Diana Gabaldon on 'Outlander's Jamie and Claire Getting Colorful in New Book
The Official Outlander Coloring Book
It’s been eight years since the release of The Official Outlander Coloring Book in October 2015, but it’s once again time for Outlander fans to break out crayons and colored pencils and get creative because volume 2 of the coloring book based on the New York Times bestselling series of novels by Diana Gabaldon has just been released. What better way to spend the Droughtlander?
The first coloring book was all about Outlander, but volume 2 is drawn from Dragonfly in Amber, so the illustrations portray Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser as their adventures take them from the bustling market streets of Paris to the resplendent court of Versailles, through secret passageways into forbidden apothecaries and onto battlefields to fight for freedom.
“The scenes in the coloring books are drawn from the books; each one is accompanied by a relevant quote from the book in question, in fact,” Diana tells Parade in this exclusive interview.
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for STARZ
And while viewers of the STARZ series have come to identify Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe respectively as Jamie and Claire, the illustrations in The Official Outlander Coloring Book are drawn from the imagination of the illustrators as they envision the characters as described by Diana in her novels.
“In fact, they can't legally use any images (the actors', I mean) from the show, as those belong to the actors and/or STARZ/Sony,” she explains. “So, the images of Jamie, Claire, et al are generic, not based on Sam or Caitríona.”
The coloring books provide fans an opportunity to recreate scenes in their own imagination with color choices only limited by the number of crayons or colored pencils they have on hand, but for Diana, she prefers to draw her own pictures, rather than color inside the lines.
Even so, she was hands-on in the creation of the color books for both seasons, saying, “They showed me everything and asked for input, if I had any—and occasionally I do/did have suggestions (mostly to do with a mechanical issue, like the stance and hand position of two men fighting with sabers,” says the bestselling author, who fenced briefly in college, but also did a lot of research into swords and swordsmanship to write the books.
One of the reasons for the creation of adult coloring books is to de-stress and to have a fun activity that has nothing to do with screens. It’s something that takes people away from their phones and allows them to use the right side of their brain for creativity.
Courtesy: Bantam
“I love a huge variety of colorful crayons or pencils,” Diana says. “I understand that coloring is soothing and/or distracting, but I normally read, watch show dailies or music videos (I love television, but seldom have time to watch it), or go walk, if I want to be soothed or distracted.”
Even as a child, she says she didn’t have much to do with coloring books, rather, “I was much more into paper dolls and their outfits—my mother would draw us paper dolls on thin cardboard, and we'd design (and color) their clothes,” she shares.
The Official Outlander Coloring Book: An Adult Coloring Book Paperback isn’t Diana’s only venture into the graphic format. Her first was The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel, which was released in 2010.
“Ah....The Exile doesn't have anything to do with coloring books,” she says. “It's essentially a large-format (very glossy) comic book, and as such, comes already colored.”
The Official Outlander Coloring Book: Volume 2: An Adult Coloring Book Paperback is currently in stores.
Next, Everything We Know So Far About Outlander's 8th and Final Season
