We've already been over how 2015 is the Year Of The Colouring Book (well, at least around here), so when a box of beautiful books to colour all over arrived, I was pretty happy.
The Just Add Color series of colouring books features art by popular contemporary artists and illustrators like Sarah Walsh and Lisa Congdon. The black and white line drawings invite you to lose yourself to each page, adding your favourite colour combinations.
I gravitated to the Carnival book pretty quickly - it helped that it was right around Carnaval time when it arrived and, since we were very firmly in snowy Canada and not in sultry Brazil, a book filled with costumes and spectacle and dancing girls was the perfect way to add some colour to a very grey February!
I've actually loved Sarah Walsh's work for a long time. Her quirky portraits are a favourite of mine, so a whole book filled with her illustrations is a real treat. I especially enjoy colouring the full page faces - they remind me of those beauty shop Barbies where you get to do their makeup... only way better because these beauties are wearing horns and jaguar masks and floral crowns.
There's a really nice variety of images within the Carnival book. You get to travel to festivals all around the world - Brazil, Italy, India, China - colouring all the way.
The quality of paper in the new adult* colouring books is so nice - thick so that colour doesn't bleed through, but single-sided so that even if it does, your pages aren't ruined. And, if you love what you've coloured, the perforated pages make it easy to remove and display your finished images.
*Okay, okay - I'm the only one calling them that - they really are for colour lovers of any age. But adults all over are rediscovering their love for colouring and realizing how relaxing it is, so it's fantastic to have books geared towards this demographic.
My favourite thing about the Just Add Color series is that it allows you to customize the work of artists like Walsh and Congdon. If, like me, you've admired their work from afar via the internet, these books allow you to cozy up to their illustrations and add your own style. Your very own collaboration!
Just look at that pretty pile! Of course, I couldn't keep ALL these lovely books to myself. Well, I could... but I'm not going to. So, how about a little colour-licious giveaway?
Enter to win a set of two Just Add Color colouring books courtesy of Quarto Books / Rockport Publishing plus pencil crayons (or coloured pencils, if you prefer) so you can start colouring right away! Open to Canada / US entrants.Giveaway ends Friday, April 10th at noon.
Good luck!
Books provided by Quarto Books US. All opinions and images my own.
