To a year of colouring!
As I had towards a year since my first colouring book release I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned from a year of bringing colouring to so many people who have kindly brought my books in the last year.
It’s no secret that colouring books and pages are my go to joyful creations right now! This time last year I launched my first book; Dapper Ducks. It came about largely because I had already created the illustrations for the Smallest Pixie’s birthday party. The base work was done and I had been intending to create a colouring book for a while so it was a natural step. It had a great response because who doesn’t love a duck in a hat!? It was full of the silliness and charm that I adore mixing into my work whatever the medium.
I had barely finished Dapper ducks when I began playing with an idea that has been gathering dust on my to do list for a while. I wanted to create a book that would combine my love of words with animals in silly situations. It was only going to be 10-12 pages like the first book….then the ideas just kept coming. Before I knew it “A Crown of Kingfishers: a collective noun colouring book” was a completed first draft. With two brand new illustrations, many puns and a very chaotic ladybird friend to find on every page. This book raised many questions about anatomy and logistics for how to create such a myriad of bizarre scenarios. It was beyond joyful to make and it is now one of the creations that I am most proud of.
Something that I knew right from the get go was that I wanted to create colouring books that could be enjoyed by both adults and kids. Colouring is fantastically relaxing, it’s low demand creativity that you can push as far as you like. Whether you are colouring between the lines with whatever broken crayons are lying around, or planning out complex alcohol marker pages with special effect ms colouring is a way to play. Play is so important whatever your age and sitting down with a colouring book brings so many benefits from stress relief to improved dexterity. No one is too old for a bit of colouring magic!
In a world that is constantly busy and overwhelming taking time to stop, relax, play and explore creatively is more important than ever. So take a minute to breathe, grab your tools of choice and start playing.
My most recent book “Spring into colour” is out now. It is the first book to have moved to single sided pages so no matter the materials you choose you can be sure that there will be no pages lost to bleed through. It’s a change I polled on social media before rolling out and one that was met with a resounding Hell Yeah!
Get your copy of Spring into Colour here
The other big thing that has been fed back a lot is that the increasing international shipping prices are a barrier to getting access to hand drawn colouring pages. So in a new move I have been working on creating more digital colouring pages that can be instantly downloaded from anywhere in the world. There are many more to come so do keep your eyes peeled for new designs and sign up to the newsletter to be kept up to date.
To celebrate a year of colouring and Easter I have now listed a new FREE Easter colouring page for you to download and enjoy over the holidays. Don’t forget to tag @pixiecrafthandmade on social media to share your creations.
Happy colouring
Katy