Making Your First Zine: From Idea to Illustration

1. Introduction: Hi, my name's Kate Bingaman-Burt and this is zine making on Skillshare. I am a full time associate professor of graphic design at Portland State University and I also do lots of illustration work for different clients, and a variety of other self-initiated projects that usually deal with the topic of consumption too. A lot of these projects end up in final form as zines. What is a zine? Well, zine is an independently published publication, I guess. They are usually made by hand and easy to share with people and each other. No one really gives you permission to write about the stuff that you want to write and share the stuff that you want to share. I've given zine workshops to 10 and 11- year-olds and I've even had zine workshop students who have been in their 80s. So, it's definitely a fun format to get your ideas out in a very quick and easy-to-distribute way. When the internet first came around, they were like, "Oh, zine publishing is just going to be dead now. Zines are basically blogs so, why do we still need to have this tangible form when we can just update our LiveJournal?" I actually feel that it's good to have a really good online presence as well as being able to create zines, create publications, and share them with people in person as well. The combination of the two is really where the magic happens. Today, we're going to cover basics of what is a zine and we're going to talk about the different categories of zines, different ideas for zines, different ways of making zines, different ways to create imagery that work really well in the zine format, and then also, lots of different ways to make zines and share. This might be the first zine that you've ever made but it most certainly will not be your last. So, you might have a lot of ideas or you might not have any ideas, but we will get the ideas flowing and we're just going to pick one and we're going to run with it because, again, the point of this is to get you started in the making of zines and for you to be making more of them in the future, too. Today, I'm talking to you from my studio in Portland, Oregon. I feel a really nice connection in talking to you all about zines by being in Portland, Oregon because I feel like the Northwest has always been incredibly supportive of zine culture, independent culture, Do-It-Yourself culture, and so this is a pretty great location to be talking to you about zines today. 2. Your Zine: For this first zene, Which is just simply a one-page zene, the only materials that you need are an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper, your brain, and some writing and drawing utensils, perhaps maybe some collage materials, but right now we really only just need to have your good ideas and some drawing utensils. If you want to set aside about an hour to work on this, I think that should be plenty. Actually, it's probably good to give yourself a limit of an hour because I definitely think that this can be a project that you might overthink but you don't really need to overthink this. Think about the pacing, and think about the story that you want to tell, think about the beginning, the middle, the end, think about how you can create surprise, think about using contrast, think about using textures, think about again the revealing point. We are making a book, so again you want to really be focusing on good pacing, and again that reveal, that surprise as far as different techniques go, this scene probably should be photocopied so you can distribute it to other people. So, the type of marks that you're making, they want to be bold, they want to be thick, clear, consistent. Light, light pencil shading doesn't really, really transfer that well. Once you feel comfortable sharing what you've been working on, be sure to upload to the project gallery. One of the things that might be helpful once you upload your project to the gallery is, instead of just uploading it and going up, here it is, it's really good to ask specific questions because those yield specific answers. So, if you have a question about the content, be sure that you specifically ask about the content, is it clear? Does this make sense? Be very specific because again those specific questions those are going to yield your best responses back from the community, and really what we want to have happening online is good information, and good sharing from each other so we all can be making the best zenes that we possibly can. 3. Inspiration: Zine History: So, a little bit about the history of Zines. Zines were essentially publications that were made so people could share their ideas and thoughts with each other in a very easy way. Some could say that Thomas Paine's Common Sense, was actually the very first zine that was ever created. However, the term Zine became popular in the 1920's and 1930's and it started with fanzines that were about science fiction. It's just been with us for hundreds and hundreds of years and the printed form is definitely the form that it's manifested itself in. So, again in the 1970's, there were a lot of music Zines that were based off of punk and underground music just because people heard these bands, and they became obsessed with them and they wanted to interview them, and they wanted to share those interviews with other people that were obsessed with the same band. Then, the 80's and 90's led to a lot of Zine started that are