I've done some searching here on the Café about the use of coloring pages; they seem to be a fairly cheap and easy way of promoting yourself for kids shows, but I have some questions.
1. I read that it's not to hard to design and print your own coloring pages. What programs would you recommend for designing them? (Windows98 or XP)
2. Should it just have the picture and you contact info or that and a boarder(colorful?)?
3. Do just pass them out or what?
4. I think I might have them printed double sided (one page coloring one page puzzles for slightly older kids). What type of puzzles would you recommend or should it be just a coloring sheet?
I apologize for all the questions but I don't want to make any mistakes.

Pm'd you some info on this

Next time you go to the fair, stop by one of those "Draw while you wait" places and have them draw your likeness into a magical character. Photcopy that puppy and put your web address and contact info on there and have your local Kinkos copy those on to some medium stock and your set!

To answer your questions in order..
1.) 98 and XP are Operating systems, You'll need to use a program like Photoshop or even Windows Paint if you are good with a mouse.
2.) A picture is important and a boarder is optional. Contact info is the reason you're giving it away. Make it easy for them to plan for you by having a website.
3.) Hand them out when they go home, give them a discount if they color it!
4.) single side keeps the cost down, don't print both sides. You could put several activities on one page, Word Search, Dot to Dot, unscramble the word, ect. Make it fun, lively, and tell the kids to color it and complete the challenges to qualify for a HUGE magical Birthday Party of their very own.

Thank-you very much! I guess I'll have a picture taken and edit it so it can be colored in. Does any know about GIMP and whether it will work for this?

GIMP will work fine using the artistic filters- just play around with it - you will get it.

I like this idea, although as an artist I should be able to do this myself.

However, for some reason as I read this I couldn't help but think whether or not reproducing someone else's artwork for your own promotion is entirely ethical unless you ask permission from the artist first.

Whether it is or not, I would hope that you ask the artist doing your caricature first if it is okay to reproduce his work for your promotional material.

If you use Photoshop, here are step-by-step instructions on how to turn a photo into a sketch to make a coloring picture.

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorial......tch.html

You can use thes instructions for GIMP, also

I just found this link for Paint Shop pro http://www.corel.com/content/pdf/paintsh......Book.pdf

I'm not sure if Photoshop has the right filters for this, but I like it better than the photo-to-sketch result.

Dave

I use Paint Shop Pro. It does ok, but not great for me. Maybe there is something I am not doing right???

Regan

Thanks for the input, advise, links and more! I'll probably be using GIMP so I'm glad to know the instructions will work for it.

Does anyone know where to get a javascript or something where you can make one of those virtual coloring pages? This is where a kid can color a page on their computer, right on your website then print it out. Here is an example: http://www.coloring.com/working/begin.cd......laineggs

I'm looking for the script that does this, or an online service that helps you do this.