Founder of cult publication Amelia's Magazine is back with her latest print project – a colouring book for adults featuring original work by an amazing roster of international illustrators...
Why did you decide to put together a colouring book for adults?
I first became interested in the adult colouring phenomenon a year ago and quickly realised that it was a great format for showcasing the work of multiple artists. I could see that more and more people were becoming involved in colouring so began putting Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion together earlier this year so it would be ready for Christmas.
How did you find or choose the artists that are featured?
I ran an open brief on my website and from over 100 submissions I chose a selection that I thought would work well as colouring pages and covered a wide variety of themes and styles. Expect to find landscapes, underwater scenes, food, Japanese folk tales, cats, lanterns, extreme frisbee and much more.
Can you introduce us to some of the artists?
The book features lots of recent graduates from UK art colleges alongside artists from all over the world: there are contributors from the US, Guatemala, Austria, Sweden, India and Japan. I love discovering new talent… Sua Agape is a multi-disciplinary artist with a unique sense of colour who creates fantastical cosmic images. For the book she has combined cats and cacti for a futuristic colouring page. Lorna Scobie has just released her own colouring book, Jungle Paradise, and contributes her inimitable animal characters. Claire Powell is an award winning animator and illustrator, whose nimble dancers tumble across the page. Jenny Tang’s pack of hungry dogs salivate as they run after a man and his sausages, just begging to be coloured in. You can read extensive interviews with all the featured artists online at Amelia’s Magazine.
What sets this colouring book apart from others?
I decided to make Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion different from most books on the market by giving a double page to each artist so that they can showcase some of their work in full colour alongside a similar line drawing to colour in. Each artist has a short bio and description at the back so readers can find out more about their favourite. It is a limited edition high quality book that will be printed on gorgeous thick paper and bound using the lay flat binding process so that it is a delight to colour in.
