Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book by Paul Kidby
| Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book by Paul Kidby | |
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| Category: Crafts | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Paul Kidby brought Discworld to life: now you can have the fun of recreating your favourite characters. Recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? No |
| Pages: 96 | Date: August 2016 |
| Publisher: Gollancz | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1473217478 | |
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It was Sir Terry Pratchett who chose Paul Kidby as artist for The Last World and the covers of the Discworld novels from 2002 onwards and it was a marriage made in heaven, with the one complementing the other. Kidby himself says that designing the characters with pencil and paint challenged and amused him beyond measure. The writing conjured clear imagery and it was his job to capture the humour and richly-textured stories on paper. Kidby and Pratchett shared interests in nature, folklore, science and history as well as a love of Monty Python and the bizarre - and to my eyes, at least the result was more, far more, than the sum of the parts.
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book Kidby has produced a selection of some of his favourite characters all redrafted as line art. I liked this approach: there's nothing worse than trying to reproduce an original picture which you love - and failing. Here you get original pictures to complete, including many of your favourite characters: Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, Archchancellor Ridcully, Rincewind, Tiffany Aching and Death. There are some colour prints at the end of the book, which I wasn't expecting. Fortunately, I didn't spot them until I'd had a go, so I wasn't discouraged.
You get some great quotes too: Pedigree? Pedigree? What's a pedigree? It's just breedin'. I had a father too, you know. And two grandads. And four great grandads. And many of 'em were the same dog, even. Or 'Luck is my middle name.' said Rincewind, indistinctly. 'Mind you, my first name is Bad.' My favourite has to be Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don't have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly regarded of the leaders they didn't have.
As well as the full-page and double-page spreads there are smaller projects: I idly coloured in a banana whilst listening to a disembodied voice tell me that my phone call was important to them. The paper is of better quality than I suspected at first glance - a black felt-tip pen didn't show through on the reverse no matter how hard I tried. I prefer the effect of using crayons - the result was more subtle, but give your creativity free rein and see what happens.
I've got just the one quibble about the book and that rests with the double-page spreads where the picture is trapped in the spine of the book and it's impossible to colour proficiently without taking the book to pieces. It was fun trying though.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a book to the Bookbag.
We can also recommend the Doctor Who: The Colouring Book for fans of televisual fantasy, or Sherlock: The Mind Palace: The Official Colouring Book by Mike Collins, although I did find that Sherlock required more skill than some other colouring books.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book by Paul Kidby is in the Our Top 10 Colouring Books for Lockdown.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book by Paul Kidby at Amazon.com.
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