What are zines and risograph?

Pen drawings

For an independent illustrator or an illustration student, zines can be a productive idea.  The point of a zine is a small quickly produced booklet, they're often illustrated and brightly coloured. What the zine contains is up to the creator but some work like comic books and others talk about news or music. They are a cheap way of promotion as they can be about anything. Some shops will help self-published illustrators promote and sell there zines. Traveling Man are one example as they help to promote zines to a wider audience. 

Final prints

I got to try out making a zine for myself. I only had around a day to produce the illustrations so it ended up looking a little slap dash. This look is OK though for zines as it just adds to their handmade appeal. I started by using a page plan to draw my illustrations. as the zine would be A6 it only took 2 pieces of A4, two parts for the pages, one part for the cover and one part for a little A5 poster inside. To print the zines I use something called Risograph. This work in a similar way to photocopying on a normal office printer. The Risograph gives a much more unique looking print as it doesn’t use laser printing like conventional printers but an ink roller. When the zine was printed it was simply a case of cutting it down and stapling it together. 

This was a quick and fun experiment, it’s surprising how quickly zines can be proudest and I would like to invest more time into this form of illustration. The Risograph printer is also very consistent and produces a good quality of print. I will also practice using this more in other upcoming projects.