We’re accustomed to seeing our first national park portrayed in photographs and paintings. But thanks to award-winning graphic artist Dave Ember, we can now color in our own version of the park’s majestic scenery and iconic animals with the new Yellowstone National Park Adult Coloring Book: A Magical Coloring Journey Through Yellowstone National Park.
Fans of the genre can put their skills to work, shading in the park’s many natural wonders and scenic places. Ember has created beautifully intricate drawings of a wide variety of wildlife, spouting geysers, thermal features, and some of the park’s historic buildings.
The book contains a map of the park and interpretive text for each image, 43 in all, printed on extra-heavy paper. Eight postcards and four bookmarks at the back of the book can be easily removed and shared with friends and family.
The recent “full-on trend” of adult coloring books touts coloring as surprisingly therapeutic and a satisfying means of personal expression and creativity. A recent article in the online magazine Quartz describes the adult coloring craze as “therapeutic without being therapy, meditative without being meditation, creative without being creation, artsy without being art.” The author reports that in the last year, sales of coloring books have skyrocketed from one million to 12 million units.
Enthusiasts advise novices to abstain from stealing their preschooler’s crayons. Instead, the most popular options are colored pencils, watercolor pencils, gel pens, and markers.
So sharpen your pencils and prepare to create your own colorful rendition of the nation’s first national park. If you’d like to practice first, pull out your coloring instruments of choice and go to work on our cover. When you’re done, snap a shot of the image and post it to our Facebook page. Our favorite submission will win a free copy of the Yellowstone National Park Adult Coloring Book.
The book sells for $15.95 and is available at many local bookstores, through online retailers, or from Far Country Press at 800-821-3874 or www.farcountrypress.com.
– Judy Shafter