Simply Colour Magazine

Free gifts

As adult colouring continues to grow in popularity, bookshops naturally become saturated and it can be difficult to choose from the huge variety on offer. If you're a casual or beginner colourist the swell of books may seem overwhelming, and I think this is where magazines come to the fore. It's a lot easier (and cheaper) to pick up a magazine whilst you're at the supermarket, knowing that it's not going to take months to complete with a massive amount of images included, and can act as a taster to help you figure out what you like to colour.

Simply Colour is an 8-weekly publication that is currently on sale in most supermarkets, WH Smith and lots of smaller newsagents, which includes 25 original illustrations from various artists. One of these is Paul Robbins, an independent illustrator from South Wales who's pen-and-ink drawings are featured on greetings cards, mugs, cushions and available to buy as prints from his DrawPaint Etsy store. Paul's highly detailed work is showcased in Simply Colour, some examples of which are included in the slideshow below.

All the illustrations are sorted into 3 themed chapters, which in this issue are 'Into the Wild', 'Bon Voyage' and 'Fantastic Florals'. A larger quantity of themes have been promised for future issues due to the high response the series has had from the colouring public. The designs are consistent with a medium-heavy linework and each page is one sided. The paper is average thickness and has a nice tooth for pencil laydown. Have a look through here:

Issue 1 is the one on the shelves at the moment, with the next out for release on 7th October. Each issue has a free gift, which in volume 1 was five bespoke notecards with printed envelopes, and will be a pack of 5 metallic gel pens in Issue 2. The cost is variable between £3.99 and £4.25, which is slightly odd as most magazines have a set price for the series. If you sign up for a subscription however you can get each one for just £3.42, and with only 6 editions per year it's not a huge layout. If you prefer to buy them individually, you can enter your postcode here and find a local stockist. Don't forget to 'like' Simply Colour on Facebook to share your finished pictures and keep up to date with those next issue announcements.

Here's my completed page! I used Promarkers, and chose the illustration of Venice as a nod to my Italian roots :)

I was given this copy in exchange for an honest review.