Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Day Drankin’ Press Book Giveaway

Win all 6 DAY DRANKIN' PRESS BOOKS!

Three different WINNERS will get this whole collection of all 6 of Day Drankin's hilarious adult coloring books. Winners will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter software. a Rafflecopter giveaway   Thanks to Ryan Jett at Day Drankin' for this awesome prize! Click to read our super-fun interview with Ryan and more about DAY DRANKIN' PRESS!   daydrankinbookgiveaway   some interior art: celebrity mugshotthumbnail-3  

Books:

Celebrity Mugshots

People of Walmart

Hater Cats

We Shall Overcomb: How to Survive the Presidency of the Angry Cheeto

Dog Shaming

Awkward Family Photos

 

The post Day Drankin’ Press Book Giveaway appeared first on colorplaner.

Interview with Ryan Jett of Day Drankin’ Press

Meet Ryan Jett, publisher, creator, and writer of Day Drankin' Press, which puts out hilarious adult coloring  books including Celebrity Mugshots, People of Walmart, and Hater Cats. Be sure to enter our GIVEAWAY where 3 lucky winners will get a set of 6 Day Drankin' adult coloring books!   Can you tell me about yourself/selves? Where do you live, where did you grow up? Let me preface this by revealing that I am fourteen years old. I turned fourteen in 1990, and never bothered with fifteen or twenty or any other age because things that are fourteen-funny are the best, so I chose to remain in that headspace for the duration. Ergo, I give you the adult coloring books of Day Drankin’ Press! There are actually four of us. Me, my wife Shannon, my sister Leanne, and her husband Jeremy. It’s truly a family affair. My sister and I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, the son and daughter of Czech gypsy folk lyricists who enjoyed watching us joust atop our Mangalica pigs as kids. If you’ve never seen a Mangalica pig, they’re an animal that looks like a pig but with the wool of a sheep, which is good to cling to if you’re a 5-year-old with a small jousting spear in one hand and the sounds of Jozin z Bazin ringing in your ears. Our early years were pretty confusing.

What got you interested in adult coloring books?

I went through an adult-kickball phase and thought adult coloring books must be fun as well. They were much more challenging than I had expected, but very calming which was helpful as my wife had just started work as an auctioneer and insisted on talking like that all the time for practice. It was very stressful.

What made you decide to do the types of books you do?

We felt that adult coloring books needed to be much more… seriouser. If people have TOO much fun coloring…well, that’s when things start to get freaky and whole societies can begin to unravel. day drankin

How did you start Day Drankin' Press books? Where does the name come from?

We all took a beach vacation together where the idea was born. We really only go “day drankin’” when we’re on vacation, right? Well, maybe not all of us. But it’s that carefree state of mind. My brother in law, Jeremy came up with it and we all loved it. Don’t Be Hatin’… Be Day Drankin’! (We’re also really into apostrophes as a means of punctuation) Our first win was in approaching AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com with the idea to create their first official adult coloring book. They saw our artist’s work and were up for it. That was a really fun project and was in complete alignment with our sophisticated highbrow leanings. Then we did one for PeopleofWalmart.com and Dogshaming.com. All of those guys were amazing and great to work with.

Do you feel you have a mission with your books? If so, what is it?

Our only mission is to have fun and to laugh a lot. Which I like because I can accomplish it each day. Hmmm, maybe I should be dreaming bigger? What is a typical day like for you? I wake at 4 am and bang on my anvil to '80s Billy Ocean songs in order to craft my own gardening implements. I’m obsessed with both metallurgy, and of course the greatest artist of his generation... Billy Ocean. Then I fill my mouth with birdseed and feed the thrushes and bluebirds that build their nests in my gutter spouts. To feed birds from your mouth, you have to stand REALLY still, so that can sometimes take up most of the day.

Are you funny in day-to-day life? 🙂

Much like my toughness, it’s at a higher level when I’m at a keyboard. And even then as I’m sure your readers will readily attest, it’s a level of funny best described as… "Whaaaa?”

Do you write and illustrate the books yourselves, or do you find artists and writers? if you find them, where do you find them?

We aren’t artists ourselves but were lucky enough to find the find great Davor Ratkovic, a proud son of Serbia, who by day, works on our books in his crypt and at night performs in an all vampire, falsetto barbershop quartet on the mean streets of Belgrade. They mostly do early Elvis stuff. Davor is amazing at 3 things…illustrating, singing, and being a vampire, although he’s pretty terrible at everything else, the poor guy. But he’s an integral part of our team.

How do you get your ideas?

I’d love to say that we all get together and drink absinthe in the woods around a fire, or that we have an underground idea bunker somewhere with no windows and chalkboard walls covered in manic scribbles and scrawlings that are barely decipherable but the truth is that simply perusing the Amazon listings will often trigger inspiration.

Who or what has inspired or influenced you the most? (Doesn't have to be coloring-book related.)

I know that my brother-in-law and sister are so inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer who survived for 5 months stranded on the ice but never lost a crewmember during his ordeal in 1914... that they gave their son ‘Shackleton’ as a middle name which is a mammoth moniker. Myself, I’ve probably been more influenced by the series of books entitled Walter the Farting Dog, by William Kotzwinkle. Yes, that’s his real name and an actual book…in fact, it’s the same guy who wrote E.T., the famous '80s movie about a boy and his alien friend! “Phone home…” How’s that for versatility? My wife is inspired by riding horses, but I tell her that’s only because she’s never ridden a pig. Once you’ve done that, there’s just really no need to ever ride anything else again.

Do you have a favorite Day Drankin' book?

It’s probably a different answer for each of us, but for me…it’s either Celebrity Mugshots, or Hater Cats. Celebrities are people too, and we’re all flawed… but for some reason when they screw up royally, it can be especially funny. But I’m not completely without empathy. And there’s something magical that happens when you combine the cuteness of kittens with zany insults.

What are some of your favorite adult coloring books done by others?

I’m really impressed with the Harry Potter adult coloring books as well as Unicorns are Jerks by Theo Nicole Lorenz.

What challenges, if any, have you faced as a coloring book publisher?

Coming up with ideas is fun and the production process is as well. Promotion is always the biggest challenge so we really appreciate opportunities like this interview!

Do you connect a lot with the coloring book community/your fans? If so, how do you connect--online, in person?

We LOVE connecting with those who enjoy our books! We mostly do that at our Facebook page, at this link.

Do you have a project you're working on now?

I’d love to give you some juicy inside info here, but while we do plan on producing several more books this year, but we yet haven’t decided on exactly where we’ll start. We need to get to the idea bunker ASAP!

Fair enough. Where can we find your books? They’re in some random bookstores, but the best place is always Amazon. Here are all the links. Thanks again! BOOKS: People of Walmart.com Adult Coloring Book: Rolling Back Dignity Hater Cats: An Insult Kitten Adult Coloring Book Celebrity Mugshots: Keeping Up With The Incarcerated We Shall Overcomb: How to Survive the Presidency of the Angry Cheeto (While none of us are particularly political… this one is a little naughty with some curse words, but all the rest of our books are completely clean.) Awkward Family Photos: An Adult Coloring Book For Anyone With A Colorful Family Dog Shaming: the Official Adult Coloring Book  

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Monday, September 18, 2017

Adult Coloring Books for Men: our Top Ten

Adult Coloring Books for Men: they exist, dude, and they rock!

Who doesn’t love a man with a gel pen? Guys who color are just plain sexy!

Of course, there’s no absolute rules about adult coloring books for men or for women. Anyone can happily color any book. But adult coloring books have mostly been targeted at women. These books often have fairy or floral designs, or edgy, arty styles, but women are the main users. Even making art itself is sometimes labeled as feminine.

But men, too, need to work off stress, and society is starting to realize this. So, more adult coloring books for men are hitting the shelves, and more men joining the fun. In fact, many amazing adult coloring book artists are men.

I spent hours combing through ones I thought would please the guys in my life. Some are hilarious. Some just have amazing art. And let’s not forget… muscle cars. These books could be for gifts for men or teens, or gifts by men.

Here are Color Planer’s top picks for the best adult coloring books for men.

Doodle Invasion

Kerby Rosanes’ work is bound to please those who enjoy sci-fi, space, and humor. You could spend hours trying to find all the things in these 50 pages of doodle art. The amazing detail, adventure stories, worlds within worlds, and sci-fi vibe by Zifflin (writer) and Rosanes is sure to get a guy diving into galaxies of color.

Did someone say mechanical Hadron Collider mandala? Fantastic Machines harnesses the energy of retro and futuristic machinery in a coloring book perfect for men who geek out on the inner workings of things. 58 pages of art rev up your senses. Retro and futuristic meet here. Pinball, airplanes, space stations, and circuit boards bring out the artist/enginer in you. Beautifully illustrated by bestselling author/artist Steve McDonald.

 

#DADLIFE: A Manly Adult Coloring Book

Arr, matey. What’s more manly than carrying the heir/heiress to the throne in a flowered  baby sling? Dads everywhere will hide in their man caves for hours with this tongue-in-cheek coloring book of fatherhood.

 

American Muscle Cars, 1960-1975 (Dover History Coloring Book)

Artist Bruce LaFontaine’s perfect renderings of 44 legendary Muscle Cars puts you in the driver’s seat for a trip down memory lane. These were the coolest rides you could cruise in in the early 1960s and ’70s. From the T-bird to the Trans Am, relive the Mad Men days with these most macho vehicles. Each is shown in a setting such as in a neighborhood or business district. The book includes captions with interesting factoids.

The Official A Game of Thrones Coloring Book

Fans of the fantasy series no longer have to settle for watching its sumptuous colors on TV–now they can put them on paper. Meticulous, intricate drawings capture the universe of Game of Thrones. Famed illustrators including Tomislav Tomic, interviewed on our blog, contributed art. This book is a collector’s item with 45 exclusive pages. So guys, get out your red and gold pencils and dive into fantasy.

 

Color Me Drunk: A Drinking and Drawing Activity Book

This hilarious drawing/activity book even comes with a set of beer goggles. It has coloring plus more, so might be the perfect gift or coffee (beer) table book. Activities include decoding drunkenly sent texts, doodling regrettable tattoos, drawing a straight line drunk as well as sober, and “Wino Bingo.” Color Me Drunk is a perfect way to while away that hangover or night in the slammer.

Colin Thompson Funtastic 72-Page Adult Colouring Book (Ravensburger)

This whopping 72-page book brings the art of Colin thompson, prolific writer and illustrator and one of the world’s top puzzle artists, to your home. It has grayscale art, giving the images extra dimensionality. Designs are on both sides of the page, so you may want to stick with colored pencils. The binding is not glued, but sewn, so you will be able to lay it flat. Amazing architecture, machines, and more. Check out all of Thomson’s works!

Grimm’s Fairy Tales Adult Coloring Book (Zenoscope)

Like comics? This book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales has a bunch of sexy ladies drawn by top Zenoscope comic book talent. Truly a treat for comic book lovers and men who like a bit of sauce with their fairy tales.

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Unicorns Are Jerks: A Coloring Book Exposing the Cold, Hard, Sparkly Truth


Artist Nicole Lorenz has grabbed this cool humor trend by the horn. Filled with rainbows and irony, it will make your man learn to love purple fur. It’s also great for people who aren’t into coloring complicated designs. Better than a Starbucks Unicorn frappe.

 

This Bronx cheer of a book will have him laughing. This popular adult coloring book has pages with drawn text with charming sentiments such as “Meh” and “Let That Sh– Go.” The designs are fairly simple, so they can be colored quickly. Cheaper than professional anger management!

 

Coloring Is The New Meditation 1st Edition: Beautiful, Intricate, Hand-drawn Illustrations for an Absolute Immersion in Coloring Relaxation

kent chua

On a calmer note, patient, sensitive guys will love these amazing odes to nature and the spirit by artist Kent Chua. Adult coloring books for men are often simpler in style, but this is an exception. Chua creates complex, puzzle-like patterns out of scenes such as a mass of butterflies or treetop. The artistry here is in the stratosphere. Great for guys who love art and the natural world–thank goodness there are men like that.

 

 

Of course, if you’re looking for there are plenty of those on Amazon (warning: whimsical but very much for adults!). Coloring books take on pretty much any subject!

The post Adult Coloring Books for Men: our Top Ten appeared first on colorplaner.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Free printable grayscale coloring page – fairy

Please enjoy this free printable grayscale coloring page of a beautiful fairy surrounded by flowers and trees, specially made for Color Planer readers. It’s OK to share it and link to it but please don’t use it commercially or distribute it en masse.

Thumbnail of free fairy grayscale printable

free grayscale coloring page fairy

Click link to download hi-res PDF: fairy_grayscale

See our article on grayscale coloring books for adults

 

The post Free printable grayscale coloring page – fairy appeared first on colorplaner.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Butterfly coloring pages for adults or kids: free printables

Butterfly coloring pages: free printable PDF downloads

Please enjoy these free coloring pages of butterflies for adults or kids specially made for Color Planer. Coloring pictures of butterflies are great whatever season! Enjoy a high level of detail in this vector art.

Here you can see the thumbnails.  Click on the text links (they say butterfly coloring page 1 and 2) to download the high-res PDFs (8.5 x 11″).

 

butterfly coloring page

 

download:
butterflycoloringpage1

 

butterflycoloringpage1-72sm

download:
butterflycoloringpage2

 

 

 

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Thursday, June 29, 2017

Grayscale coloring books for adults: our top picks

What is grayscale coloring?

Most coloring books have black-and-white line drawings where you fill the white space with color. Grayscale coloring books are done in shades of gray. Instead of white space, you have tones. They may look like a black-and white-photo, or black-and-white TV, if you remember those. The shades of the grayscale coloring pages go from white to black. The idea is similar to doing an underpainting in traditional oil painting.

Artists can use grayscale coloring pages to get very realistic effects. In traditional Western painting, realism is attained through tonal relationships. Objects closer to use may appear darker, and farther objects fade into the distance. You can instantly perceive space with tones alone. If you studied art, you were probably asked to paint or draw grayscale tonal studies. Grayscale is a great way to understand how paintings work to express space.

Grayscale coloring books for adults

Grayscale coloring books tend to be more “realistic” than regular coloring books. They are nearly always aimed at adults or older kids. The goal is often to make more realistic-looking art. But it’s not a paint-by-numbers kind of thing. You can experiment with colors and learn a a lot. It’s a lot easier to have textures in the finished product, which can be challenging with black-and-white.

Colored pencils and marker work best for greyscale coloring pages. You don’t want something too opaque, as letting the gray values shine through will really pull together the final image. Opaque pens are good for accent areas. For marker, remember to put a card under the sheet to avoid bleedthrough.

These books don’t do that well with watercolor. It’s best to practice grayscale painting techniques on thicker paper. You can copy the pages onto heavier watercolor paper to do that if you wish.

The darker the gray tones, the less color you need to add.

I favor adult grayscale coloring books and pages that are expressly made by the artist to be used with grayscale, rather than made from a photo. However, some of the photo-derived books can lead to fine results. I’ve tried to find a balance here between realism, whimsy, and fantasy.

If you want to try one out, we have one right here (the second image). Free grayscale coloring page

Here’s grayscale coloring tutorial by artist Nikki Burnette on using colored pencils for grayscale coloring. Her YouTube channel has lots more grayscale coloring techniques.

Here are 8 of Color Planer’s favorite grayscale coloring books for adults available on Amazon.

 

A World of Fairies – A Fantasy Grayscale Coloring Book for Adults: Flower Fairies, and Celestial Fairies by Molly Harrison Fantasy Art

 

Gorgeous fairies, including flower and celestial fairies grace this magical book. You’ll be pulled into their delicate world. Twenty-five fairy images should keep you busy. Try some gel or glitter pens in areas you want to highlight or for accents. Once you get done, check out Molly Harrison’s other books.

International Amazon

 

Spellbinding Images: Grayscale Coloring for Beginners

Nikki Burnette’s Spellbinding Images is bewitching fun. Aimed at beginners, the tones are darker here, therefore you need very little color over them. This is meant for beginners. There’s another version of the book with lighter grayscale tones for more advanced colorists.

International Amazon

 

Funny Animals Grayscale

Wide-eyed cats, flappy-eared elephants and wacky snails fill 25 pages and will give you many hours of fun. My favorite is the chubby chicken. Try wild colors, like the pink elephant. If you’re a humor and animal lover, Funny Animals by Alena Lazereva is not to be missed.

International Amazon

 

Mandalas in Grayscale

Mandalas, with their long history as contemplative, spiritual art, are a mainstay in adult coloring books. This collection of grayscale mandalas by Jack R. Plaxe will give you a whole new way to think about color for them.

International Amazon

 

 

Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures by Nicole Stocker is a photo-derived book with carefully chosen photos that make great grayscale coloring pages, with various textures. You can try to replicate nature, or go your own way with the colors. This book has 48 images and is printed on premium paper that’s 100-lb. and acid-free, so if you’re careful you could try some watercolor. Pages are perforated for easy removal.

International Amazon

 

Adorable Animals

We think these animals and settings by Jane Maday are sweet and adorable. Classic traditional, cheery scenes bring you to a calm and innocent place where kittens roam. The fine textures in this are a great opportunity to have fun with surfaces such as fur, wood, and metal.

International Amazon

 

Beautiful Fairy Tales

The delicate style of these drawings by the prolific Ruth Sanderson caught our eye. Fairy-tale princesses never go out of style, and the sumptuous costumes, interiors, and lighting give your coloring a good workout. You’ll end up with a magnificent picture storybook.

International Amazon

 

Dark Skies

International Amazon

If you’re more into the morbid side of things, these fun, stylish grayscale images by Teri Sherman may have you adding lots of black. A great Halloween choice, or perfect for any time, if you’re in that kind of mood. Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses, zodiac, and mythical beasts adorn and haunt these most interesting pages.

So don’t delay, color your world with a grayscale coloring book today!

 

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