Star Wars Rogue One: Art of Colouring by Lucasfilm

Star Wars Rogue One: Art of Colouring by Lucasfilm
Buy Star Wars Rogue One: Art of Colouring by Lucasfilm at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crafts
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Summary: A book that offers a lot of work for the addict, but will deflect attention from the impulse buyer in several ways.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 128	Date: December 2016
Publisher: Egmont
ISBN: 9781405286374
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Colour me happy that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is around. While I've not had the chance of seeing it yet, I'm dead chuffed it takes place at a central point of the main arc of films' storylines, and not some nebulous place elsewhere in that galaxy far, far away. Yes, it does do what the 'new trilogy' did, and have much more gloss and many more technologies than the films set after it, but what is not to like? Well, the expected expenditure on tie-in books and articles, I guess – several hundred pounds on one collector's card is a little steep. But seeing as I handily mentioned colouring above, in the vernacular, why not take it literally and use this large format paperback, promising 100 Images to Inspire Creativity?

Well, there are several reasons not to – for one, you don't draw over Star Wars memorabilia. So after buying one copy for keep and one for use, what do you get? The balance is an even mix between portraits, covering all the new characters from Jyn Erso down to Weeteef Cyu-Bee, space craft and vehicles, action scenes/dioramas, and pages of insignia and logos. These I guess are closest to the usual pages of mandalas, tile patterns etc that you normally get in colouring-in books, and even when they're on the less fiddly side you have the task of making your colouring uniform across the page.

But I certainly saw a few too many pages of them, and as only a casual user of colouring books, I didn't really appreciate the monotony of their visuals (and added to that some are here more than once). A better use of the book might have been to have them as sort-of optional pages, as sort-of wallpaper only on the reverse of the main images, in case you created something from those worth pulling out and framing. But they're not – and as far as pulling out and framing goes, we have a few of those nasty double-page spreads here.

The biggest problem for me, however, was the very nature of the book. Yes, it's up to us to craft our own flesh tones, choose our own costume colours and so on – especially if you haven't seen Baze Malbus and his routine uniform (his chest-plate is as bright red as the blush on his facial colouring, it would appear). Which is the main thing here for me – this is the first time I have been expected to colour something where a definitive pre-existing design is there to guide – or, equally, restrict – me. I shouldn't expect these people to be in garb they're not seen on screen in. I daren't make the spacecraft look different to common lore – and sometimes colouring on them is hardly needed; certainly the several Death Stars here don't look too different to how they appear in the cinema before my shading. And don't even get me started with the idea I should colour in Darth Vader – hmmm, with what nice pastel, do you assume?

This is definitely a book that will engage, and challenge, and keep the new film in your mind long after you've succumbed to buying the home viewing disc. It will appeal to a certain mindset by the very dint of being a masculine entry on the shelf marked 'colouring', especially with its concentration on film and character insignia, ship schematics and more. But I don't think it fully appealed to me, partly due to the fact the film belongs to a well-established canon, and those visuals are things I can't go against. My imagination might be intact, but my creativity is second to the film-makers, in skill and chronology, therefore I didn't feel I had a heck of a lot to offer here.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

Doctor Who: The Colouring Book by Various Artists is similar – the TARDIS has to be that blue – but superior in that it's full pictures, and you're not limited to just a pre-ordained colour scheme all the time.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Star Wars Rogue One: Art of Colouring by Lucasfilm at Amazon.com.

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