Artist Brings Endangered Animals to Life in This Coloring Book on Kickstarter

 

Have you ever stopped to wonder just how many unique species we have on Earth?

If you do, you’ll be wondering a long time: scientists have a better guess for how many stars are in the galaxy than how many species are on Earth. But educated guesses put the number at around 8.7 million.

What’s striking about all this biodiversity, though, is not how much of it there is but rather how fast it is disappearing. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, we are losing species at between 1,000 and 10,000 times the natural rate of extinction, translating to dozens of species dying out each and every day.

Humans are at the root of the problem, responsible for putting 99% of the currently threatened species at risk in the first place, from habitat loss, global warming, and the introduction of species where they do not belong.

Education is the first step in fighting back against this endangerment crisis, and today I’m excited to share a unique Kickstarter project that is striving to do just that, through a beautiful coloring book.

The book I want to share with you today is called E is for Endangered: The ABCs of Endangered Species. It’s not available yet — the artist, Paul Burton, is currently funding the project on Kickstarter.

Each of the book’s 28 pages will feature a letter of the alphabet, surrounded by endangered plants and animals whose common names start with that letter. Opposite those coloring pages will be unique informational pages with a diagram that labels the animals depicted and provides more information about each species, how many are left, where they live, and what threatens them the most.

This incredible coloring book will feature 124 of the more than 5000 animal species listed on the IUCN Red List of threatened wildlife worldwide — from the African elephant to the zebra.

The pages will be perforated, so you can enjoy them inside the book, or easily tear them out to color on their own. Then, you can hang up the finished piece on the wall.

The book is going to be quite large for a coloring book, oversized at 12″ by 15″. The cover above is not final — as Paul creates more of the pages, it will fill with a veritable zoo of endangered and threatened animals.

This coloring book will be perfect for anyone, young or old, who loves animals and wishes to preserve the vast biodiversity we enjoy on planet Earth. It is the perfect intersection of educational tool and highly realistic coloring book, all in one!

I had the opportunity to ask Paul a few questions about his project and the process, which you can keep reading below. But I urge you to contribute to the Kickstarter and share his project if this is something you would like to see become a reality, or there’s the chance that it simply may never happen.

Here’s an image you can share to your coloring book boards on Pinterest — simply hover over the center of the image and click the Pinterest icon that appears!

Cleverpedia: What led to your decision to create a coloring book specifically about endangered species?

Paul Burton: I spent a great deal of time outdoors as a kid, camping, canoeing, and hiking. And I have my father to thank for that privilege. I fell in love with the outdoors and relished every single magical experience I had that involved stumbling across an animal in its natural habitat. I still get a thrill every time I see a hummingbird visit the feeder I have set up outside my kitchen window.

I love animals and I’ve always wanted to find a unique way to support efforts to educate and conserve the precious few remaining in the wild using my artistic talents. I have also had a fundamental issue with the methods so many conservation organizations use to talk about endangered species. What makes E is for Endangered different is that I have found a way to educate people about a critically important topic in a fun and engaging way without preaching. I want to make a difference and this project is only the beginning.

Cleverpedia: Does the book support any organizations that work with these animals?

Paul Burton: That is the ultimate goal. I am not allowed to raise donation funds through the Kickstarter campaign. However, my plan is to donate a fixed-dollar amount per book or whatever other merchandise I create for E is for Endangered to select organizations in the future. I’ve also reached out to a handful of organizations I admire in an effort to see if this project or my skills can be of value to their efforts.

Cleverpedia: What’s your favorite animal?

Paul Burton: An impossible question to answer. But I have a particular affinity for birds. I grew up on a lake in Minnesota and still get shivers every time I hear a loon call. I can watch hummingbirds at a feeder for hours. However, if I had to choose, the Atlantic Puffin would probably top the list. When I was eleven or twelve, my father arranged for an excursion to Machias Seal Island, a wildlife preserve located in the Bay of Fundy, nineteen kilometers from New Brunswick. To this day, that remains one of the greatest experiences of my life. We went to see puffins. Thousands upon thousands of sea birds in the air, on water, on rocks all around me. And puffins going about their business within an arms reach. It was magical.

Cleverpedia: What does the process of making one page look like? How long does one page generally take to put together?

To answer this question, Paul shared an entry on his blog that describes the time-consuming process of putting together a single page. Check out the image below to see the process from start to finish:

Here’s a transcription of the text in the image, if you can’t see it:

E is for Endangered Coloring Book: Making of the Letter A

“E is for Endangered: The ABCs of Endangered Species” is a coloring book by Paul Burton currently being funded on Kickstarter.

Each oversized page will feature a letter surrounded by endangered animals and foliage. Keep reading to learn about the intense process involved in the making of a single page.

Research & Rough Sketches

Paul starts by sketching a rough composition of the animals he wants to include around the letter.

Individual Animal Sketches

Next he chooses a pose for each animal and sketches it on a separate piece of tracing paper.

With each animal on a separate piece of tracing paper, he can arrange them around the letter to see if his composition works. That way he doesn’t need to redraw the entire scene if his original idea doesn’t pan out.

Taping & Tracing

Final arrangement determined, Paul tapes down all the individual pieces and traces everything onto a large sheet of tracing paper.

Adding Foliage

Animals in place, now it’s time to add the foliage. Paul uses tracing paper to sketch the plantlife out, doing a draft in blue and then drawing the final lines with a technical pencil.

Scan & Retrace

Paul scans the enormous final drawing onto his computer in two sections and stitches them together in Photoshop. Then he painstakingly retraces every single line of the drawing in Illustrator. This labor-intensive step ensures total consistency in the line widths of the final piece.

After a few more adjustments to the line widths, and several runs to Kinkos to test the printing, the drawing is complete!

Opposite each coloring page will be an educational page that names and lists information about each endangered animal or plant in the drawing.

When everything is said and done, each page takes between 60 and 70 hours to finish.

Thanks so much to Paul for sharing his project with Cleverpedia! Don’t forget to support Paul’s project, visit his website and follow him on social media!

• Paul’s Kickstarter campaign
• E is for Endangered Website
• Paul’s Facebook Page

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