How I made a zine!

(All about pigeons)

Two weeks ago I finally launched my biggest adventure and project. Something that I spent hours of sleepless nights working on it. You would think: a new picture book? Not quite.

It’s my brand new zine “All About Pigeons”, because calling it “Pigeon zine” didn’t sound particularly original. But is this zine really all about pigeons?

Let’s find out!

The most frequent question I have been asked in the past few months was: “Giulia, why do you like pigeons?”

It's a funny question, counting that as a child I used to be terrified of them. But it wasn’t just a pigeon thing, it was for any kind of animal born with a pair of wings. Anyway one day, something changed. I started to look at them, as only an artist who grew up with Beatrix Potter as a role model would do, I was mesmerised.

I loved the way they puffed their chest when trying to impress their possible lifetime partner, along with their unmistakable “coo-coo-coo, coo-coo, coo” sound and just in general their goofy walk and attitude.

A “clear” example of a pigeon courtship.

In reality, we are talking about one of the most incredible animals on the entire planet, an animal which captured the attention of big names like Charles Darwin and Nikola Tesla.

An extremely smart bird, gifted with an internal GPS which we took full advantage of during wartime, by using them as military messengers.

So next time you see a pigeon, you may think of them differently.

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Going back to the zine, I created the first few illustrations in February.

At that time I still didn’t have a clear idea how the zine would have looked like, but I knew that I wanted to focus on portraying as many breeds of domesticated pigeons as I could.

However the further I was working on this project, the more I realised that drawing all the pigeon breeds and varieties was truly an impossible task, especially since considering that each breed has different colours and patterns.

200 pigeon illustrations? NO WAY!

For this reason, I decided to prioritise my health and portray only the most peculiar kinds of domesticated pigeons from my point of view.

Now let's talk about the juicy bit, which every artist never gets tired of:

Art Materials

I am not gonna lie, for this zine, I used my entire toolset: acrylic and traditional gouache (Holbein and Turner were my favourite), colouring pencils (Holbein, Derwent Lightfast, Caran D'Ache Luminance and multiple Faber- -Castell), along Tombow Brush pens and lastly, but not for importance watercolours.

Special mention goes to a particular granulated colour from Schmincke, called Tundra Violet, which I sarcastically renamed "Pigeon Colour", as I ended up using it for the majority of this zine illustrations.

For reference

Printing

I have always been extremely open and transparent in sharing how I create my illustrations and how I make my products. If I can save another person hours and hours of frantic research, I can say that my job is accomplished!

For printing this zine and the previous I used Mixam, a UK-based company which has not only an impeccable costumer service (10/10) but they provide speedy and high quality results!

* not sponsored or gifted, I am just a very happy customer!

Both my All About Pigeon and Seaside Memories zines have been printed using recycled uncoated 150gsm paper and 250gsm recycled silk for the cover.

What’s Next?

I am working already on my next zine, which will be All About ….? I am open for suggestions :)

This is my last newsletter before the holidays, so if you read until here, I wish you a lovely Christmas!

Giulia

Embracing the Christmas spirit

Note for art directors and/or publishers: if you enjoy my pigeon illustrations, I would love to turn this zine into a non-fiction picture book!

Feel free to contact my agent Tracy Marchini at BookEnds Literary.