had to be a recipe out there! I found THIS super easy one. It was really sweet and I probably won't make it again, but for just having the things on hand it was pretty good!
5- I have been finding new ways to mark the time passing since days don't seem to be making much sense. My favorite one has been finger nail growth. My least favorite one is clean underwear availability.
6- I read THIS post the other day and the idea of literally eating ones words is so mind blowing romantic to me. I'm a little jealous I didn't think of this idea first, its so clever!
7- I know I've been gaining weight a lot lately, probably from all the snacks and naps. I'm trying my best to not think about or dwell on it. I hope there is a day I can just let my body be my body with out so much dread.
8- These are definitely puzzle days. I find puzzles to be a GREAT stress reliever. So when I saw THESE ones I got super excited. The mystic maze one looks so dreamy!
9- Now that birthday season for my family has passed I'm feeling much better about things. It was so tough being away from all of my loves and not celebrating, but I know its important. Knowing that helps but it is still tough.
10- Last but not least I was interviewed about my zines for the lovely blog Weirdo Brigade. They make wonderful zines and have a featured zinester every week. It was so much fun getting to talk about my zine process! You can read it HERE!

Making. Listening. Eating.

Making. I've been practicing my gouache a lot lately and testing out brighter color palettes. 

Listening. The album Designer by Aldous Harding is the perfect working on paintings music. 

Eating. I've been making bread baked in a cast-iron pan lately. This one is rosemary and garlic.

Drawing with Olguioo!

I bought a mini coloring with procreate tutorial! Coloring on the iPad is something that in the past has been so tricky for me. The color match thing it does when using the color drop tool makes me want to pull my hair out! So when I saw this one put together by Olga Ortiz I knew I had to buy it! You can find all the info HERE! It is pretty short and affordable! I learned so much from this quick little class. It mostly gave me a direction on how I should be setting up my pages and what tools to be utilizing. I made this little lemon drawing above using all the tips and tricks I had learned! I still have a long way to go to get my drawings looking more professional. But for something that was under $10 I feel like I gained a lot! Olugioo has amazing illustrations and other free tutorials, I highly recommend a follow! 

 

Peachy Keen Press Newsletter!

I'm so excited to share something that I've been working on lately! I have decided to make a monthly newsletter! I am so nervous and excited about this new adventure. I had to learn a lot about automations and campaigns, but I'm so proud of myself for learning it all! I wanted to start a newsletter to connect to more people. (much like this blog) I also wanted to make some freebies to give away, highlight artists that I'm loving at the moment and overall create a more personal interaction between me and the community I've built around me. My hope is that this can snowball into something people enjoy and gain a bigger following so that I can offer more things! BUT for now its just a little way to check in on each other, offer some cool downloads and connect people together. If you're interested in signing up you can so do HERE!

As a thank you for signing up for my list I'm offering a free download of a mini zine I made! I created this zine to give out to people who enjoy the idea of zines, but maybe don't know what to make a zine about. This is a mini zine filled with zine ideas to get you started! After you sign up you'll receive a download link! (hopefully that works, it took me all weekend to figure that bit out!) You can see a quick little flip though on my instagram HERE!

Nervous excited and filled with joy!

Out Going Mail Art!

I have been sending a lot of mail these days! All my pen pals since being stuck at home have been really speedy responding! I have found such joy in connecting with my friends all over the world and hearing their stories of this new strange world we're living in. Everywhere is different but it seems like the feelings are the same. Feelings of fear and worry but also hope. Art projects and cute mail are a huge help these days. I tossed together these quick collage envelopes and enjoyed the way they turned out. I got THIS new book of cool stickers for my birthday so I'm sure you'll see lots of quirky stickers in my journals and on mail! 

If you're sitting at home wanting a new project you should pick up letter writing! I'm always looking for new pen pals or I can direct you to some other places to find them! Reach out to me at remikeahi@gmail.com

Song and Doodle #81

This weeks song and doodle is UUU by Field Medic. Now I'll be honest the first time I heard this song I thought it was kinda boring and just echoed a lot of other songs that I'm in love with. (There are a lot of banjo pickin sweethearts out there!) I didn't hear anything original but saved it anyways because it sounded like a song I knew just couldn't put my finger on it. Anyways, fast forward a month or so I listened to it again. This time I was very much feeling my feelings if you get what I mean. The lyric "loving you sure makes me afraid, of losing but I don't care" hit me like a ton of bricks. I might have sobbed a little bit. Maybe its the state of the world, maybe its me missing my family. I'm not sure. What I do know is that there is something powerful about love that insights fear of losing. With in that fear something really wonderful can blossom that transcends life.You know if we choose to own our fear instead of avoid it. With in the soft moment of sobs I started to  develop a fondness for the song and a place on my most current playlist. I'm a bit of sap for a song that makes me feel something, even if its a simple banjo love song. 

"All I ever needed was your siamese kiss
Cleanse me up of spookyness
Clear the foxes through the mist
Give me sorrow a plot twist"

Bitty Book of Beetles Zine!

Keeping on track with my new years goal of making a new zine every month, this Bitty Book of Beetles Zine was my new zine for the month of April! I actually made a few new ones last month, but this is the ONE I deemed my April zine. I fought with this zine quite a bit. I used gouache and colored pencil which is my new favorite medium combo. I had flubbed up on a few of the pages and had a lot of redos. I also had some formatting issues with my artwork being the wrong size. Over all a bit of a mess. BUT I pushed though and I think came up with something that is quite cute. I learned a lot from making this zine. The number one lesson is sometimes you just have to stick with it and see it to the end. My gut reaction is to always chuck it and move on, but this was one idea I just didn't want to let go of and I'm glad I didn't! 

As always if you'd like a copy of this zine or any zine send me an email at remikeahi@gmail.com! I'm forever and always up for zine and art trades!

Pilea Baby Propagation!

I needed some birthday and a mothers day gifties so I propagated my little pilea plant! I've repotted and propagated this plant once before and luckily it survived! I followed THESE instructions which was really helpful. I'm not a very good plant lady. I seem to kill almost everything that comes into my care. Especially succulents for some reason? Everyone says they are the easiest to take care of but I'm pretty much the grim reaper of the succulent world. The pilea plant has a history of being fickle but I have always seemed to have good luck with them! 

I'm really glad that I had a strong plant I could pull some babies from. In these days I feel like plants are the perfect gift. In a world faced with so much death, we could all use a little life in our homes. Plants just make spaces feel happy. I'm really crossing my fingers and praying to all the plant goddesses that my big babe doesn't die! The first few days were definitely showing signs that I over watered, but isn't dead yet!