![]()
A Scottish illustrator has been credited with boosting the fortunes of the global pencil industry after the surprise success of her "colouring-in" books for grown-ups. Johanna Basford's books of elaborately-crafted fill-in drawings have tapped into a huge demand from those seeking to switch off from iPads, laptops and computer games. Now, having already topped the Amazon best-seller lists, her tomes are also giving a massive boost in global sales for high-quality pencils, as colouring-in fans compete to make masterpieces of their work. Far from being a casualty themselves of the digital age, pencil manufacturers are now struggling to cope with demand, with Faber Castell, the world's largest wood pencil manufacturer, revealing that it was now having to run extra shifts at its factories. ![]() "People like colouring-in because they are fed up with digital," Ms Basford, 32, told The Sunday Telegraph. "There is something nice about picking up a pencil and a pen. You are not going to get interrupted by Twitter, and there is also a childhood nostalgia element to it. The last time you did a bit of colouring in, you probably weren't about thinking about mortgage or Brexit." Rather like other recent middle-class crazes like allotments, ukelele playing, and home-brewing and baking, colouring-in appeals to a nostalgia for a simpler, analogue era. However, while it might be healthier than tucking into a home-made sponge cake inspired by the Great British Bake Off, there is still an element of a guilty pleasure to it. For not everyone approves of university-educated adults dedicating their spare hours to a pastime that - in the view of critics anyway - ranks somewhere below puzzler books and Ludo. Leading the chorus of disapproval is the comedian Russell Brand, who produced a recent sketch entitled "Adult Colouring Books: Is This the Apocalypse?" "What has turned us into terrified divs that want to live in childish stupors?" he raged, accusing colouring-in fans of being scared of the modern world. And what did Ms Basford say about detractors like Mr Brand? "It's a case of whatever makes you happy, there's no right or wrong about it," she said. "Who knows, maybe he just hasn't found the right colouring-in book yet." As Ms Basford saw it: "Colouring-in fans just love their pens and pencils, they become real artists. I get messages from people in New Zealand and Australia saying there are big shortages now. It's really nice that something I was passionate about is now shared worldwide." Ms Basford's first three books of drawings have now sold some 16 million copies worldwide, with three million alone in China. A new one, Magical Jungle will come out in April. "Colouring-in" clubs have formed worldwide, meeting in cafes and online to compare their works, and keeping the lead in the pencil of the stationery industry. 英文来源:英国每日电讯报 |
|
来自: 昵称30765650 > 《chinadaily》