An Interview with Merrill Rainey - Creator of Color, Cut, Create!
Imagination and creativity are two concepts I’m constantly contemplating as a dad. I obviously think very highly of both of those skills - and I honestly look at them more like gifts that parents have the special opportunity to help cultivate.
Sometimes the best way to do that is to just stay out of the way and let kids be kids, but it’s also quite useful to surround kids with books and games and beautiful art of all kinds. It’s why we do what we do on Dad Suggests, and I’m constantly on the lookout for inspirational art that brings a little bit of joy and fun to the family.
Naturally this slight obsession with childhood imagination and my role as a dad has also led me to many long discussions about the long-term effects of screen time and the benefits of unplugging. I’m not completely anti-screen by any stretch of the imagination, but, at the same time, I deeply appreciate the moments that our kids fall in love with creative projects that make use of their own minds and hands.
And recently, master doodler and paper engineer Merrill Rainey shared his new books with our family that gave us exactly that - hands-on art activities that our kids became obsessed with. The books are called Color, Cut, Create!, and inside there are dozens of 3D paper craft projects you can - well - color, cut, and create. And our kids could honestly do them for hours.
Even with an absolute bevy of options at their disposal - including screens, books, games, toys, etc. - our kids would insist on creating more paper horses and dogs and trees for their paper farm. My wife and I have definitely joined in on the creations as well, and it is something of a sight to behold to see all 4 of us sitting around the table silently coloring with intense focus.
I think the celebration of imagination and creativity that the Color, Cut, Create! books provide is a beautiful thing. And I’m very excited to share with you a conversation that I recently had with creator Merrill Rainey. The motivations behind this project and his career as a master doodler and paper engineer are inspiring - and his musings on being a dad are right up my alley. Enjoy!
Thanks a lot for doing this interview with us, Merrill. Could you give us your elevator pitch for your new Color, Cut, Create! books? What are they exactly, what themes do you have so far, and how did you pitch them to your publisher?
Hi Ryan! Thanks again for having me on Dad Suggests! I’m super excited to answer your questions.
So here we go...
Color, Cut, Create! as we call it is paper engineering made easy! What I mean by that is that the book series is designed to allow young people the opportunity to be able to succeed at creating with minimal directions, and by using everyday tools.
I created this book based on my personal experiences with and observations of my own children. Color, Cut, Create! was designed as an opportunity for children to use their imagination to play and have fun, while learning about the basics of paper creations. I wanted to give children of today some of the experiences I had growing up, and show them that they can create just about anything with their imagination!
With over 75 paper toys, props, and playsets included, kids will happily color, build, and play for hours! As noted on the back cover of the book, “All you need is scissors, markers, and glue. No fussy instructions or delicate designs that crumble at the slightest touch.” The themes I have to date are:
Color - Cut - Create!: Super Hero Edition is self-published, and is now available as a free download from my website at MerrillRainey.com
Color, Cut, Create! Dinosaur Worlds - published by Odd Dot
Color, Cut, Create! Horse Ranch - published by Odd Dot
As for the book pitch, a few years back I attended the SCBWI New York conference, and spent an extra couple of days hitting the pavement and meeting with publishers and art directors in the industry. At that time, I was trying to sell a paper toy pop-up book concept. The book was well received by those that saw it, but it just didn’t find the right home.
During that conference, a few colleagues of mine suggested that I might want to reach out to Daniel Nayeri the Publisher of Odd Dot. Daniel and I connected shortly after my New York trip, where he then connected me to his editor Justin Krasner. Justin graciously took a look at the pop-up book concept. He ended up passing on it, but was intrigued by my super hero paper toy book and asked if I would be willing to put a pitch together for a similar series based on non-fiction concepts. So, long story short… here we are already about one month after book publication!
I really like your job titles - Paper Engineer and Master Doodler. Can you tell us a little bit about your history with paper engineering and doodling? How did you get started and what projects have you worked on before Color, Cut, Create!?
Let’s start with Master Doodler!