actually magazines right now. I think Giant Robots are really good example of that, Bitch Magazine started out as a Zine, you just see again that these small, what we think are small obsessions turn into something that we discover that a lot of people actually share and it's because of just creating these documents and sharing them with people and finding other people that are also really into it as well. This is a Zine that I actually had one of the very first interviews that I was ever in, and this came out in 2000 and it's just it was a Zine that was about shopping called Checkout. Again, one of the common things that runs through Zine culture is that it's easy to reproduce and it's usually pretty low budget, like this is just black and white photocopy. But again, no one gave them permission to make this. They gave themselves permission to make this and distribute it and share it with people. So, I think that's really the key where you don't wait for other people to tell you that it's okay to put these ideas out, is that you're giving yourself permission to put your work out there, your beliefs out there, and you can share them with as few or as many people as you'd like. So, in talking about Zines, there's so many different types of Zines that fit into underneath the Zine umbrella, and I want to go through a couple of categories that I am particularly fond of. One of the categories is just the Zine, the obsession Zine. This is a Zine called The Prince Zine and it is what it says. It is all about prince and the author, Joshua James Amberson, he went through and wrote down all of these observations about Prince Albums. It is detailed and it is super funny, and it has very much from his own point of view too. I think that's important to a lot of Zines are written with the author's point of view in mind. This isn't like you're reading a Wikipedia entry on Prince. This is very much Prince through the filter of this author and that's what makes it so special and so unique too. If I just wanted to learn about Prince, I could just Google him but I want to learn about Prince through the filter of Joshua James Amberson too. So, anyway Prince, love it. Another really wonderful fanzine is the Degrassi Digest. This is all about the Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High School, and it is the writer's again, very distinctive point of view about his thoughts and feelings on Degrassi. It's hilarious and humorous and it's super low budget and I'm completely addicted to it and it's absolutely fantastic. So, this is just a Zine that is about, it says, "The Baseball Magazine for people who hate baseball magazines." So, again, one of the things that I really enjoy about Zine culture is that if you don't see something that you want to read that's currently on like in the marketplace, it is your prerogative to create something that you would want to read. I feel like this is a really good example, this is again the Baseball Magazine for people who hate baseball magazines and it's all about baseball. But again, it's from the very specific point of view from a person who wrote the Zine. So, obsessions zines. Those are usually about something that the author knows a lot about and wants to share with whoever wants to listen and hopefully, people will dig it and they usually do. So, another category of Zines that I love it's near and dear to my heart our Collection Zines. So, a Collection Zine usually works really well when you focus on just again a collection and explore it in a really thorough way. So, this one is pet cemetery, You Were Loved and it's all about the pets of this author who have died, and it's just these little stories about dead pets. It's great, it's simple, and that's what makes for good Zine. This one is called OK Cupid Messages I Have Not Responded To, and it is essentially exactly what the cover says. It's just a bunch of Ok Cupid messages that the author has not responded to. These are so funny and sad and all of the emotions, there's a lot of tension and that's what makes this Zine a really good read too. So anyway, Collection Zine. This I feel like it's the ultimate Collection Zine. It's actually started with this and now it's actually a book, but it's called Applicant, and it is based off of a pile of files, applicant files, for a Biology department in Ivy League school during the late 1960's that the author found in a dumpster and it's essentially all the photographs of the people that we're applying for this biology PhD program, and then the typed feedback that their interviewers felt about the applicant and it's again very simple but combined with, like this one says, " Does not work too well with her hands." This one says, "I can imagine that he could be wearing on constant close exposure." And it's just that over and over again. This one just says, "I find them attractive in appearance." Again, it's so simple but it's freaking brilliant and again it was a very popular Zine and now it's actually put out by the publisher Microcosm in a little book form two. So, Collection Zines. A lot of my work ends up in Collections Zines too, simply because I draw a lot of collections and so putting them out in Zine format makes a lot of sense to me and they definitely fit under the category of Collections Zines. Another way that I feel Zines work well is to get to know people. I know that sounds cheesy but I think the format of an Interview Zine is actually a super fun way