{"id":524530,"date":"2026-03-09T12:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524530\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:36:19","slug":"how-imaginefx-has-been-inspiring-and-championing-the-digital-art-community-for-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524530\/","title":{"rendered":"How ImagineFX has been inspiring and championing the digital art community for 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year 2026 marks two decades since ImagineFX burst onto newsstands, making it the perfect time to look back at two decades of serving the art community.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a long-time reader of our sister magazine ImagineFX, it may only feel like yesterday when it first appeared in the shops to inspire artists, highlight new talent and champion the work of industry leading professionals. And whether you work with pencils or pixels, we sincerely hope you\u2019ve enjoyed the journey as much as we have.<\/p>\n

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Ever since the inaugural issue was published in 2006, it\u2019s been the magazine\u2019s goal to bring the artistic community together with fascinating interviews, deep dives into art techniques and key product reviews that can elevate your craft. If we\u2019ve helped even just one of you to take your work to the next level, we consider our mission accomplished.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Birthdays are the perfect time to take stock, though. And to celebrate, the team decided to look back on some of their proudest moments. From exploring the studios of art heroes to covering the latest developments in the industry, it\u2019s been a busy 20 years.<\/p>\n

Whittling down the top picks was tough, but the one thing that unites them is the passion of the community that we continue to be grateful for. It\u2019s been a real honour to have you along for the ride. Here are just some of the highlights of the story so far. If you don’t already, Subscribe to ImagineFX today<\/a> to receive the magazine every month.<\/p>\n

Issue One of ImagineFX<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Digital art was still in its early stages in 2006, but the first ImagineFX issue, with cover artwork by Kyung-Min Cho, tapped into people\u2019s desire to learn more. Inside were the likes of George Hull, Don Seegmiller, Henning Ludvigsen, Frazer Irving, Robert Chang, and children\u2019s book illustrator Jonny Duddle, all keen to pass on their knowledge.<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)Studio tours<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Issue 43 saw ImagineFX\u2019s first Artist in Residence feature, when it visited Lee Carter\u2019s studio<\/a>. The section has gone on to profile a variety of creative setups ranging from the tidy to the chaotic, from comic artist Joe Quinones<\/a> to Disney<\/a> legend Aaron Blaise<\/a>. Magic: The Gathering artist Steve Argyle described his studio as \u201ca decadent little corner crockpot of clutter, slow roasting Heaven and Hell.\u201d Since then it\u2019s gone on to visited<\/p>\n

Sign up to Creative Bloq’s daily newsletter, which brings you the latest news and inspiration from the worlds of art, design and technology.<\/p>\n

Going digital <\/p>\n

In October 2011, ImagineFX broke new ground by being one of the first magazines to launch a digital edition on Apple<\/a>\u2019s Newsstand platform. Today, readers can enjoy a new issue the instant that it\u2019s published on iOS<\/a>, Android<\/a>, Windows, Mac or ebook.<\/p>\n

Procreate lands on iPad<\/p>\n

2011 was a digital art game changer thanks to the launch of Procreate<\/a>. The affordable iPad<\/a> art app has been used by Kyle Lambert in his iconic Stranger Things poster<\/a> (see ImagineFX issue 140) and Doug Chiang\u2019s Star Wars concept art<\/a>. In issue 232, we looked at how the world of animation could be shaken up with the release of Procreate Dreams<\/a>, which is also very reasonably priced.<\/p>\n

Roll for wisdom <\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t the only ones celebrating a landmark birthday recently. Dungeons & Dragons turned 50<\/a> in 2024, and to mark the occasion ImagineFX dedicated issue 247 to the popular tabletop role-playing game.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

Complete with a cover by Larry Elmore that pays homage to his iconic box art, this special edition looks back on D&D\u2019s rich artistic history with insights from the likes of renowned fantasy author and artist Tony DiTerlizzi, who pins the success of his career on the game. Ralph turned turned Horsley \u2013 who would eventually go on the work on the property \u2013 shares how D&D changed the direction of his art when he started playing at age 13.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, creature designer Alexander Ostrowski reveals how he updated its classic dragons for a modern audience while staying true to their storied history. Topped off with insights from Anne Stokes, who proudly flies the flag for painting \u201ckick arse\u201d girls in armour, this issue was a true delight for the team to put together.<\/p>\n

Cover artists <\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

One of the regular high points of collaborating with industry leading artists is seeing the covers they lovingly create.<\/p>\n

Each issue has a goal or theme in mind, whether it\u2019s the mighty Loish<\/a> helping us to celebrate issue 150, Asia Ladowska explaining her manga art skills (issue 172), pro ling a titan like the late, great Kim Jung Gi<\/a> (issue 178), Karl Kopinski\u2019s tips to get better at drawing (issue 192) or advice on painting Catwoman from comic artist David Nakayama (issue 229). Over 20 years, that\u2019s a lot of standout cover art \u2013 and artists!<\/p>\n

Sketchbook insights <\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Finished artworks are all well and good, but there\u2019s also plenty to learn from raw drafts. This is the thinking behind our regular sketchbook specials, which invite pros such as Ben Mauro, Rain Rouhani, Achy Bright and Jennifer Park among many others to share their rough drawings and doodles.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, issue 235 saw legendary life-drawing illustrator Glenn Vilppu<\/a> pass on his advice, which launched our \u2018how to draw\u2026\u2019 series for artists keen to master the portrayal of the human form.<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)Visionary artwork <\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Recently we\u2019ve had a raft of talented artists appear in ImagineFX, who have all worked on film, TV shows and comics. Whether it\u2019s the art of Dune (issue 207), the iconic Alien films<\/a> (issue 248) or Mike Dorey, Dylan Teague and Toby Willsmer<\/a> \u2013 all artists who have drawn for 2000 AD<\/a> (issue 211) \u2013 fictional franchises continue to inspire.<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Subscribe to ImagineFX<\/a> to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year 2026 marks two decades since ImagineFX burst onto newsstands, making it the perfect time to look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-524530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}