When my son started Pre-K, I came across an online blog where a dad had drawn a new picture for his son’s lunch for 16 years. It was inspiring to see this collection of work. I thought, how cool is this idea! So, the next day I started off on my doodling journey posting my drawings day-after-day to Instagram labeled #lunchboxdoodles.
My doodles started off with me drawing mini comics, or illustrated jokes on ziplock baggies. Periodically, my son would try to save the ones he really liked, but given that the bags were filled with jelly or whatever he had for lunch that day, we had to make a slight change. I decided that I needed something more tangible that he could keep to collect… without leftover lunch. So, I pulled out a piece of white card stock, and with sharpie in hand, I continued on my doodling journey with a new approach.
Switching direction with what I was drawing on gave me more opportunities to try other papers and drawing tools. After a while, these doodles became a 15 minute drawing challenge for me every morning. I got pretty good at drawing these doodles fairly quickly, so I dubbed myself a Master Doodler.
There are currently 1000+ lunch doodles under #lunchboxdoodles. Not all of them are mine now, as other awesome parents have started sharing their lunch time drawings. But it’s cool to think that maybe I inspired other parents to participate in creating fun artwork to brighten up our children’s school days.
As for Paper Engineer… quite a few years back, before I started my own business, I was working very long hours between my employer’s projects, and my own contract work. The long hours made for long days, and I just needed to find another creative outlet. So just like my Master Doodler story, I stumbled upon another blog (by Mathew Hawkins) that released a new paper toy every week. He would offer his toys up as a free download, and after my first one, inspiration struck again. I was hooked on this new style of art!
I was so intrigued by how it combined my two creative love interests, illustration and building. So, I started on my journey of picking up books about paper engineering, looking at how other builders were creating their toys, and then started to create my own projects to share. I also started to incorporate more paper engineering concepts into my magazine work. Now almost 10 years later, it’s crazy to think that what started as just a hobby for me, has now turned into something fantastic!
How and when did you fall in love with art and drawing? Did you have any big supporters along the way? And when did you know you'd pursue it as a career?
As far as I can remember I have always loved art. As a kid I would spend a lot of time on the weekends crafting with my mom, and drawing monsters, wizards, and mythical creatures with my brothers. Most of my drawing skills as a kid started from tracing my favorite comic book characters (TMNT, Batman, and Spiderman) until I was good enough to draw them free-hand. I attended a small private school where art was mainly taught by our classroom teacher. And even though I do have fond memories of some of the projects we worked on, there was no formal art class or specialized teacher.
In 8th grade we worked on a book project in class. This was the kind of project where you would get paired with your best friend, and one of you would write while the other illustrated. Being known as the artist in my class, I was automatically deemed the illustrator, which I didn’t mind at all! Upon turning in the final draft of our book titled “Sir Jenic and The Dragons”, my teacher Mrs. Brunco looked at me and noted how great the artwork was. She asked me if I had ever thought about being a professional artist, and after that…I did!
Do you have any words of wisdom for kids out there that like to doodle in class, and who might want to share their art for a living too?
The best bit of advice I can give kids today is… “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes with your art! Just keep creating, and take pride in what you create! Perfecting any art style takes a lot of time and practice.” Great artists only became great by learning from their mistakes, and whether it was good or bad, they just kept creating new work until they achieved what they envisioned in their mind.
Did being a dad inspire you to pursue this project in any special way? How much influence do your own kids have on your work and Color, Cut, Create! in particular? Do they help you choose the themes?
I’ve always enjoyed creating work by drawing from my own childhood experiences. I worked for a few years creating a featured section called Puzzle Pages for Jack and Jill magazine. This section is where I started to learn the importance of inserting into the magazine all of the fun brainteasers, activities, and puzzles that I enjoyed as a child. Being a dad helped me to start seeing a need for trying to make these magazines even more interactive for today’s youth.
The initial concept for Color, Cut, Create! was inspired by observations I would make while volunteering at the school that my children attend. I started to notice how some students would struggle with simple craft based tasks like, folding, gluing, and cutting.