to get to know a person or to know a person better. This one is an Interview Zine that is with the author and her mother. It's just this really wonderful small document where the daughter is asking her mother questions and again putting it in this booklet format and sharing it with people. Another category of Zines that I really enjoy, the Literature Zines. This one is just kind of a journal just, Never Finished Grad School and it's just excerpts from her Live Journal. Which again this brings up this really interesting play between the Internet and between these tangibles in publications and I feel like I would never have read her live journal but I totally read her live journal in Zine form. So, I think that's pretty interesting but this is all about her journey through grad school or not her journey through grad school. Then this is a really famous one it's just Cometbus, and this is his journals. He publishes his journals and it's really beautiful hand lettering and it's just this narrative of his life essentially. That all goes saying that I think Zines are good format when you want to talk about a person or talk about a person's life too. They're called Bio Zines, and so this is a Bio Zine called Alien Boy. It's a Zine about the life of James Chase and it's a really wonderful way to maybe honor somebody to let more people know about someone that you think that needs to be known about essentially. So, anyway, one of the last categories of Zines and there's so many categories but I'm only focusing on a few here or more of the Illustrations Zines and that's my world that I live in and so I have a lot more Illustrations Zines than any zines just because I'm an illustrator and that's what I'm drawn to too. But Illustration Zine is a great format for illustrators too, put their work in and share it with people. They work really well as it could be promos that you send out to people to get a job or they could just be something that you just want to share with people and trade with people just to like this is what I'm working on. This is what's happening here. This is a really wonderful one that was given to me this summer by the illustrator Greg Klutz, and it's called Exercise the Demon and it's just this really wonderful illustrations study between Richard Simmons and Gene Simmons. It's all of these different illustrations of Gene Simmons from kiss and the exercise guru Richard Simmons and it just cracks me up, and he handed this Zine to me at an illustration conference and I completely fell in love with it and I have shared it with so many people and it's just again, he took the topic of just Richard Simmons and Gene Simmons and explored it really, really well in this printed book, it's so wonderful. This is another illustration Zine, and it's also collection zine too because it's just this Illustrators drawings of cats that are upset. All of these are really upset cats. They just say, "My God, I know." Again, it's just a really simple idea but executed in a really fun way. So, Upset Cats is another great Illustration Zine. Then this one is done by the illustrator Crispy Asic and he does illustrate all those bikes. It's just a really thorough exploration of all of his bikes that he owns. So, again, it can be very simple. Another thing I want to talk about is the importance of Zine culture in social activism such as Riot Girl Culture, Political Activism, it could also be, again just it's another good way to share ideas that maybe the writer doesn't think are being shared to a broader audience. Again, the rich history of Zine culture especially in the Pacific Northwest with Riot Girl and also with Political Activism is so important to the history of the Zines in general that none of the stuff really would be existing without the seeds that those movements planted to. So, you might be asking, where do I find Zines? And what's great about Zines is that now you can get them on the Internet, you can get them there's usually if you're in a larger city there's different Zines symposiums that you can go to, I'll be uploading, a list at different places where you can purchase Zines online. One other things about purchasing Zines online is that you usually will find more. Once you find one, it leads you to another, it leads you to another, and it leads you to another. But before the Internet, people found Zines through actual other Zines. There was a publication called Fact-Sheet Five, that was just filled with different Zine reviews and different addresses that you could write to and send your dollar in the mail and then they would send you the Zine back. I know that doesn't exist anymore, I wish it did because that's still pretty cool but right now, you can find other Zines too at larger bookstores sometimes I know Pauls in Portland has a really broad Zine section and then reading Frenzy in Portland has a lot of Zines. Again, I'll be uploading a list of places online that you can visit either in the town that you live or you can visit them online too. 4. Ideation and Illustration: The hardest part about beginning a project is actually beginning a project, where to start. A lot of times I have created these kickstarter exercises for myself where I just start doing observational drawing. I will have nothing in my head. I will be so confused as to what I am going to draw that I just start by drawing stuff that's on my desk, or I start drawing stuff that's in my medicine cabinet, or I start drawing