#64. Coloring passion and pet portraits - with Karen Valentine (episode 1 of 2)

Meet the colorful pop surrealism painter, Camilla d'Errico, the illustrator of the three Pop Manga coloring books.    In this episode we talk about how it all started, her long love for manga, her passion for colorful painting and why Pop Manga Cute and Creepy is her favorite of her own coloring books. We also talk about her next coloring book - filled with dragons!  

Johanna Basford is back with a new book: 30 days of creativity, a book you can use to kick-start your creativity - with cute things to color, small drawing projects and doodling pages. It all begun during a tough time in Johanna´s life, when "10-minutes-a-day" drawing "meditations" helped her a lot, and now she wants to spread the concept.   We also talk about why she loves the cute robots in the new book so much, the benefits, and disadvantages,  with internet and social media, and how to stay positive and not compare yourself with others all the time.    And if you find a coloring book somewhere - already colored in by someone - it can actually be Johanna´s lost book! This - and a lot more - in this chatt with Johanna Basford.     

Meet the passionate - and skilled - colourist Barbara, from Belgium. She loves Johanna Basford, Prismacolor pencils and to follow along with colouring videos on Youtube. We also talk about  how she learned to colour on her own, how long it takes her to finish a page and why she loves her older, not as skilled, pages so much. Barbara is also one of few (the only?) who makes videos, and livestreams, in both french and english. (As I can´t speakfrench, this interview is made in english!)

The illustrator Millie Marotta is back with a new adult coloring book - Secrets of the ocean - a book filled with sea creatures - something Millie´s fans have asked about for a long time. As Millie lives by the sea, and walks on the beach every day, it´s also a book very close to her heart. In this episode she talks about her new book and how it feels to see it out in the world. We also talk about how she has been during the pandemic and why she loves to draw animals and nature so much.  And since the last time I spoke with her she has started to color herself - which I of course had to ask about!  

In episode 64 I talked to Karen Valentine about her coloring journey and how she started to draw pet portraits earlier this year. Since we did that chatt, in June this year, much have changed in Karen´s art life, so we did a new chatt, this October, that you can listen to here.    This is episode 2/2 with Karen Valentine. 

Meet the talented colorist Karen Valentine, from US. Or artist really, because she thinks that all of us coloring in coloring books are artists, and something we should be proud of doing.    In this episode you´ll get a lot of inspiration and great tips and tricks, (and if you´re like me, you´re going to be very tempted to buy some of Karen´s favorite products when you hear her talk about them....)   Some of the things we talk about in this episode: How it all started, why she loves the black Schpirrer Farben so much, how she uses gel crayons for backgrounds and how she did amazing pet portraits without being good at drawing. This interview was made in June 2021, and is the first episode of two, with Karen Valentine.

Are your fineliners - like mine- collecting dust? If so, this is the perfect episode for you! Bex Harris does amazing, colourful and happy coloring pages, using colored pencils and fineliners - or just fineliners.  Bex is known under the name Colour Bright Bex, on Instagram and Youtube, and she has a lot of great tips for how to use markers and fineliners in the books. 

Welcome to this episode with mixed media artist Jane Davenport. She has done five best-selling books -  and two of them are coloring books (Whimsical girls and Whimsical and wild). She does a lot of art videos and tutorials on Youtube and Facebook and she even have her own brand with art supplies. In this episode she explains how everything started and gives a lot of great tips for coloring and art journaling. She also talks about why it´s so important to follow your heart and not compare yourself with others. And of course: How - and why - you always must trust the mess!

Meet Olivier Odorant (as she calls herself on Instagram and Youtube) - a colorist, who´s work always put a smile on my face. She likes to draw and colour cute pictures, and finds inspiration from anime and Disney movies - much like myself.  She´s also a great tutor and I have learned a lot from watching her videos. In this episode we´ll talk about how she started to draw and color, why she loves coloring books so much, how she likes to cover black lines with white gouche, why it´s important for her to feel happy when she´s colouring,  and the importance of not comparing yourself to others. And why she´s not told her family back in Vietnam about her big passion.  

In this episode you´ll meet Katerina Bobarykina, skilled colorist, and illustrator of two own coloring books: Ethno Spirit and Spirits of the past.   As colorist Katerina loves the books by Hanna Karlzon, Maria Trolle and Kanoko Egusa, but she always wants to change the pictures to make them look more realistic.  In this episode she gives her best tips for how to cover the black lines in the books with white Posca pen, and use colored pencils on top.  She also talks about how she learned to draw, and how important it is to experiment and follow your inspiration.