The Magical City by Lizzie Mary Cullen

It's not too often that a colouring book makes me go WOWZA but this is definitely one of them! A new release from award-winning illustrator Lizzie Mary Cullen, The Magical City is a wondrous collection of towns, landmarks and streets from across the globe. Many of them are famed superstructures such as Sydney Opera House and the Taj Mahal, but there are a few lesser known places sprinkled in, like the street market on Portobello Road and crooked tudor building Little Moreton Hall. Each illustration is helpfully labelled in case you don't recognise what they are.

Lizzie's distinctive style of swirling pen-and-ink drawing depicts warped buildings with towering spires and snaking cobbled streets, all of which seem jammed together quite confusingly until you take another look and everything becomes clear. This is apparently called 'psychogeography', where the artist creates maps tailored on how they relate to the environment, their state of mind, emotions- the way they see the world. It's not a term I was familiar with until now, but it certainly makes for a unique and extraordinary colouring book!

Take a look at some of the places Lizzie has rendered in her own personal way, many of them in London where she resides. Other pages include San Francisco, Marrakesh, Berlin, Memphis, Vienna and more. The range and variety of different places is astounding. 

A test page is included at the back of the book, so that you can experiment with all your different colouring mediums and decide what you'd like to use. As the spaces can be quite small, I'd recommend fineliners and gel pens. The only problem is that the pages are all double sided, so choose wisely or the image behind will be ruined. The paper is fairly thick and smooth, finished in a crisp white which oozes quality.

Like with Animorphia, the book is also a treasure hunt and you're encouraged to spot a plethora of animals hidden within the chaos. A little nature injected in the concrete jungles of urban life!

The book itself is similar in size and shape to Animal Kingdom and Enchanted Forest, so you know you're getting bang for your buck. The cover is stunning; partially coloured in muted pastels with shining silver accents here and there. This is one to watch out for folks. Even though it was only released a few days ago I can see it shooting up the colouring book charts and securing a place as a favourite on many colourist's shelves. It's definitely on mine! Check out the Abbey Road image I just completed. I feel like the haphazard nature of this book rubbed off onto me somewhat as I wasn't as careful and precise as I normally try to be. I think it looks like art!

Coloured with Spectrum Noir markers

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. You can find it on Amazon here:

The Magical City