# Making Your First Zine: From Idea to Illustration - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/making-your-first-zine-from-idea-to-illustration/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Quick win · Rated 7 /10 # Making Your First Zine: From Idea to Illustration By Gareth B. Davies · Updated July 2026 Kate Bingaman-Burt · Illustrator & Educator Beginner · 46 min A fast, hands-on 46-minute class that gets you folding, cutting, and filling a real one-page zine by the end. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fmaking-your-first-zine-from-idea-to-illustration%2F967918475) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. Kate Bingaman-Burt's class does exactly what a 46-minute beginner course should do: it gets a finished, foldable object into the student's hands by the end of a single sitting. The entire arc is built around one deliverable, an 8.5x11 one-page zine folded into eight panels, and the course never wanders far from that goal. Nine short lessons carry the viewer from a definition of what a zine is through history, idea generation, the physical fold-and-cut construction, image-making with collage and rub-down lettering, and a wrap-up on distribution. ## The construction lesson is the reason to take this The layout lesson is the technical core, and it earns its place. Bingaman-Burt walks through folding a standard sheet in half twice more, using a bone folder for crisp creases, then making one single cut that stops at the crease rather than running the full width of the paper. Unfolded and re-folded a different way, that one cut turns a flat sheet into an eight-panel booklet with no binding, no staples, and no spine to construct. She then maps the panels: cover, back cover (which sits adjacent to the cover and can share a spanning image), and seven interior pages numbered in the order they'll be read once assembled. This is the kind of physical, replicable technique that's hard to get right from a written description, and seeing it demonstrated removes the guesswork. Everything before that lesson is warm-up, and it's uneven. The zine history segment moves through Thomas Paine, 1920s science-fiction fanzines, 1970s punk zines, and the Riot Grrrl movement at a clip that names a lot of specific titles (a Prince fan zine, a Degrassi digest, a zine called "OK Cupid Messages I Have Not Responded To") without dwelling on any one long enough to teach a transferable lesson. It works as inspiration and as a demonstration that any obsession qualifies as zine material, but it's closer to a highlight reel than instruction. ## Drawing and image-making are covered lightly The ideation and illustration lesson leans on a specific working method: start by drawing whatever is in front of you (sunglasses, desk clutter, contents of a wallet) with a pen instead of a pencil, so there's no erasing and no hesitation, and let mistakes become part of the line rather than restarting. It's a genuinely useful unblocking technique for anyone frozen by a blank page, paired with a long list of concrete prompts (a zine of tiny office plants, a cell phone history, imaginary crayon colors) that solve the "what do I even make this about" problem instantly. The collaging and image-making lessons trade the drawing desk for an actual resource center, the Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, and show a real analog scrap file organized by category (man, woman, head), National Geographic back issues as cheap source material, and clip art books like Crap Hound and the Dover series. The rub-down lettering and Xerox transfer pen techniques shown afterward are specific and visual, but they lean on materials (chart pack lettering, a colorless blender pen) that are no longer sold new everywhere, so viewers without access to art supply stores or old stock will need to substitute. What the course does not do is teach drawing fundamentals, composition theory, or anything beyond the single-panel format. There's no digital workflow, no multi-signature booklet, no discussion of printing costs at scale. For a beginner who wants to make one thing today and understand what a zine even is, that narrow scope is a strength. For anyone hoping to develop actual illustration skill or produce a more ambitious publication, this is a starting point at best, not a destination. The standout The live demonstration of folding an 8.5x11 sheet into an eight-panel booklet with a single strategic cut, no staples required. ## What you will learn - · How to fold and cut a single sheet of paper into an eight-panel one-page zine with no staples, using one strategic cut - · How to plan pagination across cover, back cover, and seven interior panels before drawing anything - · A loose, no-pencil contour drawing approach that treats mistakes as part of the line rather than errors to erase - · How to build and use a collage scrap file from magazines, National Geographics, and clip art books like Dover and Crap Hound - · Analog text-making methods: rub-down lettering, stamps, and Xerox transfer with a colorless blender pen - · A working vocabulary of zine categories (obsession, collection, interview, bio, illustration) to generate ideas from Best for: Total beginners who want a same-day, low-stakes creative project and are willing to work fast without overthinking the result. Skip it if: Anyone wanting formal drawing instruction, digital layout software, or a multi-page saddle-stitched zine with a spine. Engaging Teacher Helpful Examples Clarity of Instruction Actionable Steps [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fmaking-your-first-zine-from-idea-to-illustration%2F967918475)