stuff that's in my wallet because once you get started, it's usually easy to keep going but it's that first initial, what am I supposed to draw? What am I supposed to make? That so tough. It doesn't have to be a huge like genius idea, the point is to just get going. So, like for example, I'm going to draw something. I'm going to draw these sunglasses. So, these are my sunglasses and I'm going to draw them. I usually don't hesitate with my mark making. You won't see a lot of light sketching or eraser lines because, well, I don't use a pencil. I just go with this wonky quasi contour line drawing. This is a style that has come out of not really knowing how to draw and just doing it anyway. I'm a big fan of I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm doing it anyway mode of learning. So again, that line's not perfect but I'm gone with it, and I'm just going to work with it. Whenever I do my daily drawings, one of the rules I set for myself is that if I mess up I just have to keep going and I have to incorporate that into the drawing because if we tried to make everything perfect, well number one that would be pretty boring if we tried to make everything perfect, but the making will slow down pretty quickly and some happy accidents come from mistakes. So, that's just a really quick line drawing of my dumb sunglasses and I'm actually shocked they aren't broken yet. Then what I normally do is either add some fills with my brush pen, because I like having a little bit of contrast going, or I'll create some imaginary lines that weren't there to begin with just so I can think about, again, adding some contrast, creating some texture, adding some visual interest. Again, I like having things being high contrast because they reproduce well, it scans really well, and it makes for a pretty dynamic line drawing. I'm a big fan of thinking while making, and making while thinking. It's a fun meditative process for me. It's a lot more fun than just sitting by yourself and staring at a blank piece of paper just praying for ideas to come out. Because even if maybe you didn't come up with the best idea, but at least you made something, you made a drawing. The biggest thing to focus on is the idea, what your zine is going to be about. Remember this isn't going to be the last zine that you ever make. So, if you have lots of ideas, that's great, if you have no ideas, I actually have a list of prompts for you to run off with. So, for example, you could have a diary entry in image or text format, you could talk about your favorite snacks, weird childhood pets. Maybe it's a persuasive zine, maybe you want to advocate for something. What is it that you're passionate about? What do you want people to know? What do you want to champion? What about your coworkers, and a comic gallery? Regrettable haircut? I'm sure we've all had a few of those. What about people who look like animals? How about a tiny zine of tiny zine ideas, or your favorite YouTube animals? Or what about emojis that you wish existed but they don't. You can also talk about your personal cell phone history, earliest to current, what happened to each. It could be a creepy zine. Everything you remember about your first crush. I dare you to send it to them. What about imaginary crayon colors? Your favorite socks, favorite inside activities. How about some tweets you're especially proud of? I'm actually really into taking our on-life life and transferring it into zine format. Again, you could do the Facebook statuses, you could do tweets into a zine format, you could draw your Instagram pictures and put them into a zine format. You could do an encyclopedia of office plants. You could do maybe worst food trends of the 21st century. You could do your all-time worst Christmas gifts. You can do your all-time best Christmas gifts. There are so many things that you can make zines about. The key is just to start. You're going to want to figure out the pacing of it, the storytelling of it, cause remember we're dealing with this book format. You're going to want to have an intro cover, you're going to have interior pages. But again, don't just think of your interior pages as these separate pages. Think about how you can create spreads. Think about how you can create movement and rhythm throughout this tiny book format. Again, don't forget about your inside. You can do patterning. You can do a big reveal on the inside, but don't forget about your inside. You get two sides of this paper to fill up with a ton of good ideas, and a ton of different ways to show your story. Think about how the viewer is going to be reading your zine. This is really a place for you to explore and experiment with new ideas. 