Sue Thomas

Instead of turning 4 masks into one I decided on two masks. Seeing as I featured the ground squirrel on the front over, and the magazine issue is a Spring one, I deemed it appropriate to dedicate a page to them. After all I have come to know quite a few of them very well, and they me.

I agree, I love their pastely (if that's a word) earthy toned palettes.

I'm on the ball this morning, as I'm off kayaking this afternoon. Day 5. Once I created the 2 masks as shown in the tutorial, I then used the edit selection tool to place the layers where I wanted them. The background paper is a photo of a pair of mining bees, which I used as an overlay, lowering the opacity greatly. I used the same font as for the Badger page. For those that may be curious or interested the wasp in the background of the sweat bee pic is a solitary wasp (Steniola species), they are ornately marked. (completely harmless). These gorgeous creatures are tiny, at around 8-10mm.

You would make an excellent fashion magazine designer, or any other magazine designer for that matter. Your unique style is perfect for the job.

My thoughts on your dilemma on choosing background colours: Unless you are going with a theme, then possibly you'd want some sort of consistency. Saying that it isn't as if you are trying to match colours on the same page. Each page tells its own story about a particular photo or topic. The colours in my opinion should reflect on the photo and topic. Take my wildlife magazine, I have used different backgrounds. They are subtle colours, for a magazine I wouldn't use bold colours. When creating a magazine you need to leave your scrap book hat on the shelf, as they are two very different creative disciplines.

I enjoy a cup of milky Camp. I can still buy it when I go home to Wales.

Double page. The double page was perfect for featuring the Raptors, as stated on the front cover. Some of the many Raptors that have graced me with their presence over the years, around this time of year.

Day 4. Actually Carole, I don't think it takes me that much longer to create my pages as it does for others to do theirs. The photos slip nicely into the masks. I didn't need to resize the templates, as I had already done that the first time we had the challenge. I'm confident in manipulating text ( vectors). The advert I took from one of my other pages, all I had to do was change the date and the title. The text I took from my notes, which I have used before. Nor do I have to worry about creating or using elements, as one does for a scrap page. Apologies for not adhering to the specs laid out.

Yes they do shed their winter coats, as do all animals. I can't think of any that don't. I have found their hair in and around the dirt after digging, and around their setts. Even insects, not all, specifically those that have exoskeletons. As they grow, they shed their old ones for a better fitting one. I have no end of photos of discarded grasshopper exoskeletons. You'd be surprised of how much wildlife there is living in urban areas. I don't have anyone to give me funny looks when I'm on my hands and knees delving in the under growth, or searching the underside of plants. Here's a macro shot I took of a discarded skeleton of a tiny grasshopper. That is when they are at their most vulnerable, waiting for their new coat to harden, which takes about an hour. I also have shot of them in the process too.

I see that you have found my Facebook post.

I've posted the first three pages of the workshop in facebook, for betting viewing.

Thank you ever so much for your complimentary words. It makes all the effort worth while, even photographing subjects. You certainly wouldn't want to antagonize them, not one little bit. They are at the top of the food chain. They are aggressive if not left alone. I keep my distance when I encounter them. Their fur is actually soft. I have picked some up that I have found laying on the ground, during a moult.

The front cover of my magazine read that there was going to be an article on the secret life of the badger. Here it is. Badgers are frequent visitors, they keep my rodent population under control. This lovely female was digging to get under the work shop, where several ground squirrels resided. I added a quote from rat, from The wind in the Willows

Day 2 page.

My pleasure, amazing what a difference changing one colour makes.

Shirley, should you want to change the colour of the borders in order to resubmit your page, this is what you will need to do. Are you familiar with the lock transparency tool in the materials palette, if so select it, then go to sections on the top tool bar, and select all. Then choose your colour and flood fill. Or once the lock transparency is selected, using the brush tool brush over the borders with your paint brush. Remember to deselect the lock transparency once you have completed the task.

I see there are already lots of wonderful pages submitted. To many to comment on each one individually. After being outside all day, I had time to think what theme I was going to go with. Autumn is in the air, with the trees changing their colours, it seems like only the other day that I was welcoming Spring. Hence, I have decided to go with a Spring magazine. I'm afraid I have created my usual magazine cover. If nothing else it may inspire and show what can be created using a single unedited photo and some text. The bar code is one of many I have created. I will be featuring Raptors, bees, the badger and more in the coming pages. SK is an abbreviation for Saskatchewan.

It was a pleasure! You resized the pattern perfectly, it isn't any longer a distraction, instead it enhances the overall layout, without taking the eye away from the photos.

I have 4 size settings on my camera. One being 1:1, which is a square aspect ratio. My preference is almost always to use 4:3 (3,000x4,000 pixels) which is an aspect ration of a 4.3 TV. I can enlarge the image 3 times without loosing clarity. I wouldn't call it an issue, but I have to nearly always size down and not up. My camera is a Bridge camera, certainly, and by no means is it top of the range, but it certainly suits my needs, and does the job I ask of it. The other 2 settings is 3:2 (Aspect ratio of a 35mm film camera. I use 16.9 for shooting the night sky, which is an aspect ration of a HD TV. Small or large photos will have their own challenges, depending on what you are going to use them in.

I'm going to suggest some options for you to consider. Try them and see what you think. Rotate the whole page 90 degrees, it should accommodate the photo, possibly doing away with some of the pavement. The text can then be written on one or two lines. The other option is to Rotate the text as demonstrated in the tutorial. As it is in my opinion the text doesn't look right.

I haven't given it any thought as yet, nor scrolled through any photos. I'll see what I can come up with when I sit down tomorrow evening to start the workshop. I did the 2 previous Magazine workshops. The first one was actually called Publish it! in 2019

Blimey, that's a word I haven't used in a long while. I would often say to myself or to someone I'm perplexed by what you just did or said, whilst shaking my head. Baffled, confused by not understanding why they did what they did or said. Usually pertaining to disciples within equestrian. My children had me more perplexed on copious occasions with the antics they used get up to.

Right, now you are saying you are changing your original context in which you used the so called definition of the word spare, from #3 clean, elegant to plain and not decorated (minimalist). I have better things to do with my time than to debate the meaning of the word spare. I’m going to agree to disagree with you on this.

Only to satisfy my own curiosity, I looked up the meaning of the word spare in my very old Collins English dictionary, which I have had since I was a child. Adjective: not used/needed, not being used or not needed at the present time. A duplicate kept as a replacement. word origin Old English: to refrain from injuring. Spare the rod save the child. I use the word quite often, when someone asks me if I have for example eggs, I will often reply with, I can spare you some eggs. Not everything on Google is accurate.

Susan and Rene, I have to agree with you both. It appears I started quite the conversation. Changing gears slightly, but on the same subject, which is a relevant point, which I think has just been proven, when it comes to creating a good magazine cover or page, the text should be easy to read and understand. I believe it's a good idea to use simple short sentences. The same goes for the layout, it has to have balance, variety and emphasis to be an appealing and a functional design, that will make sense to anyone. Of course it doesn't only apply to magazines, but to any creative page. Should there be any typos, just read over them. Simple and minimalistic ( I wonder how many meanings these two words have!! lol) should be my middles names This is my opinion!