Colouring the Lion City & Colouring the World by William Sim

Summary
Current Price: £8.99
Number of Pages: 96 
Size:  28 x 21cm
Paper colour: White
Paper surface: Very Smooth 
Paper thickness: Good 
Linework: Fine
Perforated: No 
One sided: Yes 
Binding: Glue 
Drawings go into the spine: Yes ​
Waterbased pen bleed: Slight 

William Sim is a Singaporean artist who was mentored from the age of 10 by pioneer artist Tan Puay Tee. Sim's style combines nature and mechanical objects, depicting dreamscapes that portray positivity and optimism- William even brands himself as the 'Merchant of Happiness'.

These two books were released in the UK last November, and William's third book, Colouring Chinoiserie- which focuses on Chinese art- will be out in May.

 A quirky little robot and his pet puss appear in each illustration, accompanying you through all of William's artwork. Judging by the photo of William & his cat in the front of each book, the robot represents him guiding you through each page.

Colouring the Lion City focuses on Singapore; its stunning architecture and landmarks rendered in crisp hand-drawn linework. 

Colouring the World takes you across the globe to great cities such as Egypt, India and Italy, the Robot and his furry friend enjoying the journey with you. I'd have preferred each page to be labelled either in the corner or on the reverse, as I don't recognise some of the places William has depicted. Maybe I just need to up my geography knowledge!

Colouring the Lion City

Colouring the World

The books are chunky and substantial, each page absolutely crammed with elaborate scenes and panoramas, giving you thousands of hours colouring time. The paper is bright white and extremely smooth but could've done with a little more tooth to pick up coloured pencils. That said, it's very thick quality which is ideal for waterbased markers, and although they do shadow through slightly it matters not as all the illustrations are one sided.

The book's covers are beautifully smooth and have a high quality finish with gold foiling to the title and some of the details. Overall, these are very well made books which showcase a wonderfully talented artist and his playful take on the great cities of the world.

Here are my little colourings from the front of the book, which first introduce you to the robot.

These books were given to me in exchange for an honest review. You can find them on Amazon here:

Colouring the Lion City: A sophisticated activity book for adults

Colouring the World: A sophisticated activity book for adults