24 July 2016

Colouring Quest Part 1:My collection

Have you started colouring yet? It's been proved that colouring brings logic and creativity together to help develop our motor skills. It also helps with stress so is a great activity after a long day at school or work! I love colourng for many reasons, so I decided to start writing a new blog series called 'Colouring Quest'! In this brand new post I'll show you some of the colouring books from my collection! I have a wide variety of books ranging from nature books to fashion books. I hope you will enjoy exploring my collection in this colouring quest!

Firstly here's my 'Colour Yourself A Whimsical Woodland' illustrated by Heartfelt Illustrations. I find this colouring book interesting because once I have coloured all of the pages, I can display them all together  in a massive picture! This would be great to decorate my room with because it will show my colouring techniques! The paper is of very high quality so is lovely to colour on. Check out Heartfelt Illustrations facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/heartfeltillustrations/ !
Here's my 'Day of the Dead' colouring book. It is created by the artist Thaneeya McArdle. I became fascinated with Thaneeya McArdle's work when I studied her in school a while ago. The bright colours and busy patterns drew me in straight away! I love this book because it is full of culture. The Day of the Dead is a festival celebrated in Mexico where people remember loved ones that they have lost. It is often thought of as another version of Halloween but it is quite different. The festival is not meant to be scary like Halloween but instead a joyous occasion. This book is great for beginners because it has a small guide of how to colour in the first few pages showing how to use colour and even has fully coloured examples to inspire you. This colouring book is different from the rest of my books because I can choose whatever colour I want and it will still look fabulous! You can see Thaneeya McArdle's websire here: http://www.thaneeya.com/ .
The next book in my collection is the 'vogue' colouring book by Iain R Webb. I am excited about this book because I read vogue every month for inspiration for my fashion designs. Each picture in the book is based on a page from Vogue in the 50s. I love the 50s aspect of it because I love the feminine and elegant fashions of that era. There is a little nugget of information about each illustration which is interesting to read since it gives a better understanding of the picture. With this book, you even get to colour in your own front cover (differently to the original). I was pleased to see an introduction from the artist before exploring the pages because it is motivating to see someone successful talk about fashion.There's space on several of the illustrations to draw your own patterns onto the fabrics as well as adding colour so you can personalise the pictures. You can read more about thsi colouring book at: http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2015/10/02/vogue-colouring-book-illustrations-release !
Next I'll be showing you another fashion themed colouring book called '1960s Fashion' created by the company PEPIN. I'm looking forward to experimenting with different medians for this book because it is created so that you can even use watercolours on it! Most colouring books aren't designed so that you can use paint but these illustrations are one-sided! I like how both of my fashion themed colouring books are from a particular era. It is useful for people interested in fashion design to have fashion colouring books because you can practice shading clothes to show the folds in the fabric! I like how there is a lot of space on each page because I can create backgrounds for the designs if I want or I could add to the illustrtion. There's endless possibilities with this colouring book (and the others) to be unique.
The last group of colouring books are called 'Secret Garden', 'Enchanted Forest' and 'Lost Ocean'. They're all by the Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford. If you know anything about adult colouring books, chances are you know Johanna Basford. She calls herself an ink evangelist because she draws everything by hand with fineliners. I hear that she draws her pictures much bigger than the final size so that it is easier for her to draw the immensely detailed pictures. What I love about her books is that they are a good mix of very detailed and slightly less detailed pictures. The reason I love this variety is because you can try out different techniques for each picture. For example in less detailed ones you can create stunning gradients whereas in the more detailed ones you can use fineliners and a good colour scheme to create an equally brilliant yet different effect. The paper n her books is of good quality but I reccommend still using coloured pencils for the original editions to avoid bleeding through pages. I love the little extras such as the pattern on the dust cover and front cover as well as the fold out pages that are sometimes included!

Well that's it for the first post in my new blogging series Colouring Quest! I hope you've enjoyed having a peek at my colouring book collection. Hopefully if you're looking for a new colouring book I have inspired you to choose one of my recommendations or have a good rummage online and in stationery shops for the perfect fit! In future posts I'll be sharing more colouring content such as my completed pages and my tips.

Tell me in the comments what you's like to see me write about colouring! What books do you have in your collection?


7 comments:

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    1. Do you want me to show a few pages from the book in another post? Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

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    2. Do you want me to show a few pages from the book in another post? Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

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  2. Loved this post so much! I love the idea of a fashion colouring book & it's so cool that you can paint in it too! I have a couple of colouring books which I love! Thank you so much for putting my blog on your recommended blogs list! Xx

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    1. Thanks Beth! I'm looking forward to painting in the 60s book soon! What colouring books do you have? You're very welcome, I love to read your blog and I hope other people will discover it too! :D

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  3. This was a very intriguing read Megan! I love the colouring books you've included and the interesting insight into each of them! :D You're so right about why colouring is a good thing! I've also heard myself that colouring relieves stress. ^^ It's a very relaxing task and not only is it calming; it also helps with colouring skills! The Colouring Quest idea sounds brilliant - I'm loving this already! <3 I'll consider buying some of these books. I have a book on my shelf about fashion art in Vogue! And funnily enough, I was recently thinking about making a post about my inspiration from the artwork in that book. There's beautiful stuff in it! :D (I was also thinking you'd be the sort that would also like it when I picked the book up and flicked through the pages the other day! xD) I've seen some of the colouring pages you've coloured in on G+ too and they're beautifully done! I was wondering how you build up the colour so nicely and which kind of pencils/pens/other tools you use for colouring? As for what colouring books I have, I have a couple but they're not quite as great as yours! I was thinking of going to HobbyCraft or somewhere to buy some decent ones. ^^ Can't wait for the next post! <3

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    1. Thank you very much kenza! Yes, using adult colouring books really helps me to improve my shading and blending of tones! I'm so pleased your loving 'Colouring Quest'! I was originally going to do one post all aboiut my colouring but I realised that I would probably write a massively long post. It seemed fitting that I wrote a series of posts because I took a long time developing my colouring so I thought it would be good to spend a long time explaining it to everyone! That book sounds great and I'd love to see a post like that! :) What is the book called? Thank you, in future posts I'll be showing more of my colouring! I mainly use prismacolour pencils and I also use blending pencils and blending stumps. Sometimes I use generic gel pens and Stabilo fineliners too. I think my next colouring quest post will be about the tools/pencils I use so I'll talk about them in more detail! Please let me know what books you choose if you buy some! I may show a few pages from these colouring books in future so you can see what's inside! :D

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