Kelowna tattoo artist Dustin Ward didn’t let the pandemic stop him from getting creative.
After Don’t Look Down Tattoos was forced to temporarily close due to COVID-19 restrictions by the province, Ward started drawing pictures for a colouring book.
He has always been an illustrator, but being a tattoo artist for the last 16 years, he said it felt a little strange to draw intricate images only in black.
“That was kind of hard, but that’s why I’m definitely going to go back and (colour) the whole book myself once I get it in my hands, for sure,” he said.
Carla Campbell, the shop’s store manager, runs the social media channels for the colouring book, as well as their colouring contests.
“(Ward) started illustrating for the colouring book at the start of April. Instead of doing commissions and prints like everyone else, we thought we’d do something a little different that everyone can get involved in,” she said.
“We started posting the illustrations on Instagram and Facebook, and we got a huge response so due to that, we decided we’d publish it and do a Kickstarter.”
Campbell said within eight hours of their crowdfunding page going live, they were able to meet their goal thanks to the community’s support.
She added that people are still backing the project, which she said will help them publish more books with better quality paper, as well as a hardcover.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without the community. Without this funding, we wouldn’t be able to publish it. So we’re very grateful that everyone has been able to support us this way.”
Even though the book is just waiting to be published, Ward and Campbell said they’re already planning for more editions.
“I already want to start on the next one. We have a theme picked out for that one. But definitely, we want to keep this going. Volume one is done, but we want to go from there,” Ward said.
“Hopefully, we can do more volumes with more themes, even different seasons.”
If you want to back Ward and Campbell’s project, check their Kickstarter page.
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