Hello everyone!

We have come to the end of semester 2, which means year 1 in ADM comes to an end for my batch.. Yay! Just as the semester concludes with many good things, 2D II Foundation comes to a conclusion with the final project – Zine.

Though I have heard of magazines, the word zine was something new to me. Zines are generally defined as such: “A zine (/ˈziːn/ ZEEN; an abbreviation of fanzine or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.”

The very fact that my original works could be printed into a cute little A5 zine, certainly did excite me and scare me a little at first.

Before I continue, lets take a look at the actual zine I made 🙂

Ideas and development

Initially, I had the idea of doing a handmade/hand-written zine. However, I also wanted to extend my abilities in digital media. As such, I decided to digitally manipulate my existing original works. 

Summing it all up

Spirituality is a topic I have somehow or rather, due to my interest, addressed in my projects one after another. Before, I have spoken extensively on the complexity and artistic aspects under the broad scope of spirituality. And as such, for this project I wanted lesser words and more visuals. These visuals will be my previous works and as such, this zine will display some of best works exhibiting my styles and take on spiritual art.

Spirituality mostly links to the ideas of meditation and so on. Sometimes, people tend to venture into more metaphysical realms which is mostly fed by the wild, vivid, energetic and colourful imaginations. That was what my artworks are like. They are mostly intricate and vibrant, displaying the multifarious facets of spirituality. 

Answering some Questions:

Why landscape? … I found landscape orientation a better way to put my works, which required more space horizontally. 

Why the need of the sleeve? …  At first, I wanted to do a handmade cover for my zine. However, with further understanding that we are making zines and not a book or sort, I decided to do away with the ideas of making handmade covers. However, I sew up this simple black felt casing/sleeve, to just “satisfy” my desire. 😀

Why is there no title? … Just like Art, Spirituality is a very ambiguous term too. And as such, I wanted my zine to be able evoke a sense of creative wonderment in the area of Arts and Spirituality, without much words. It will be a an open interpretation for viewers. That made me come to the point, where I did not want to limit the interpretation of my zine by giving it a title. Instead, the cover page will be my art, which will be the title itself. 

 

My original ink illustration of a Mandala edited to give a cosmic/galactic effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lets look at the other pages in ascending order. More questions will be answered along the way as I explain.. 🙂

 

Page 2 has subtle repetitions of my ink illustration of a floral mandala, creating a nice backdrop for my little note to the viewers of the zine. It could have been less wordy, but considering the fact that most pages are without words, this paragraph speaks for the entire zine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here in page 3 we have a digital manipulation of a watercolour painting I did of the Hindu Goddess of Art Mother Sarasvati. 

 

I chose to put 4 out of the 6 compositions I did for 2D assignment 2(POV) in a merged manner, that resembled  a Bayeux tapestry in some sense. As such, I preferred to place them in the middle pages, 4 and 5, in order for them to be seen as one long piece when the zine is opened to that page and laid out flat. A simple stapling in the middle in the saddle stitch style made this possible with the least distraction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here in page 6, we have a digital manipulation of a watercolour painting I did of the Hindu God, Lord Vishnu. 

 

 

 

 

 

I felt that some interactive element would make the zine more personal to anyone who happens to get a copy of it. As such, I digitalised one of my drawings to make a colouring page (Page 7)

 

 

 

The back cover (page 8) of the zine was a conclusive image of a mandala I drew which was digitally manipulated to suit the overall invigoratingly colourful theme. It was meant to be simple, but retain its intricacy at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

The manifestation!

In this process, I would have to make a mention as to how Adobe In Design was of such good use to make the zine. I also had a good time manipulating my original artworks in Adobe Photoshop.

Some of the trials:

 

 

 

 

 

Other considerations included things such as making sure that the images were HD enough for good print quality, CMYK colours for more satisfying print results which will be closer to the digital version. The paper choice was important as well. I decided to go for an overall matte look to allow the intricate details of my work to be visible clearly. I am not a big fan of the shine glossy papers tend to have.

Overall, I enjoyed working for this project and the previous ones as well. Stepping into my Major(Vis-Comm) in the next semester, this project gives a small peek into vis-comm.  🙂