by James Gulliver Hancock
Published by Barron's Educational Series on April 15th 2016
Style: double page printing
Pages: 96
Format: Card cover, Glue Binding
Goodreads
Take a walk on the wild side with this coloring book that is unlike anything you ve ever encountered before. Using the original Gulliver s Travels as an inspirational jumping off point, acclaimed illustrator James Gulliver Hancock has woven in his own personal experiences and travel stories among the incredible coloring scenes in this book. This modern take on the 18th-century Gulliver s Travels plays with scale as in the land of Lilliput and the giants of Brobdingnag, while also referencing places from around our world, across many different landscapes, and even in future worlds and distant galaxies. The result is a coloring book that is playful, fanciful, and wonderful to behold. Hancock invites colorists to explore every facet of this book and make it their own with pens, pencils, paints, and more. Similar to taking a fantastic journey across new countries and cultures, Hancock encourages you to wander among the drawings, inviting you to discover details you might not have noticed at first, such as a diver swimming through flowers or a tiny climber scaling a cactus. From imaginary maps to giant birds, urban jungles to a flotilla of boats on the sea, it s perfect for anyone with a passion for travel and color."
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Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book
Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book Review
I always feel guilty when I realise how big my backlog of coloring book reviews is. It’s February 2017 now and ….I bought this book in May, 2016. The feeling intensifies, when I realise how lovely the coloring book is that has been sitting on my shelves, waiting to be moved to the top of the stack.
One of the things that reminded me that I needed to review this coloring book was my morning work commute. One day when I was heading into work, the streets around the area had been blocked off for construction work at the University of Technology. I often think that Sydney is a massive construction zone at the moment and residents are quite agile at manoeuvering around things. Most of the area had been covered in building hoarding. There was a smaller area though that was arranged as an Open Air Art Gallery. On closer inspection of this art gallery, the artists were all previous students at the University of Technology and they were all allocated a few hoardings to create their art work.
Walking past, in a rush to get to the coffee shop before work, something stopped me in my tracks. That feeling when you have seen a picture before, but you are not sure where, and it certainly wasn’t on a building hoarding. that’s the feeling I had when I recognised the art work of James Gulliver Hancock at the open air art gallery. I took several pictures of this art work but unfortunately all my photos from this period were lost in my recent computer disaster 🙁
You can read about the open air art gallery here.
One thing that immediately struck me about the art that James had created, even with a limited color palette as shown, it was just striking when colored in! Before I had seen this art, I had not been completely in love with the book, only in like with it. Seeing this changed my mind completely and now it is one of my “must keep” coloring books.
Cover & Layout
There are two different covers for this coloring book. One version is as shown in my video and the other is as shown below.
It is not unusual for artists to change the cover look for their coloring book – they are both the same book.
My copy of Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book has a brown card cover with the same image as show above in silver foiling. The title and artist’s name is in white. White has been used for the image on the back cover and the text blurb.
Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book measures approximately 25cm x 25cm (9.8 in x 9.8in).
Ancillary Pages
A plain text title page starts the coloring book. Over leaf an extended title page and copyright page is decorated with masses of buildings to color in. These pages would be a great place to test out your mediums and see how they react with the paper and your coloring style.
A two page introduction from the author describes the play on his name and his love of travel that inspired the coloring book. This is decorated with a number of buildings and shapes for you to color in.
At the end of the book you will find an acknowledgement page and two other decorative pages that you could also use for testing out your mediums.
Layout
The illustrations have been printed on both sides of the medium quality white paper. There are 48 pages that comprise double page scenes. Art work in the double page spreads does run to the spine of the book where it is tricky to color. At the moment, the binding is still a little stiff but I am confident once it loosens that it will be easier to color in these areas.
Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book Images and Illustrations
It is really lovely to see the concept of a coloring book being a play on a name and a love of travel. Of course, I love the play on the name as my website is a play on a school nickname.
Gulliver’s new Travels takes you on an illustrative journey of James’ own travels around the world and the memories that he has of these journeys. The art work is distinctive and quirky and makes you feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland, where the ratios and proportions are all out of kilter.
There are so many things to love about this book. The quirky buildings, the patterned objects, the amazing flowers that stopped me in my tracks when I seen them above.
One of the great things about these illustrations is that you do not need to be a wizz bang advanced colorist to make beautiful colored pages. Even a colorist like me, on training wheels, can color these images and patterns in solid color and they would look great. That makes it a perfect coloring book for all ages and skill levels.
The art work in Gulliver’s New Travels Coloring Book is black, crisp and very clear. Most of the art work has been drawn in a medium line. Colorists that have visual impairment will find the images easy to see. Half of the book may have too many details, within the space, to make coloring comfortable. The beauty of this line art is that rather than color each detail, if that presents a challenge, then you can just as easily do a color wash over the area and it will still look great.
You can see James color a picture from the coloring book here:
Please click on an image to view more detail
[foogallery id=”7192″]Where to buy Gullivers New Travels Coloring Book
| Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Book Depository |
Happy coloring x
Lea
So cute Lea. Now I feel bad for not having read this sooner…this might go on ny wish list…
Connie
Did you ever notice that ~75% of the books you review go on my wish list. Takes me then about 3 mos to order it…lol
Thanks again, i think…lol
Lol that wish list may explode if I ever catch up on my backlog 🙂 I couldn’t help myself and ordered 14 books yesterday sssh don’t tell hubby! Happy coloring x