About Archie Dawg

Archie Dawg is a border collie who lives in the Colorado Rockies. He's mostly black, with a white chest, white paws, a thin white blaze and a red collar. His coat is short enough that on the coldest days he wears an orange jacket in the snow.

Archie climbs the biggest rock on the trail, wades in creeks, digs through snow tunnels deeper than he is tall and has been known to nap in a blanket burrito. In summer he rides up front on the paddleboard in his life jacket, watching the mountains go by on a glassy alpine lake. He can tell you it's time for a walk without making a sound.

How a photo becomes a page

Every drawing in these books starts as a real photo. For the Archie books, it's a photo of one of his days out. For the Colorado Critters books, it's a photo taken around Colorado, most of them just a few miles from Archie's house. Each photo becomes a colouring page with clean outlines, one picture to a sheet, so markers and pens won't spoil the next drawing.

You can see the steps for yourself on the homepage, from the photo to the drawing to a finished page. Or try one yourself: Up the Ski Lift and The Snow Tunnel are free to colour in your browser.

The books

• Archie's Big Adventures, a colouring book for kids ages 4 to 8 with 29 pictures of Archie.
• A Dog's Life in the Rockies, an adult colouring book with 27 detailed drawings of Archie.
• Colorado Critters & Adventures: Kids Edition, 33 pictures of Colorado animals, trains and outdoor adventures.
• Colorado Critters & Adventures: Adult Edition, 34 detailed wildlife and landscape drawings.

The two Colorado Critters books are on Amazon now. The two Archie books are coming soon.