After years spent toiling in a corporate environment, AltPick illustrator John Lacko may have found the best of all worlds working in a sunny office overlooking the garden at his Miami Beach home. Though he keeps his eyes trained on his digital drawing tablet most of the day, he finds great inspiration in the tangled foliage crawling with lizards, turtles and brightly colored birds just outside his window.
That view serves as inspiration for his latest project for Crayola/Hallmark, the Tropical POP! Art Portfolio that is the perfect gift for creative kids this holiday season. The brightly colored Pop Art craft box features specially-treated dark construction paper imprinted with Lacko’s signature graphics. A dozen chemically sensitive magic markers react with the paper to create bright pops of tropical color on each print. Unlike regular pens, this specialty ink turns the dark paper truly vibrant, the perfect accent for Lacko’s jungle motifs, exotic animals and wild sea creatures.
Adult coloring books made headlines across the world in recent years with Nielsen Bookscan tracking over 1 million sales in 2014 and 12 million in 2015 - a remarkable increase of 1100%. John Lacko’s first work with Crayola was a series of Mexican folkloric sugar skulls for a coloring book series that launched last year. Expanding upon the market for 2017, the creative team at Crayola developed the next level in the coloring experience by putting together self-contained kits of specialty papers, custom graphics and scientificaly engineered pens to give each picture a dynamic POP!
Lacko’s work includes Florida-inspired gators, brightly plumed parrots, a sassy shark and frisky flamingoes. Background motifs are both tropical and tribal, giving the user plenty of textures and tikis to add visual interest. “The sugar skull series was tailored to young adults, so it has a bit of an edge,” said Lacko. “This Pop Art case is a little sunnier and more youthful, without crossing over to dull sweetness. I’m really happy with the final product.”
Art With Edge, Pop Art Portfolio, Tropical Pop! Item Number: 0400920000 retails for $19.99
It contains 18 pages of Lacko’s original, beachy line art, 12 Pop Art Markers, and a bold storage case.
Available at the Crayola website and at retailers everywhere.
See more of Lacko’s work at https://altpick.com/lacko
