The Colour of Love

Launching today, Thursday 7th January, The Colour of Love - an adult colouring book by our artist SUZY TAYLOR. Published by Quarto's imprint Kinkajou Books, we are delighted to announce news of this ingenious colouring book which gives people the option to create words with tear-out pages of letters in a choice of three fonts. Pre-sales have been excellent and with three foreign editions already in print (USA, Finland, and Norway) we are looking forward to seeing how people colour in Suzy's beautiful designs. 

Suzy says "This project was certainly a challenge - mostly because of the timing actually.  It came along just as we were planning a family relocation from London to Devon - in fact the deadline was the week of the move!  The process for each letter was a long one - each letter was hand-drawn in pencil and then scanned into Adobe Illustrator and retraced on my drawing tablet.  Initially the idea was to create one alphabet, but it soon evolved to three alphabets in three different fonts - plus ampersands, exclamation marks and a heart.  I think in total it was 85 hand-drawn pieces - a BIG assignment!  I had to be very methodical and set myself a minimum of 2 designs per day as a realistic target.  Seeing the end result and finished product is fantastic and makes it totally worthwhile.  The quality of the paper is amazing and it looks really different to some of the other colouring books out there - so I’m really excited to see how it sells.  People have been contacting me via Facebook to let me know that their pre-ordered Amazon copies have already arrived and they love it - that’s such a great feeling!  I can’t wait to see it on the shelves in store".

Suzy with her family in Devon, Y from 'The Colour of Love', Suzy's Instagram Artist Takeover this week

Suzy Taylor is best known for her work as a papercutting artist. Suzy's work combines her love of folk art with a passion for tiny details. In fact, the more detail there is, the happier she is! She hand-draws each of her pieces with meticulous detail. A customer at an art exhibition, on closer inspection of her papercuts, suggested she might be "a bit bonkers!", and she commented, "I suppose when it comes to my papercutting, he must have been right. But I love working this way, it's totally absorbing and I can get lost in it for hours". Suzy's intricate designs are perfect for colouring in and The Colour of Love is the first of such titles by her. 

 

 "The Colour of LOVE is a coloring pad featuring a black and white letter to color on each of its seventy pages. Each black and white letter is intricately designed with flowers and birds. Both calming and therapeutic, this unique format offers an additional purpose: pages can be removed to spell out words and make banners. The letters and symbols included in the book can form specific words and messages, or mavericks can make their own words if they choose to go off message. Example words to form: PEACE HOPE HAPPY BIRTHDAY! OMG LOVE I (HEART) YOU" Kinkajou Books - Foyles Booksellers

Suzy has very recently started working on a new range of surface pattern designs  which quickly attracted interest from UK publisher Museums & Galleries who have already published her 'Dragonflies' design as a new Gift-wrap design for 2016.

 

The Licensing Elevator

"The Licensing Elevator - An Agent for all seasons"

We hope you have all enjoyed Laura McKendry's guest blog posts in 2015. For Laura's final post, we asked Laura to share an insight into her first year working with Yellow House as a professional illustrator. Her beautiful, expressive, original artwork in a diversity of looks display a natural sense of narrative and distinctive, playful style. Laura's bespoke commissions and licensing portfolio all pay tribute to the role of our furry, feathered, scaly friends.

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"Lift slides up to second floor, reflection of small pair of eyes in buggy blink in mirror wall. No need to visit department store level 2, other than a cursory sweep through the Christmas section. Cello-packed, shelved with a price tag. These are my cards. My designs made last autumn, now on the shelves.

 

The past year has been an exciting one. Cards and gift wrap appearing in the shops, commissions for major greeting card publishers, canvases, mug, book cover, portraits. Christmas, Valentines, Spring Seasons, tropical, dogs, serious and lighthearted, garden birds, woodland creatures, blackberries, birthday parties, typography. Twelve months have covered every season, many species. 

Spring, Summer. Cadiz interlude, a moment to experiment. Inspired by the new, exotic. Intense colours of tropical summer painted on cold tiled floor, sun pounding pavements outside shutters. Layers of watercolour, colour pencil added to feathered wings on paper taped to veneer wardrobe.

 

All too soon, back to London for Autumn harvest of hedgerow inspiration, birds, berries, brambles, scritchy-scratchy. Pavement walks, daily routine. Clear skies, airplanes peaceful soar.

A full year with Yellow House. Jehane and Sue. Emails ping, phones call chats, trains to Brighton. Their direction, support, advice; my meandering, pondering emails. ‘I’ve been working on something…’. What would you think if…?’.

It’s been eye-opening. Designing with a market in mind, working to the parameters of a brief. Quick response to new requests, bedtime working, juggling, erratic patterns. Wednesday: ‘Deadline is the end of this week’. Here and there, snatched minutes, stretched hours. Image scanning, computer crashing, Hightail sending. 

Still seasons’ clock ticks. A mild December spots those woolly knits on arctic animals, as tree goes up, lights adorn, another year draws to close.

This one’s been full, its fruits sweet. Already, pencil poised for the next"

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from all at Yellow House! Keep up to date with Laura's own blog Bird and Beast

Watch this space for news of our new guest blogger for 2016! 

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