Right now, there's a brown truck roaring west on freeway from Minnesota to Oregon. Its trailer holds, among whatever freaky stuff is in the rest of those packages, boxes of Severe Snacks- A Coloring Book. I look out the window, with confirmation number in hand and a space cleared in my art studio for the stacks. Oh, the drama of waiting for a package!
I've been drawing these funny fighting snacks for over two years. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to make them into a coloring book. Coloring books weren't just "in", there was also something really cool about them as a project. What artist wouldn't want people to engage so deeply her work? I had a ridiculous amount of fun coloring the Severe Snacks, so I figured others would too.
At the early/dreamy/planning stage, I didn't have any idea what a big project making a coloring book was going to be. I originally planned to use the first Severe Snacks illustrations I made in the book. These drawings were background-less and drawn with a very fine nib. When I started looking at adult coloring books, I realized my pics definitely needed backgrounds and some thicker lines. I traced the old drawings on the light box, and drew all that anthropomorphic food in funny new realms. Their cartoon feet finally got a ground to stand on!
Then, there was scanning, designing the book and the cover, drawing the titles, and writing the menus.
I looked for a printer able to accommodate the weird size (10x10 inches!) and full bleeds I wanted. I found Bookmobile, a digital art book printer in Minneapolis. Their proof looks amazing: the printing is crisp, the full-color cover is practically glowing, and the paper is really nice. I'm so happy I made this fierce and funny book.
So, sharpen your pencils! Dust off your crayons! Ready your markers! These snacks are about to burst into the world.
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