5. Laying Out Your Zine: Let's make our one page zine. So, what we're going to be doing here is, this is going to be your master copy. This is the template where all the magic is going to happen, okay? What I usually do is I get the folds down first. So, this is your blank, eight and a half by eleven sheet. We're going to fold it in half. We're going to fold it, and I have one of these guys, which I love. It's a bone folder, and it makes us really precise, awesome, crisp folds and I'm kind of obsessed with it. I have lots of them. If you don't have a bone folder, you should get one. Then, I'm folding it in half again. Again, you want to be sure that your folds are really nice and precise, and you use that dungeon folder. So, folding, folding, and then we're going to fold it inward one more time, lots of folds. One of the nice things about this one page zine format, is that it doesn't require any sort of extra special binding tools. It's also on an eight and a half by eleven sheet of paper, which makes it super easy to duplicate. Then, what you do from this point, you've got eight different frames, then you are going to fold it like this. Get a pair of scissors, and use steady hands and you're going to make one cut, okay? One cut, but you're going to stop it when you get to the crease part. So, we're not cutting all that, we're just cutting doing one cut like this, okay? Then, you unfold it again, and then you pop it like this, you pop the paper. Then, you get your folds again. You want to be sure again that all your folds are nice. So, everything's going to lay down flat. You have essentially made yourself a book that doesn't require any staples and only one cut. So, there's your book, okay? That's your template at this point. This is how we're going to figure out the content that you're going to put on your zine. So, now that you have your blank mark-up, okay, this is so you can figure out how your pagination is going to work. You're going to have, this is your cover. So, I'm just going to write on here so you'll know this. This is your cover. Then, this is page one, page two, page three, page four, five, six, seven. This is back cover. So, you unfold all of this and this is going to be kind of the way that you're going to be creating your content. Okay? So, you're looking at it this way and like, "Okay, this is my cover." Be sure that you have a dynamic kind of intro to what your zine is going to be about, because this is your cover. Then, your cover is going to be next to your back cover. So, maybe you want to have an image that spans both the front and back cover, which could be pretty nice, pretty beautiful, might consider doing something like that. Then, you've got your content pages. Page one, two, three, four, and then you're going to flip it, five, six, seven. Again, that's your back cover. Then, you just start filling in all of your details based on the pages that you have labeled. Okay? This is your template. Also, don't forget, this could be like a little mini poster. If you wanted to, you could use this to completely cover all eight panels as kind of a surprise or a pattern. I've had students do patterns on the inside, I've had students do larger drawings on the inside, I've had students do full-page letters on the inside. It's a really great kind of extra thing that you could do as a surprise to the viewer, as they're reading through the zine as well. This fold can be applied to bigger sheets like this 11 by 17, and you can also do it 8.5 by 14. Any common paper size, will fold down with that same cut that I showed you. I have made a template for you that you can download and follow along and do some planning pages. So, you can be prepared for when it's time for you to execute your own zine. It's also really important to remember that you only make your cut from these two places. From here to here. Okay? These two creases. The template that I've uploaded online will have that designated for sure, and then also, because we are photocopying, you want to be sure to keep any sort of information that's completely important to your zine out of the margins. So, give yourself about an eighth inch of a bleed. You can have lines go off the page, you can have texture and other markings go off the page, but don't put the entire pieces of your zine maybe along this one eighth inch, or people aren't going to read it because it's probably going to get cut off. So, just watch your margins. 6. Collaging: We're here at the IPRC, which stands for the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which happens to be right across the street from my studio. You pay like this pretty low monthly membership, and you have access to their entire zine library which is right behind you. You get access to the computer lab, photocopiers, and then you get all the material for making zines and publications. A nonprofit that's been around for the last 16 or 17 years, and it is essentially, like it says, it's a resource center for people who like to make publications. Workshops are held here. It's a really wonderful resource. One of my favorite ways of making images is collage. So, this file folder right here is just scraps and prints organized, of just different images of that this person has liked that they're saving for other like collage opportunities I suppose. So there's like a man category, and a woman category, and a head category. So, before the Internet, and before Pinterest, and before online archiving, people used to tear things out of magazines that they liked, and they would organize it and put it in file folders. I would encourage you if you really get into making collages, to do something like this. To always be on the lookout for images and magazines that you like, images that you see on the street that you want to take a photograph of, that you can later put into your collage file. So, when you do sit down to do a collage, you're going to have a lot of different images to choose from, and you won't be so kind of like put on the spot to be like, "Oh, what can I make a collage out of?" You can kind of leaf through your tangible Pinterest folder which is here, this is your analog Pinterest. So, having a collage file is actually a