Magazine Name Ideas

Ok so my first idea for a name was Toucan, I liked the idea of the tropical colourful bird, thought I could make it into quite a fun character. These are the initial design ideas I showed in the seminar today. However, what I didn't realise was that Toucan is already associated with Guinness! So the search for a new name is on. These are my ideas. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas or if you think any of these are good. 

Pelican

Bud

Moose

Zebra

Kingfisher

Reveal the hidden picture

For this activity, you have to colour in the sections represented by the different coloured dots. When they are coloured in, it will reveal a picture!

Fishy Picture

Originally this picture was going to be a landscape with a wordsearch in the shipwreck. However, after the seminar today, everyone agreed that it works better using the negative space and adding the wordsearch would make it too cluttered. So... taking the feedback on board I am going to use it as a colouring page instead, and will maybe do the wordsearch on a separate page. 

More Sketchbook Pages for my magazine

Well, since the critique last week I have been busy doing lots of idea generating and drawing! Here are the lastest sketchbook pages with my ideas, more work to follow!

What Alice Found

We got an email at Uni about a competition to design the logo for a new shop in Bournemouth called 'What Alice Found'. If it wins it would get used on the shop front, as well as on labels etc. I used old music paper to create the lettering, adding watercolour, collage, pen and digital colour in Photoshop. I used the teapot and teacup to represent the Mad Hatters tea party. I'm sure there will be plenty of entries, but it was fun to have a go.

Illustrations and Making Projects

These are the illustrations and page layouts I have been working on since doing the roughs in my sketchbook. There are only a few at the moment but now that I have most of my ideas it will be easier to start doing them. The peacock will probably be a colouring page, there is going to be a page on crocodiles (how to make a cucumber crocodile), and I am creating a page on how to make Panda Cupcakes. I am really enjoying this project so far, it is great to make and draw things I am so interested in.

Sketchbook Pages So Far

These are the pages from my sketchbook so far; most of them are ideas at the moment as I like to plan out all my illustrations before I start them.

Inspiration for Major Project

The last time I went home for the weekend I found all my old books of word searches and puzzles that I had made when I was a child. I used to make these all the time and tried to make my brothers and sister do them! I think this has been the main catalyst for the project as I realised then, how much I enjoy making things for other peoples to do. As well as this I have been looking at Anorak magazine; I love the variety of illustrators they use to create it, as well as the content, colouring and the page layouts. I also found a book that I absolutely loved when I was a child (Simple things to make and do); I think I must have made everything in it. I still look through it all the time and it has given me so many ideas for this project.

Page Layouts for Magazine

I have stuck my page layouts on my wall to help me visualise the layout of the magazine better. Doing this has really helped me hone my ideas; I stick up post it notes of my ideas as well as all my work as I do it. In time I will make a proper layout on InDesign but for now this has helped get the ball rolling.

Major Project Initial Idea

For my Major Project I will be making an educational activity magazine for children which is primarily illustration based. The magazine's main themes are concerned with nature, places, animals and birds etc, whilst incorporating lots of fun activities including wordsearches, mazes, colouring in, making activities and stories, as well as many more. I would love to make more than one issue but due to the time scale I'm not sure if this will be feasible. However, after lots of deliberating I have decided on using the theme of 'animals' for this issue (whether or not I make more), as children love them, and I love drawing them.

I have done a fair bit of research into kids magazines around at the moment, finding that most of them are television or film based, eg. CBeebies, Toy Story, Ben 10 etc. They tend to be printed on glossy paper, and don't seem to include many illustrations, there main delivery method being photography and graphic based work. There is also a lot of emphasis on the free gift! The price range seems to vary between about 2 and 3 pounds.

After looking at the number of pages in magazines, I have decided to start with 32, and if I have time I will increase it to 48. The number of pages needs to be divisible between 8 and 16 for printing. As for paper, I want to use a thick paper, a bit like the paper used in Anorak magazine. It has a lovely feel to it, perfect for colouring as it won't rip easily. Although it will cost more to produce, the overall aesthetic will be a lot nicer.

Violet

This is a painting I have just been commissioned to do. I was given a small photo of a granddaughter wearing swimming goggles and a hat, and asked to paint her. It was a challenge to do, as I always have difficulty with faces and the skin tone could be better, but I think I am happy with the final piece, her Grandad is pleased with it!