ImagineFX Magazine

Hey all! It has been a while, but Madi here!

I have been away for a year or so due to graduate studies, but I've been trying to pick up the ball again with art. I happened to come across an ImagineFX magazine the other day called "Practical Painter." I wondered if anyone knows what exactly is going on with ImagineFX? I'm having a harder and harder time even finding the ImagineFX magazine on the shelves lately. I also saw the original ImagineFX site has disappeared.

Welcome back Madi!

I've no idea about the magazine... The site probably merged with whats'theirname shortly after the old forum was closed - I've honestly not visited them since so I don't know I think I usually get subscription reminders in march but I've not heard anything yet. I think it was a really poor decision for the magazine to get so separated from it's readers...

Hello again, Madi! :waves: Hope all is well.

I think the IFX mag is still going on. I have a subscription and the issues still turn up at my local stores too.
They do seem to be producing more and more of those standalone issues like the one you mentioned. They seem to be compilations of previous workshops (with the odd new one) released as a themed issue (ie Comic Art, Manga, Traditional or Sketchbooks) to try and appeal to casual readers and wheedle more money out of subscribers. They don't seem to detract from the "normal" magazines though (not yet anyway!)
In fact some of the recent issues have been very good, 131 springs to mind with its tutorials by Svetlana Tigai and Laura Sava, and the latest mag has a lovely workshop by Wangjie Li. All artists I'd never heard of until reading about them.
Of course I think we all miss the old connection that IFX had with its readers but we manage to entertain ourselves around here.
Speaking of which, I hope you get back into your art and start posting some of your lovely pictures again.

Hey Charlotte and Valence!

Good to hear from you two!

Mm, I picked up a couple issues in the past couple months, and I noticed they seem to try to be rebranding. Though at first I thought perhaps they were trying to slowly let the magazine die or something, especially since I couldn't find any new issues in local stores here in the US. Not to mention, when I visited the UK, certain stores no longer carried them either like W.H. Smith.

But anyway, I guess I'll have to start searching for a new magazine I like as I get back into the swing of things. Any suggestions?

Apart from Future Publishing reorganising it's web presence a couple of years ago I haven't seen any kind of re-branding. They closed their magazine sites down and smooshed the all into hideous conjoined monstrosities. Entertainment (Film/TV/Games) Mags ended up on Gamesradar, digital art mags like IFX, 3DWorld, Computer Arts, all ended up in the Creative Bloq site, and so on. Now all their sites are annoying ad spammed click bait rubbish. They also sold off some of their lesser magazines as I understand it.

Well, I'm in the UK and they seem to have them in my WHSmith's, as far as I know/remember maybe it's a problem with the stocks or policies of individual stores.
As Banj said, the only major revamp has been with the websites. Of course the magazine does evolve gradually in a way that you don't really notice if you get every issue. The only major change I've been aware of over the years is the target audience. It used to be aimed more at the hobbyist when it started but now it leans more towards the art school graduate looking for a job with a lot more "studio" based articles. Which is not necessarily a good or bad thing. (Although one cost-cutting thing I've noticed is how they've now ditched the nice paper for the traditional section.)
It's true that there isn't much competition for it now. The only other digital art mags are either focused on graphic design and advertising or there are those Advanced Photoshop titles that tend to be more about photo-manipulation. A few years back there used to be a Corel Painter magazine which morphed into Digital Artist Daily and then promptly died. I rather liked the Corel Painter mag, it had a more traditional style of subject matter and also had a low enough standard that they even printed some of my pictures!
If you still can't get your hands on the magazines you want then you could always try the digital downloads on Zinio or Google/Apple. Reading on a screen is not quite the same but it's better than nothing.
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And right on cue, Issue 135 has just thudded through my letter box! I'm now off to read about Dan Dos Santos and learn some caricature tips from Loopydave!

I used to subscribe to 2D Artist magazine and it was very good. I haven't looked at it in a while but I have no reason to believe the standard has slippped. Comes as a download PDF.

www.2dartistmag.com/