really good thing to start if you want to do lots of collages. What's nice about collaging is that these yellow National Geographics can be found everywhere. Every single thrift store has an immense stack of National Geographics, and may make for some of the best collage inspiration, and they're like a dime. So, start collecting these, and start tearing out pages that you really enjoy and put them into your collage and scrap folder for upcoming collage opportunities. Especially for people that, maybe don't feel comfortable in their drawing skills but still want to create imagery, I think that's just another way to make images. Collages is also, for a lack of a better word, it's pretty quick, it's accessible, it's materials that you can easily find, and it is a really fun way to illustrate what it is that you want to say. Also, what I like about collage too are the surprising kind of outcome of images that weren't meant to be next to each other, and then you choose to put them next to each other and they spark new ideas, and you can come up with other ways of working through that too. Another zine that I want to focus on, is one that's actually published here in Portland that's called Crap Hound, and it's been published here for many years. Crap Pound is a zine for people who make zines, and what that means is that every single issue has a different theme, and it's filled with clip art. Now, I know clip art sometimes has a bad rap. But this clip art is imagery from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and it's all again, like organized around a subject or a theme. This issue right here is a church and state part one. So, every single page has something to do with church and, or state, and this is great for again, collage. You can photocopy these off. You can draw off of them. They can help us spark ideas. Sometimes they also have type in the back that you can use for like, maybe some display type that you want to be using in your zine. This leads me to talking about this publication, not publications, imprint called Dover, and Dover also puts out a lot of really pretty affordable clip art, spot illustrations, tight books from the 20s, 30s, 40s. Sometimes they have giant books of like Victorian women, and it's all like different hands and things like that, and that works really well for resource imagery for zine making too, and it's all copyright free. So, you can just use it as much as you like. Again, these books usually run anywhere from, you can get some stuff online for pretty cheap, you can find them used, but they usually never go over $10 in price, and I have a huge collection of them, especially typography. Like, when you are trying to get different ideas on how to come up with lettering, Dover puts out books that are just typefaces. It's a really kind of a great way to practice your hand-lettering, and to practice your ever evolving type skills too. If you're someone that draws all the time, and you just draw, I think it's good to maybe combine that with some collage imagery. Collage is really great to work in a different way. So, again, if you're someone who draws all the time, try collage or something different. If you're someone that doesn't feel comfortable drawing, try collage in order to help kick off a whole new world of image-making. 7. Experimenting with Image-Making: Of course you can use the computer to create typography, but I want to show you a couple other ways to create text for your zine. The first one that I absolutely love is, this chart pack rub down lettering. So, this is how all type used to come, but now no one uses it and you can find piles and piles of it either in. Well, I have my own personal collection, I just paid attention to when an old engineering firm was going on a business and I got a bunch of rubbed down lettering from this engineering firm. You can still find new rub down lettering at art supplies stores, but I think if you just keep looking on Craigslist or if you keep just an eye open for it you're going to be able to find your own collection, with some, I would say some perseverance. It's not everywhere, but it is around if you do want to use this. So, essentially, what you can do to write out text with this rub down lettering. So, you just take something that is hard that you can use as a burnisher, and then you just rub it, like it says you rub it down. I think one of the fun things about this is that it's not going to be perfect either, you're going to get crumbly type. You're going to get type that's not perfectly letter spaced. You can also layer type too. So, it's a nice experimental way to work with typography. Again like a zine, if you're going after perfection, this might be the wrong format for you. Some sheets you're going to find are going to be crisper than others, but again that's kind of the fun, it's the experiment of it. It's fun to use this as a good example of typos image, to create imagery based off of you just experimenting with letterforms. This also will photocopy really well, and the texture is really fun to play around with too. I think the key thing to remember is to not be afraid to experiment with materials. Maybe it's a new way of working that you hadn't originally thought of when you sat down to make this zine. Find some stencils and stencil some staff, or get some ink, and get messy with your ink. Or maybe you found some old stamps, and just take that stamp out, and you just, that doesn't