The first time I listed zine packs in my shop, they sold out before I could even write about them, but I definitely wanted to document my process a little bit here, so here's a post all about my first zine!
If you're not familiar with zines, they are small magazines. Some are printed professionally, but many are made from photocopies, put together by hand and bound with staples, which is exactly what mine is. I have been fascinated by zines for many years, and I have amassed quite a collection by artists that I love, and I've wanted to make one of my own for just as long.
For my first zine, titled How Can I Not?, I wanted to start out with something personal, must like the work I used to make in art journals (and am trying to get back to). I've included lists, quotes that I keep thinking about, short phrases that reflect my thoughts, and pages of only artwork.
The process of making the zine was much harder than I thought it would be at first. With the broad theme of "personal thoughts" my idea was to just make lots of work and take things I was thinking about and turn them into pages, but it didn't really go that way. It took me quite a while to come up with ideas, create work that I liked enough to put include in the zine, and put it together in a way that flowed nicely. My zine is 20 pages long, and although the books themselves are small and don't seem extremely long, 20 pages worth of artwork is no small amount to make.
One challenge was for me to work in black and white. As I'm sure you can tell, color is very central to what I usually make, but I decided to make this one in black and white. This definitely made some things simpler, but I also found it very difficult. I struggled to add interest without relying on color, and color is often what inspires me, so it was sometimes difficult to come up with ideas.
In the end, I'm really happy with and proud of the result. I feel like How Can I Not? really does reflect me (in a small way) and what's going in my mind around the time that I'm releasing it. I find these kind of peeks into other people's brains, so hopefully my zines are similarly interesting for people who like me or my art or just like zines.
You can buy How Can I Not? in my shop. I've included it in a pack with stickers and original mini paintings (which is a really great deal if I do say so myself). I'm closing the shop at the end of June and won't reopen until August, and I'm not sure if I'll restock these zines when I do, so get yours now if you're interested!