ROOKIE MAGAZINE.

Beth Hoeckel.

Monica Ramos. 

Beth Hoeckel. 

Emma Dajska. 

Rookie Magazine is an online publication written by girls, for girls. It's audience is mainly teenagers but I read it religiously since the articles are so well written that I think it can be enjoyed by girls any age. They have monthly "issues" which have their own theme and include writings, photography, DIYs, illustrations and videos. I've always loved their magazine due to the variety of artists that they get involved and a few that I'd researched previously have contributed to Rookie Magazine already such as Monica Ramos and Beth Hoeckel. 

They don't have a horoscope section but they have had articles in regards to astrology and star signs. I feel like this might be the right publication for my work to be used for since they use a lot of different illustrations whether its paintings, photography or collage. I want my work to have a magical maybe even slightly dark feel to it and Rookie Magazine seems to be the perfect platform for this. Even though they don't have horoscopes this could be a way for me to make my own or even write a small star sign article to illustrate for them. Obviously I'll have a better understanding of whether my work will fit into Rookie once I start making my collages but I feel like this is a good magazine to keep in mind. 

REFLECTION - 22.10.2013.

It's been a while since my last reflection so thought I'd type one up now since I'm on a roll. I began looking at lots of different magazine articles to see what they had to offer when it came to the horoscopes section, I've viewed pages from Vogue, Vogue Girl, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire. 

So far it hasn't all been that great but thats also the good part since it makes me want to create better and more visually exciting work! I had a brief chat with Glynn yesterday about what I was looking into and he mentioned some good points: 

• Try looking at how the artists apply their work to other publications, is it any different? 
• Finding alternative horoscope pages - The Illustrated Ape, The Face. 
• Look at horoscopes in The Guardian and The Telegraph. 
• Looking at various layouts. 

These have given me some food for thought and definitely sparked ideas in terms of which publication I would apply my work to. I want to look at how the horoscope pages look within newspapers and also more individual magazines that might have their own horoscopes written up. 

HOROSCOPE RESEARCH - HARPER'S BAZAAR MAGAZINE.

I looked online to see what the horoscope pages looked like on the magazines websites and came across these from Harper's Bazaar. I think these are so boring and poorly drawn! To me they look like initial sketches of what they'd wanted their designs to look like. I don't mind the layout but then again thats probably up to the website designers. I feel like these could have been so much more fun and adventurous but they settled with whatever went with each sign. 

SALVADOR DALÍ - TAROT CRADS.

These are some Tarot cards which Salvador Dalí created. He made 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana all through painting and collage. I thought these were a great way to see a mixture of medias being used together. I particularly like the second one down, La Muerte, which represents death but it's Dalí's surrealism that has made me consider that my work doesn't have to be straight forward and obvious. Star signs are still something that retain that mystical history behind them and surrealism feels like an appropriate way to show that. 

ZODIAC FIGURES.

TAROT CARDS.

Since I'm looking back into the history of zodiacs and start signs I thought it would be good to look into Tarot cards as well since it's a subject that I've always been fascinated by and it also links in with horoscopes. Every star sign is linked with a Tarot card from the Major Arcana. Nearly all Tarot cards are represented by very celestial, sometimes macabre, figures that represent the essence of a person. 

The particular cards that I have posted are from an ancient Italian Tarot card deck created by engraver Carlo Dellarocca. What drew me to the imagery was the fine detail reflecting that of the engraved original. The colours are rich and I like the old type used for each cards title. This style of imagery is something that I would like to include within my collages so I'd like to try and find some books on Tarot cards! 

ANCIENT ZODIACS.

11th Century zodiac. 

Indian zodiac. 

These are a few ancient zodiac signs that I wanted to quickly post up before I forgot them completely. I like how a lot of the imagery from back then was very simple and this idea can be applied to my own work. They were all set out in this round, circular grid formation and this might be a layout worth exploring with my illustrations, even if I see them as being individual representations of the star sign.