Author Archives: Iiiireader

I am attaching a silent flip-through video of the entire color book so you can see the designs for yourself and decide whether or not this coloring book suits your needs.

This is a coloring book of designs hand-sketched from photographs which appeared in British Vogue during the 1950’s. They include fashions from Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy, and Chanel. Along with each design image is a short description of the fashion which was taken from the original magazine. This is a book which could have easily had perforated pages and it is a real shame that it did not. You can still remove pages from the book (see below) but perforations would have made it that much easier.

The designs are in sketch form with many open areas which will allow colorists to use their blending and shading techniques. I’m fairly new to those techniques with regards to fashion designs, so I think this will be a good opportunity for me to practice. I wish that there had been some views of the pages during the pre-order period so individuals could see what to expect. I wasn’t too surprised given the image on the cover of the book but I think some individuals might be disappointed by the way these designs are rendered compared to other fashion coloring books available.

As usual with hand-drawn designs (especially those which are sketched), there are disconnected lines. I generally keep a small nib black gel pen handy to create my own connections or just color on and leave the disconnect as it.

I really did not like that the artist put weird squiggly lines on the lips of some of the models. He may have thought that it provided highlights but I’d rather do that myself. Now some of the designs look there are caterpillars on the models lips. I’ll have to think of how to disguise those. Because of this, if I could give the book a 4.5 rating, I would but as I cannot, I always round up.

I love the fashions of this period, so coloring in this book will be fun for me. For my first project, I followed the color scheme mentioned in the blurb (navy and white) using a variety of pencils, gel pens, and markers.

I will provide more detail about the physical coloring book below but here is a quick overview:

92 pages of hand-sketched British Vogue Fashions
Printed on both sides of the page
Pages are heavyweight, white and non-perforated
Sewn Binding
Designs do not merge into the binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through slightly but noticeably
Water-based markers and India ink pens do not bleed through
Gels pens do not bleed through but require additional drying time
Coloring pencils work extremely well with this paper

The designs in this coloring book are printed double-sided on heavyweight, non-perforated, white paper. The quality of the paper is what saved me from giving this a 4 star rating (along with the lip issue above.) The designs do not merge into the binding area. The binding is sewn, so you can remove pages by simply snipping a few threads to remove a few pages at a time. The book can be forced into a fairly flat position for coloring by breaking the spine.

The coloring book has a removable dust cover. While the front and the back of the actual book have designs which you can color, the publisher missed an opportunity to provide coloring designs on the inside of the dust cover itself. Instead, the inside is a slick and glossy bright pink. Pretty but not as much fun as sketches to color.

I test my coloring books with various medium (I will provide a list in the comments section below for any interested.) Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page but not as quickly or to the same extent as most paper. Water-based markers, India Ink pens, and gel pens did not bleed through the page. Gel pens required additional drying time as compared to other books. Coloring pencils worked extremely well with this paper. The soft lead pencils went on thick with great coverage. They blended and layered easily. The hard lead pencils had good color and did not dent the back of the page.