Making these observations lead me to pitch a featured section to U.S. Kids magazine titled Color-Cut-Play! The activity spread is very similar to the Color, Cut, Create! books. In each issue of the magazine, you will find a center spread that includes themed paper toys and a playset that you can color, cut, and build. Each activity is built specifically with kids in mind, as I wanted to give them a positive building experience. I have engineered paper toys ranging from Santa’s sleigh with flying reindeer, to a deep-sea diving submarine, to a build your own leprechaun trap for St. Patrick’s Day, and many more!
I do look to my own kids a lot when creating my paper toys. I let them build and play with my creations to see how they react. It allows me to observe firsthand what is or isn’t working, and how I can make it better. I sometimes refer to my children as my S.M.E.’s (Subject Matter Experts).
Both of our kids absolutely fell in love with Color, Cut, Create!. With a bevy of options on the table for their entertainment, they both consistently ask to do more coloring and cutting. Objectively speaking, what do you think specifically attracts kids to these books and projects?
Objectively speaking… I think art projects give children the opportunity to do something all kids like to do, and that is to just create! Color, Cut, Create! allows them to be successful with minimal or no help. It gives them a basic outline to start, and then the opportunity to just let their imaginations run wild! It is something where they can really take control and create worlds of their own!
I'm running the very real risk of sounding like an old fogey here - but, as a dad, do you also worry about the lack of hands-on, screen-free imagination time these days? Do you think it's a legitimate concern, or is it blown out of proportion?
I think it is a very legit concern. I made a similar observation years ago that kids were having issues with simple crafty tasks like folding a sheet of paper, cutting with scissors, or coming up with creative ideas. This was an eye opener for me. It made me put some serious thought into how I can make a difference here. I know life gets busy and technology can become a default for many of us, even myself sometimes, but this has also driven me to find ways to make my own work more engaging for my readers.
Speaking of the family, does your family have a favorite picture book of all time?
This is a tough one to answer! From the time my oldest child was born we would read to him at least three books every night. We went through many different phases from the Little Critter books, Fly Guy, My Weird School Days, My Zombie Pet Goldfish, to now where we are reading books like The Hobbit. My youngest child is working her way through books too, but they lean more toward, Pinkalicious, princesses, and unicorn books! If I had to select something, it wouldn’t be one book, but it would be our collection of holiday books…especially Halloween books! Everyone still enjoys reading this particular collection. Some of the most read are The Haunted Ghoul Bus, Seek & Find Charlie Brown Halloween Book, Fright Club, 10 Timid Ghosts, 10 Trick-or-Treaters, and don’t forget the Hallo-Wiener. Books are one thing we have always made space for in our house, and always make available to our kids.
Do you have any plans for future themes with Color, Cut, Create! that you're ready to announce yet? How about any other projects you're working on? For what it's worth, my kids suggest monsters.
Monsters would be awesome! There are some other projects in the works, but I can’t quite say what they are yet. All I can say is to make sure to follow my work on Twitter or Instagram for future announcements! If you can’t wait that long, you can always subscribe to Jack and Jill, or Humpty Dumpty magazine where there is a new Color-Cut-Play! every two months.
How can people best follow you and keep a look out for what's to come in the future?
You can find my work at LittleRainey.com, or follow me on Twitter, and Instagram at @littlerainey for any future news or updates.
In honor of the recent best holiday ever: If your family could only watch one Halloween special or movie for the rest of your lives, what would you choose?
This question started a pretty good debate between the four of us, but what I think it came down to was a tie between It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Garfield’s Halloween. We watch these two cartoons over and over! Even with my son getting older, it has just become a tradition to sit down and watch them both after we have gone Trick-or-Treating.
(Author’s Note: Now that’s some good Halloween taste!)
Thanks again for doing this interview with us! I appreciate it a lot - and thanks for doing your part to promote creativity and imagination!
Thank you for having me on Dad Suggests!
You can find Merrill’s Color, Cut, Create! books on Amazon or shop local through IndieBound. And make sure to check out publisher Odd Dot and Merrill’s own website to learn more.
Do you have any little doodlers or paper engineers in your family? Have you tried Color, Cut, Create! yet? Let us know in the comments!
