Click here to view Allen’s Gallery. What a delightful image this is! Clear, complementary tones create a harmony of green and honeyed gold with flashes of cerulean, while the idea of the bird’s feathers transforming into leaves is a great one, and has been managed very well - the movement is exuberant but still delicately done. One of the things I like most about this image though is its background, a lovely combination of floated-in colour and tone creating wooded hills rising into the  distance.

Our sister magazine Digital Camera Buyer  (the first title I worked on for Imagine Publishing, fact fans) is changing its name to Digital Camera Essentials from June this year.

Launched in 2002, Digital Camera Buyer becomes Digital Camera Essentials from issue 85, on sale 11 June 2009. Aimed at first-time digital camera users as well as those looking to upgrade their current kit, Digital Camera Essentials is written by industry experts with an unrivalled knowledge and passion for photography.

Digital Camera Essentials features the same in-depth reviews, hands-on group tests and 25-page buyers’ guide it has become famous for, but also now incorporates a large photo techniques section, allowing readers to get the best buying advice, as well as discover how to use their new gear.

Editor in Chief of Imagine’s photographic division, Debbi Allen, said:

“Digital Camera Essentials is aimed at the hobbyist photographer who’s looking to update their equipment and learn more about shooting techniques, from buying a new compact, bridge or DSLR, to taking the perfect shot and then editing it afterwards. It’s an exciting phase in the magazine’s development, and it has been designed to allow greater levels of interaction with readers and give them a complete view of each product from shop to shoot.”

For the first time ever, Digital Camera Essentials readers will also be able to subscribe to the magazine. “A new look deserved a brilliant new subscriptions offer,” explains Subscriptions Manager, Lucy Nash. “With all the outstanding features and developments it seemed like the perfect time to launch our new subscription programme for Digital Camera Essentials.”

Head of Sales, James Hanslip commented: “After seven successful years as Digital Camera Buyer, we felt the time was right to overhaul the magazine for the new generation of digital camera owners. Digital Camera Essentials will allow advertisers to reach a wider demographic of reader and get involved with more features and reviews.”

Imagine Publishing is one of the UK’s fastest-growing consumer specialist publishers. Formed in May 2005, Imagine now publishes 20 magazines and 27 websites in the videogames, computing, entertainment and photography markets. An Imagine magazine is purchased every ten seconds. For more information about Digital Camera Essentials, visit www.digicambuyer.co.uk

Click here to view Nathan’s Gallery.

For many of us it’s the time of year when landscape painting becomes its most attractive (Well, unless you count hayfever and bugs getting stuck in your oil paint, but that’s plein air for you!). Early summer gives us a fantastic clear gold cast to the light, and with everything in bloom pastoral landscapes are almost irresistible. Nathan’s image evokes some of the great English landscape painters of the 18th and early 19th centuries in its simplicity and combination of smooth blended brushstrokes in the background and more detailed ones up front (The linear and atmospheric perspective at the back could do with a little tweaking but it’s a very good effort!) It’s also reminiscent of the lovely rustic landscapes we see in anime films and videogames these days - warm, idealised and gentle, with quirky country architecture. Nathan’s obviously a very talented young artist, and I’m sure you, like me, are looking forward to seeing many more of his submissions in future.

Speaking of summer, it’s a Bank Holiday in the UK on Monday so Team Painter will be out of our office and (hopefully) enjoying the sunshine! The weekend’s images will be approved on Tuesday, so I for one am looking forward to an extra day’s worth of wonderful paintings from all of you!

We’re pleased to announce the launch of another new Face-Off website from Imagine Publishing! Our sister magazine Retro Gamer now has its very own Face-Off game dedicated to the joys of old games (The Painter gang stayed late at work last night reliving our lost youth and cooing “Wowww, Thundermonk! Echo the Dolphin! Space Invaders!”) If you remember the great games of yore, then check out www.retrofaceoff.co.uk. Unlike our Face-Off, Retro Gamer’s aims to eventually find the best retro game of all time, so if you think your favourite is a winner then get on there and nominate it!

First off, a reminder that you have one day left to enter our Painter 11 competition to be in with a chance of winning one of five copies! Details are in issue 28, so flood my inbox with competition entries while you still have the chance! Winners will be drawn shortly after the competition ends and announced in the news section of issue 31, so good luck in the draw!

Next, issue 30 is on sale tomorrow! Some subscribers will have got their hands on it already, but for those who haven’t, it’s worth the wait! You can see a glimpse of the cover on the website right now; it’s the wonderful Steampunk Alice by Sandra Chang Adair and this retro sci-fi style is the subject of our Paint Like tutorial this issue. Elsewhere Cat Bounds presents the Beginner’s Guide to Impasto while Anne Pogoda showcases her fantasy painting skills in an underwater scene with a difference. Helen Chierego shows us how she created her beautiful Kookaburra Princess painting, and Kelley Harris gets to grips with the subject of light in our Art Study. You’ll also find a showcase of some of the first entries to Creative Challenge 14, and much much more, including the Painter Cheat Guide we mentioned on our Twitter feed.  

While we’re on the subject of issue 30, an apology to Angie Jordan, whose name was incorrectly credited as Angie Johnson in the mag. Sorry Angie! You can check out her work at www.angiejordan.com and at http://digitalblacksmiths.com ahead of her (correctly named!) interview in issue 31.

Enjoy the latest issue!

Click here to view John’s Gallery.

I love fantasy art, particularly the classic, dramatic kind found on the covers of Seventies fantasy novels. This evocative image from John Edwards is exactly that. The dynamic composition is particularly well crafted. We’re often taught that we read images from lower left to upper right, but John has turned that on its head! He’s carried this off because of the position of the druid-like female enchantress - her placement within the armature of the composition is exactly where it should be, but her position on the lower slope of the hill allows John to suggest height and depth. The eagle is nearer us, making its beating wings almost startling (They’re right in our face, after all!) but its relationship to the female figure still draws our eye down to her, to see what all the commotion is about. Juxtaposing her lower position with the control she has over the eagle in the foreground reinforces her status as the most important part of the composition. The use of bright tones means that despite the relatively restrained colour harmony this image is still full of bright mountain sunlight, while the shadowed depths behind the figure serve to illuminate her just as much as the mystic light which radiates from her. A really excellent piece!

In April’s absence, I get the pleasurable job of choosing the Pic of the Week. And it was really difficult – you have all gotten so good! I finally decided on Hal Smith’s Ballerina image. Firstly, the colours attracted me. They are so tranquil and possess a great stillness. This complements the scene perfectly, with the reflection and soft detail. I think the water has been painted extremely well, especially the ripples where the wing and feet touch the surface.

It’s a great example of how a very simple scene can still hold a lot of impact. Excellent work!

Hello all, it’s Jo here, the previous editor of this lovely magazine! I just wanted to drop a quick note to say that April is poorly at the moment and at home. So if you have emailed her and are wondering why she hasn’t replied, it’s because she’s not here!

In her absence, I’ll do my best to approve the images as they come in but if your image doesn’t immediately appear, don’t panic! I promise I will do them when I can.

Bye!

Jo