Tuesday, March 19, 2024
book reviewDaily Feature

Book Review: “Lazy-Ass Cats, A Coloring Book for Adults”

"Lazy-Ass Cats" coloring book.
“Lazy-Ass Cats” coloring book.

Adult coloring books haven’t lost their popularity so it seems the authors have found the purrfect product for cat lovers who like to relax and be creative, a little or a lot, focused on detail or focused on fun. Lazy-Ass Cats, a Coloring Book for Adults, Snoozing & Boozing Kitties to Color and Relax is definitely focused on fun—with a title like that?—for both the colorist and the kitties. Illustrations show plump, whimsical kitties relaxing in a tree, mesmerized on a merry-go-round, having a pizza party and raising glasses with each other. The illustrations run from a little more complicated than a child’s coloring book to satisfyingly busy with no intricate patterns that demand gradated colors or symmetry, so you can color at will, add patterns, choose whatever colors you want.

Unlike most coloring books I know of, the author, Lindsay Connor, is not the artist but hired illustrators to put her visualizations to paper, a process that is just as much a challenge as creating your own illustrations. I noticed slight differences in the features on the cats and the line and detail styles throughout the book and noticed there were three illustrators’ names. Artwork can be requested of illustrators in many different ways, from getting a rough verbal idea and creating the “character” of a set of illustrations to a very detailed description with samples and rough sketches.

Lindsay gave over her ideas for the scene and content but let the illustrators use their own voice in creating the style. She began the book with one illustrator who worked with a colleague. “I asked her to design a coloring page with a lazy cat drinking booze and laying around the house,” she said. “Her work was so brilliant, funny, and spot on to my vision that it became the cover of the book.” That illustrator created 10 more illustrations with a list of ideas Lindsay provided and asked the illustrator to pull from the ones that inspired her to create that same cat in different scenarios.

“When I studied her drawings, I wanted to add another voice to the book, so I contacted another illustrator and asked her to design a page with lots and lots of cat faces, which I knew would be fun to color!” Lindsay continued. “She came back with something I wouldn’t have imagined myself, but the result was perfect to color.” For the rest of that illustrator’s set of her drawings Lindsay provided her with more specific guidance than with the first illustrator, such as suggesting a cat playing poker, and found “her interpretations were always excellent.”

In some cases Lindsay did provide some photographs for inspiration. This book was published through a Kickstarter campaign (more on that below) and three of the Kickstarter backers earned the right to have their cat depicted as a cartoon in the book. “I wanted these drawings to be very special for them! I assigned each drawing to an illustrator I felt could capture the cat’s essence or a particular story (he loves chewing paper, etc.)”, Lindsay said.

The variation in scene, style and content keeps each page fresh throughout the books.

In addition, several pages have famous cat quotes in an open typeface that can also be colored.

Quote cats at a birthday party.
Quote cats at a birthday party.

 

The Kickstarter Campaign

Lazy-Ass Cats more than met its Kickstarter campaign amount. The book was chosen among more than 4,000 live projects as the crowdfunding site’s “Project of the Day” on Sunday, July 24, 2016, just a few days after its launch on July 18. Lindsay said she was blown away by the public response, “I thought it might be popular, but I had no idea how friends, family, and strangers would rally behind this idea.”

About the book
The book is 8.5″ x 11″ with 25 images printed on one side only of white heavyweight stock and saddle-stitched. It’s available as a print book and also as an e-book, and you can also purchase a bundle that includes a print book, the official paw-tographed bookplate sticker (4″ x 3″), which has a mini coloring page, and a heavyweight glossy bookmark. When you sign up to receive emails you can also receive extra coloring pages.

About Lindsay Conner

Lindsay Conner is the owner of two loveable rescue cats named Murph and Chloe. Their hobbies include lounging on laps, blocking the DVR, and petitioning for treats. Lindsay is the author of two non-fiction sewing books, an editor for Frommer’s travel guides, and she spends her free time watching reality TV and dreaming of new book ideas. Born in Columbus, Ohio, she attended Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, and currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee with the aforementioned cats—also, a husband and their toddler son.

Ordering Lazy-Ass Cats

Lazy-Ass Cats: A Coloring Book for Adults is and available online with Amazon.com, Barnes + Noble, MascotBooks.com and Books-a-Million. You can also purchase a copy of the book directly from the website.

The book is also registered with the American Wholesale Book Company, Baker & Taylor, Follett Library Resources, and Ingram, and you can E-mail Lindsay for wholesale information.

Sale through June 1, 2017

Through June 1, 2017, Lindsay is offering 20% off all orders placed on LazyAssCats.com with the coupon code purr20. Coloring books make a great gift for cat lovers, people who love to color, and even those who don’t consider themselves to be creative.

I’m donating my review copy

Because the Homeless Cat Management Team and Pittsburgh C.A.T. spaghetti dinner is coming up this weekend, I decided I’d offer my review copy of the book, along with packages of colored pencils, markers and crayons, as an item in our Chinese Auction to benefit the cats we help. Plus, the cover is black and gold, and if you know anything about Pittsburgh our colors are black and gold, especially right now for the Pittsburgh Penguins (and I don’t even pay attention to sports!).

Lazy-Ass Cats Blog Tour

Follow along!

Join us on the Lazy-Ass Cats blog tour!

May 11: Craft Buds

Read other reviews of books and other works.
Also read other stories in my Creating With Cats series.

 


© 2017 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

4 thoughts on “Book Review: “Lazy-Ass Cats, A Coloring Book for Adults”

    • It really did well at the Spaghetti Dinner! We were so busy I didn’t even get a chance to find out who won it.

      Reply
  • Thank you for donating your review copy for such a wonderful cause! I’ll keep this in mind for future reviews I do!

    Reply
    • Maureen, it was a natural, and likely did more good for cats at the dinner than I could ever do with it here.

      Reply

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