work. You could just find a bunch of stamps and just really build up imagery with just text repeated over and over again too. Use cut paper. Don't be afraid to just dump ink on a page. Don't be afraid to crumple up a piece of paper and photocopy it. Don't be afraid to dump dirt on your page. Don't be afraid to step on your page. Adding texture is a really wonderful way to create depth and volume to your image, to your zine too. Also when you do find a photocopier to copy your zines on, see if you can experiment on it, see if you can play with texture, enlarge your images, shrink them down, cut them up, crumple things, photocopy actual objects. You can really create fun and unexpected textures from just playing around with a photocopier. Same thing goes with the printer too, like in your scanner, just kind of explore those pieces of tech equipment because they can also really help you with creating some pretty fun imagery that's going to be unexpected too. Personally, I love photocopying zines in black and white. Sometimes I feel like color photocopiers number one are a little bit more expensive, the colors are still a little bit mushy, and black and white is kind of where it's at because it's easy to reproduce and it's really really cheap too. But also don't be afraid to use different color paper to photocopy your zine on. Think about the content of your zine, think about what paper would make sense with the content of your zine, and then experiment and see how your imagery is going to look photocopied onto that color paper that you have picked out for yourself. One tool that I love using, whenever I'm creating lo-fi analog imagery, is a simple marker that's put up by Chartpak, and it's called a colorless blender tool. It's essentially it's acetone in pen form, and what it does it's called that helps make Xerox transfers, so that's what it's called. So, you photocopy off your image and usually reverse, and you flip it over and then you use that acetone pen to rub it down, and it releases the toner onto the page. So, it really helps with creating textures. It helps with creating layering, it helps with maybe transferring images onto substrates that you can't really print onto too, like you can use York's transfer on the wood, you can use it onto really heavy card sock. It's just the blender pen is amazing. I love it. 8. Wrap Up!: So, you've made a zines. You've made an addition. You've got 10-50 of these zines you've created, and you're like, "What am I going to do with all of these zines?" Well, there's so many things you can do with these zines. You can give them to people you know. You can give them to people you don't know. You can take a fist full of them and just drop them off at the local coffee shop, and just have them be there free for the taking. Maybe you have zine stores in your town. They usually have an area where they will take zines on commission. Maybe you can put your zines in a zine store. Again, I think the point is, is just to be sharing them with people, and just be like, "Hey, I made this and I'd like for you to have this." It's a fun way to share what you're working on and what you're thinking about, so don't be afraid. Again, give them to people you don't know, give them to people you do know, drop them off in neighborhood coffee shops, or neighborhood record stores, or grocery stores. I had one student actually made a zine where he wanted Cool Ranch Doritos to be president. He immediately after he finished making an edition of his 20 zines, went to the local CBS that was in his neighborhood, and he taped them on to bags of Cool Ranch Doritos. So, go and do that. You just want to get your zine out there and just share it with people, definitely. Now, I would love for you to upload your progress and/or your completed one-page zines to the photo gallery. So, this can happen in many different ways. If you have access to a scanner, scan that front, scan that back, upload it. Again, have your specific list of questions, so we can give you specific responses, and you're good to go. If you don't have a scanner, that's totally okay. You can take a cell phone photo of your zine pages and upload that too. If you want to zoom in on some details, if you have some specific questions about different areas of your zine, please do that too. The more you can show, the better. If there are very specific areas in your zine, be sure that you're able to zoom in and show that in the photo gallery too because we want to give you a good feedback because we want you to be making a really good zine. Making a zine is addictive. So, don't be surprised if you finish this one up and you want to make another one right away. Please do. Actually, if you find yourself making more than one one-page zine, upload it and share. Again, more than happy to get feedback on multiple different zine ideas. The key here is to not obsess or labor over your zine. The trick here is to just get these ideas out, try lots of different methods of making imagery. Lots of different methods of typography. Lots of different methods of storytelling because these little mini zines, I think of is like a good sketch for bigger ideas. Don't be afraid to make a lot, and don't be afraid to feel like, "Oh, I'm making a zine and I don't really know what I'm doing," because you will figure it out as you are making. You're going to be thinking while you're making and that is a good thing. 9. More Creative Classes on Skillshare: