Hi, everyone!
This week, I turned some of my drawings into small handmade books—aka zines (pronounced ZEEN). These zines are inspired by two different drawing series I've shared here: Mean Screen (also known as I’ve got WiFi in my eyes) and Looking for the Poem (aka gotta catch it). Using the 1-page zine template, I folded them into cute, pocket-sized booklets.
They look like this before you fold them 👇
They look like this after you fold them 📖
You can download for free and fold them into life 💌
When you print the zine out, it will look like this (single sheet)📄
You can fold this sheet into the zine with nothing more than your hands (scissors can come in handy). Austin Kleon has a great video that walks you through how to fold up a 1—page template like this into a booklet. You can watch it right here. He has so many zine resources and an archive of his own zines at austinkleon.com/zines.
Here’s another 1-page how-to to help figure you out the folding (from 42nd St).
Behind the zines 🖌️
I drew the initial sketches on Bristol board with mechanical pencil and pen. Then I scanned the images and sent them to my iPad where I added color using Procreate. After that I exported the file, emailed it to myself, and went to Kinko’s to print. You can do it, too! Make your own and share it. It’s super easy. If you’re more analog, you don’t even need the Procreate step.
Okay! That’s it for today. I’ll have some of these mini zines with me at AWP later this month in LA. My next adventure is to make a longer zine with different binding. With my zines, I’m sticking mostly with images and using few very few words. That offers a true separation from my writing life.
Onward ✏️
Genevieve
PS Do y’all have any pro tips on making zines? Recos on your faves? (I’m a big fan of the PDX-based zine distro and online store Antiquated Future and Kate Bingham-Burt’s zines). I’d love to hear what you love! Especially if you have any advice on advanced binding and templates for longer formats.
Thank you for sharing the fun process! It appears to have has a finished look - soft sheen and crisp images just like a magazine. Love the mini size and the entertaining, but poignant messages!