In Lake, coloring books are more than just collections of coloring pages. They’re personal art projects, created with imagination, care, and countless hours of work.
Every artist starts with one book, but over time, many come back to create more. Not just because they have more to share, but because their artistic style and interests have evolved. It’s always inspiring to see how their work develops, and we love following their creative journeys from book to book.
One of those creators is Sarah Holliday, whose first book quickly became a fan favorite. So when she offered to create a second, we didn’t hesitate for a moment. The result is Woodland Delights, a whimsical collection inspired by one of Sarah’s favorite subjects.
“Forests are such magical and inspiring places for me and I wanted to capture that same feeling of wonder and magic through these illustrations, featuring tiny characters going on adventures and hanging out with animal friends.”
Every artist approaches their work in their own way. For Sarah, it starts with ideas and rough sketches and that’s where she spends most of her time.
“I always find this stage quite challenging, but also very fun as it requires a lot of imagination and research – lots of time spent browsing Pinterest and creating inspiration boards, along with real life walks in the woods!”
One of the unique challenges of creating a coloring book for the Lake app is narrowing it down to just 12 illustrations. Each piece has to fit seamlessly into the collection, yet shine on its own.
“It was also helpful for me to visualise how the twelve coloring pages would fit together as a set, so I sketched out a grid with twelve rectangles of the right proportions for my pages and used these to place my little sketches into. This helped me to see where I had overlapping ideas and allowed me to find a better variety between each illustration while also keeping the theme and atmosphere consistent.”
Sarah creates art using both traditional and digital tools. She starts with loose outlines, either on paper with pencil or directly on her iPad, and gradually develops each illustration, adding detail and refining the composition as she goes.
At Lake, we’ve learned that balance is key. Too much detail can make a coloring page feel overwhelming, while too little can feel flat. With her second book, Sarah knows these challenges well - which in practice means lots of redrawing and small adjustments to get every illustration just right.
“During the sketching phase I still keep it fairly rough to begin with, refining more and more with each new layer, and often re-sketching the drawing several times and making tweaks on separate layers until I’m happy with the layout.”
Once the sketches are ready, Sarah finalizes the linework in Procreate. Every line must be properly closed so that, when you color in Lake using the closed-lines option, the color stays exactly where it should.
After the artwork is finished, our team prepares each coloring page and sets up a custom color palette carefully chosen by Sarah. Then it’s over to you, the users of Lake. Whether you follow her inspiration or put your own spin on the woodland scenes, the joy of bringing her illustrations to life is entirely yours!
Want to take a deeper dive into Sarah’s creative process and illustration style? Explore her journey, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes insights on Sarah’s blog.
Feeling inspired to start coloring? You can discover all of Sarah’s illustrations in Lake, all in one place: on Sarah’s artist page.
And last but not least, watch her video tutorial, where Sarah explains the color theory and then walks you through how to color her illustrations step by step, sharing practical tips and techniques along the way.
Color Theory with Sarah Holliday - Lake Coloring Books & Journal
