Coloring the City

This is McDonald's first book, and it contains what he describes as "immersive aerial views of real cities from around the world alongside gorgeously illustrated, Inception-like architectural mandalas." Coloring the highly detailed line drawings – many of them aerials – of Singapore, Amsterdam, New York City and other places is not for the timid; they require some patience and a willingness to discover cities through the artist's eye and hand. The drawings also ask for some creativity on the part of the reader (or is it colorist?), who can reimagine Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67, for example, as a riot of color more in line with Haas & Hahn's south-of-the-border Favela Paintings than its beige Canadian reality. Whatever the case, the book makes it clear that color books aren't just for kids anymore.