Author Archives: Iiiireader

When I first was able to pre-order Wonders of Creation there was no explanation of what the coloring book would contain. As the publisher was Zondervan, I assumed that it would be Christian or religious-based artwork. As it turns out, except for a reference to God on the introduction page and a cite for non-existent Bible verses on the copyright page, the book has no religious connotations at all.

At the time I am writing this review, the product description refers to full text NIV language and 50 pages of designs. I am left wondering if somehow the extra 41 pages of designs replaced the Bible verses. Whatever the situation, there are no Bible verses in my copy of the book (as you can see once my silent page-by-page flip-through video posts.) The back of the actual book refers to over 90 pages of designs (I count 91), so I think that the error is in the product description itself.

There are 91 full pages of hand-drawn designs by two very talented ladies: Cindy Wilde and Pimlada Phuapradit. There are additional coloring opportunities on the introductory and title pages. The designs are beautiful and are printed very well. While the book did not meet my expectations it is definitely one that I will enjoy coloring in for other reasons. I don’t know which artist is responsible for which design; however, I can say that I like all of the designs and that they mesh well together in the book.

There are a wide range of designs, including: animals in landscape scenes, doodle animals of many types, trees and flowers, birds, fish and other sea creatures, and some lovely interpretative mandalas. Some of the animals et al include squirrels, deer, reptiles, jellyfish, crab, dragonflies, butterflies, hares, hedgehogs, elephans and much more.

I will provide detail below on the physical book but here is an overview of what I found in it:

91 pages of Hand-drawn Designs mostly animals
Printed on both sides of the page
Pages are not perforated
Designs do merge into the binding area
Designs do spread across two pages
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers seep through the page
Water-based markers were a mixed lot most showed color shadows on back of the page
India ink pens left a shadow on back of the page
Gel pens did not leave a shadow but required extra drying time
Coloring pencils work very well with this paper

The designs in this book are printed on both sides of heavyweight white non-perforated paper. The cover of the book is quite lovely with very colorful flowers and has matte deep fuchsia pink foil on accenting touches.

The binding of the book is glued. A number of designs do merge into the binding. There are fifteen design that spread across two pages. The alignment of my two-page spreads is mixed. Some are well done and others are off considerably. Because of the way the designs are printed in this book, I cannot recommend removing pages from the book. You will lose parts of the designs and in some cases, the loss would be important. I was able to get the book to lay open in a fairly flat manner for coloring.

I test my coloring book with various coloring mediums and a variety of tests. I will provide the list of mediums I tested in the comments section below. Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page easily. Water-based markers were a mixed results. My Tombows water-based markers did well with the brush end with no bleed-through or shadows; however, using the fine point marker tip caused deep color shadows. If you use the brush end sparingly, it might not bleed through you should check your markers and how you use them before trying them on a design to see if you get the same result.

All other water-based markers and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. Gel pens did not leave shadows but did need extra drying time. Coloring pencils worked very well with this paper. The soft lead pencils went on thick and layered, blended, and burnished excellently. The hard lead pencils had deep color and did not leave dents on the back of the page.

This is a wonderful collaborative work by a huge number of artists. I know the work of several of the artists in the coloring book (e.g., Jason Hamilton and Laura Iancu) but there are so many more whose work I have never seen. At the back of the large book is a listing and small biography of each of the contributing artists. Best news of all there are to be more of these Treasury books in the future.

I think this is a fantastic way to get colorists more familiar with the wide variety of artists and artistic styles that are becoming available. I know that I plan to purchase several coloring books based on what I have seen and begun to color. The styles are so varied and unusual, I took my time in filming my silent video, so you can see each page (though it made for a very long video compared to most that I film.)

One of the projects in this book is a beautiful flower child woman from Jason Hamilton’s Beautiful Women coloring book. I’ll include a photo of my finished study of that picture below. As I finish more designs, I will add more photos. I’m just thrilled with the chance to color so many styles and at a wonderful price as well. It’s amazing that these artists and the publisher are making this book available at their cost. Just simply one of the best bargains out there.

I will provide more detail about what I found in the physical book below, but for a quick overview, this is what I discovered:

110 Varied Designs (2 each from 55 different artists)
Designs are printed on one side of page
Paper is thin, white and non-perforated
Glue Binding
Designs do not merge into the binding
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through the page
India ink and gel pens leave shadows of color on back of page
Coloring pencils work well with the paper but also leave shadows on the back of the page

The large (and heavy!) book is filled with 110 designs which are printed on one side only of thin, white, non-perforated paper. The paper is at least the quality of that used by CreateSpace. The binding is glued. The designs do not merge into the binding. In fact, there is an artist attribution on the bound side of each page. That lets you know who is responsible for what artwork and additionally, gives you plenty of space to cut out any page you wish to remove from the book.

I can get the book to lay fairly flat by breaking the spine of the book; however, it is so thick that even laying flat may be too high for me to color comfortably. I will most likely be cutting pages out before I color them.

I test all of my coloring books with a variety of tests and coloring medium. I will list that information at the end of this review for anyone interested. Here is the results of my tests:

All markers (brands, nibs, etc.) alcohol or water-based bleed through this paper. India ink pens and gel pens leave distinct shadows of color on the back of the page. Coloring pencils work well but also leave shadows on the back of the page. The soft lead pencils go on really thick and creamy and layer and blend beautifully. The hard lead pencils have good color but do leave dents at the back of the page.

As I mentioned above, my plan is to remove pages from the book before I color. If you decide to keep the pages together, I highly recommend a blotter page of card stock or very heavy weight paper to keep ink and/or marring dents from ruining the pages below the one you are working on.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. In my tests, I use the medium in a manner that is perhaps more intense than others. I layer multiple coats of water-based makers for blending purposes, color large elements with gel pens, and with coloring pencils, I use multiple layers, multiple colors, as well as blending and burnishing them to see how the paper reacts and if the color moves properly.

If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Alcohol-based markers Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine)

Waater-based markers Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, and Staedler triplus fineliners

India Ink: Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (brush tip)

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, Uni-ball Signo in the following sizes – 0.28/0.38/0.5/1.0 and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, Caran D’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromos