View source for Draw It! Colour It! Creatures by Axel Scheffler, Emily Gravett et al

{{infobox2
|title=Draw It! Colour It! Creatures
|author=Axel Scheffler, Emily Gravett et al
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=A children's drawing and colouring book with projects from 43 well-known artists.  There's a lot of fun and variety to be had from this book
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=No
|pages=120
|publisher=Macmillan's Children's Books
|date=September 2015
|isbn=978-1447290704
|aznuk=1447290704
|aznus=1447290704
|cover=1447290704
}}

Colouring books for adults are all the rage at the moment and it's too easy to forget that adults are not the only ones who benefit from the calming, soothing therapy of colouring or the improvement in hand-eye co-ordination which comes with practice.  Children's picture books have tended to be flimsier and not put together with quite such panache or by such well-known names, but we now have a children's colouring book to bridge the gap.  ''Draw It! Colour It! Creatures'' has projects from 43 artists, well known in the field of children's book illustration, all packed together in a stylish book with flaps so that you're not going to lose your place.

There's a lot of variety in the book: we start with [[:Category:Axel Scheffler|Axel Scheffler's]] picture of the lion tamer putting his head in the lion's mouth - but it's a toothless lion and Scheffler ''dares'' you to draw in some teeth.  You can colour in the lion too, of course!  Next [[:Category:Emily Gravett|Emily Gravett]] presents us with Hamish the hairy dog, only Hamish hasn't got any hair - you can clearly see his ribs and he must be feeling quite chilly.  Gravett would like you to ''just add hair''.  [[:Category:Tim Hopgood|Tim Hopgood]] wants us to see his rare butterfly collection, only they're all plain white and you've got to make them into four of the most unusual butterflies in the world.  [[:Category:Matt Spink|Matt Spink]] wants us to find six fish inside his design of a big fish and to colour them in.

Do you get the idea?  There's a lot of variety here - and I've just told you about the first four projects in the book - there are loads more to go at.  The paper is substantial enough that there's not going to be bleed-through from the reverse side and it will take marker pens as well as crayons.  Because both sides of the page are used the possibility of displaying the finished product on the front of the fridge is a little limited, but that's me being picky: there are hours of very good fun in this book and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For some art ''classes'' we can recommend [[The School of Art: Learn How To Make Great Art With 40 Simple Lessons by Teal Triggs and Daniel Frost]].  If you're looking for something for the kids to make for Christmas, try [[Christmas Paper Play by Lydia Crook]] and our reviewer loved [[Drawing Projects for Children by Paula Briggs]].  You might also enjoy [[Zoom Zoom Zoom by Katherina Manolessou]].  For more from David Mackintosh, have a look at [[Lucky by David Mackintosh|Lucky]].

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[[Category:Crafts]]
[[Category:Adam Stower]]
[[Category:Alex T Smith]]
[[Category:Alexis Deacon]]
[[Category:Ami Shin]]
[[Category:Axel Scheffler]]
[[Category:Barbara Nascimbeni]]
[[Category:Benjamin Chaud]]
[[Category:Benji Davies]]
[[Category:Birgitta Sif]]
[[Category:Briony May Smith]]
[[Category:Britta Teckentrup]]
[[Category:Chris Riddell]]
[[Category:David Mackintosh]]
[[Category:David Roberts]]
[[Category:Ekaterina Trukhan]]
[[Category:Emily Gravett]]
[[Category:Emily MacKenzie]]
[[Category:Emma Carlisle]]
[[Category:Jan Pienkowski]]
[[Category:Jean Jullien]]
[[Category:Jim Field]]
[[Category:Jools Bentley]]
[[Category:Katherina Manolessou]]
[[Category:Kazuno Kohara]]
[[Category:Kitty Crowther]]
[[Category:Lorna Scobie]]
[[Category:Marta Altes]]
[[Category:Matt Spink]]
[[Category:Natalie Russell]]
[[Category:Nikki Dyson]]
[[Category:Poly Bernatene]]
[[Category:Rebecca Patterson]]
[[Category:Rilla]]
[[Category:Rob Biddulph]]
[[Category:Russell Ayto]]
[[Category:Sara Ogilvie]]
[[Category:Sarah McIntyre]]
[[Category:Susanne Gohlich]]
[[Category:Sven Nordqvist]]
[[Category:Tim Hopgood]]
[[Category:Tor Freeman]]
[[Category:Yasmeen Ismail]]
[[Category:Zehra Hicks]]