Tag: zines

Free zines and other good things from Austin Kleon


Of all the people I follow and pay attention to on the Internet, Austin Kleon may be my favorite. I look forward to his newsletter every Friday: it’s always the same format, and always good and often great.

While he does a lot of great things digitally, I admire his creation of analog material, like zines. In this post, What does a seed look like?, he’s shows us one of the handmade zines he created. In another, More light!, he provides the reader a zine to print and make. While here in this post, Love is not a gadget, he has created both a zine and a cassette tape.

Seeing all these zines of his got me making my own again. There’s something about handcrafting anything — from zines to cassette tapes to…well, whatever you prefer! — that is very satisfying. I’d encourage you to follow our lead and create your own…it’s not hard!

I’d encourage you to read more Kleon too. Maybe start with this: Study something you love in depth!

 

On zines

 

I started making zines again. I made some in the early days of the pandemic, but then stopped. I recently restarted making them because I was inspired by all the current zines posts of Austin Kleon. (You can see his here.)

Kleon’s are mostly the one sheet of paper kind you see in the image above. If you want to have a low key fun thing to make, I recommend making a zine of that kind.

Need more info? Here’s some links on how you can make your own, as well as some other good material:

 

Advice for all you frustrated artists out there (including me)


Sometimes you can get so hung up about making art you don’t make anything at all. This could be due to several reasons. For example, if you are worried about your style, read this. If you are frozen because you wonder if you are you good enough to be an artist, go here. You can also read this: how to boldly pursue your artistic calling even if youre riddled with self doubt. If you wonder if your art is good enough to sell, click this. For an example, see how this artist  sells art on etsy.

If you think you are no good, get over yourself and read:  7 sins of beginner artists what keeps you from being good and 21 days to be a better artist. If you think you have no skill, head over to this: create art without skill and this: you can draw and probably better than i can. If you think you need to go to art school, read: don’t go to art school. If you think you are too old: why it’s never too late to become an artist. If you need some prompts, go here: Some good prompts from Inktober.

If nothing else, make yourself a zine. Here’s advice on making a zine, on how to fold a zine, and how to make a one page zine. Here’s some zine advice and more zine goodness is there.