Author Archives: Iiiireader

Beautifully Illustrated Flowers and Garden Scenes printed on both sides of page

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Iiiireader

Joyous Blooms to Color

By: Eleri Fowler

Rating: 5 of 5

I found this gem of a book at a local big box store. It is filled with gorgeous flowers, garden scenes and inspiring quotes. I was a little disappointed that it was printed on both sides until I test my coloring medium (more on that later.) The designs have a good amount of detail but not so much that it is intricate or too small to color. I appreciate the high quality of this book and hope to see more coloring books by both this artist and by this publisher (Harper Collins) in the future.

The designs are printed on both sides of the heavyweight, non-perforated page. Most of the designs merge into the binding. A few of the designs spread across two pages. In my copy, the alignment of the two-page spreads is excellent. The binding is a hybrid of glued and sewn. The sewn binding is the type that has many stitches rather than just a few. Because of the binding and the way the design merge in (though nothing of note is lost in the binding), I will not be removing pages from this book. If you wish to do so, you will have to cut them out and you will probably lose some portion of the design in doing so. I was able to get the book to lay fairly flat by breaking the spine.

Only my alcohol-based markers bled through this paper. I was able to use all of my water-based markers, India ink artist pens, and gel pens without any bleed through. Gel pens required some extra drying time but that is common for gel pens on a good grade of paper. My coloring pencils worked excellently. The soft lead pencils went on thick with full coverage and blended beautifully. The hard lead pencils worked well and did not leave indents on the back of the page. I was especially pleased with the way my TomBow brush end markers worked with the paper. I was able to easily blend in my colors without roughing up the surface of the paper or having ink seep through. If you choose to use alcohol-based markers, it will ruin the design on the back of the page. I would suggest that you use a blotter page to keep the ink confined to just the back of the page and not ruin the following pages.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. 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:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based 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, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

Heart-warming and lovely story about two women who find their ways while hosting a quilting show

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Iiiireader

From Here To Home (A Too Much, Texas Novel)

By: Marie Bostwick

Rating: 5 of 5

I have only read one of Marie Bostwick’s stand-alone novels (“The Second Sister”) which I enjoyed so much, I was very happy to pick up “From Here to Home” to read and enjoy. I didn’t realize that it was a second in a series or that Ms. Bostwick is well known for her quilt novels. This is a book that can absolutely be read stand-alone without issue. However, since reading this book, I want to go back and read the first book which is apparently set 30 years earlier and gives a great bit of background on some of the major characters in this story.

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Posted in Fiction/Literature | Leave a comment

48 Beautiful and Unusual Multi-Cultural Coloring Designs printed on one side of perforated paper

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Iiiireader

Marty Noble’s Peaceful World: New York Times Bestselling Artists’ Adult Coloring Books (The Dynamic Adult Coloring Books)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of 48 designs which take the colorist on a tour of various cultures around the world. The countries include: Japan, Indonesia, Guatemala, Morocco, Italy, China, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey and more. There are many motifs and artistic styles from these cultures included in the designs. I can only hope that this turns out to be volume one and that more designs of this nature will be available in the future. While 48 designs is a lot, there are many cultures in the world and I would love to color beautiful scenes from more of them.

This book is published by Skyhorse Publishing. I have another Marty Noble book by this publisher (Sugar Skulls) and I have been enjoying it. The majority of my coloring books by Ms. Noble are by Creative Haven and Dover. These are completely different publishers though Ms. Noble’s artwork is as high quality as ever.

The designs in this book are even more intricate than I have come to expect from this artist. While each of the designs are fairly intricate, they are not small to the point of making coloring difficult. I appreciate the detail in these designs as it gives me a great project to think about and color. This is truly an opportunity to try out different colors and to venture into a culture’s color palette.

The designs are printed on one side of a good weight white perforated paper. While the paper is not top grade, it is certainly sufficient for framing purposes. I was able to get the book to lay fairly flat by breaking the spine of the book. The binding is glued rather than sewn but this is not an issue as you can remove a page at the perforations if you choose to do so. The designs all stop well before the perforations and all of the designs have a framing line around them. I try to note whenever an artist takes the trouble to include this framing line as it gives my project a more finished look and saves me time, trouble, and ink by giving me a natural stopping point while I am coloring.

All of my markers, alcohol and water based, bled through the paper. The water based were a little spotty but still came through enough to ruin the next project if you don’t keep a piece of chipboard, heavy weight paper, or card stock below the page you are working on. You can also simply remove the page from the book to color as well. My India ink artist pens left a shadow at the back of the page. None of my gel pens bled through and they did not require additional drying time. My coloring pencils worked well with the paper according to their brand and lead type (soft or hard.) Soft lead pencils were especially easy to blend.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. 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:

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, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

22 Great Designs of Iconic Kliban Cats printed on one side of the page

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Iiiireader

Kliban CatColor Coloring Book

By: Pomegranate

Rating: 5 of 5

I remember when Cat by B. Kliban was originally published in 1975. The cute cats became instant iconic symbols. Ever since that time, you can see his great designs show up in calendars, shirts, coffee mugs and more. Even though Mr. Kliban passed away years ago, his illustrations continue to live on. I have owned many items with his Cats on them. I especially like to pick up calendars which gives me a full years of enjoyment and then great pictures to use in craft projects. I was thrilled to find that Pomegranate publishes a coloring book as well as calendars.

The book has 22 Cat designs. The original, colorized versions are shown in thumbnail on the inside front and back covers of the book. The designs are printed in a fairly bold black. I like it with these designs as it makes it very simply to add colors and shading without having to draw details in. Your end result, like mine, will look close to the original but will have your own touches. In my case, I went entirely different colorways from the original designs and had a blast doing so. With many books, I am interested in a portion of the designs. With this one, I like all of them and could only hope that Pomegranate will come out with another book in the future.

The designs are printed on one side of heavyweight non-perforated paper. The binding is stapled rather than glued or sewn, so removing the pages from the book is as simply as removing two staples. The designs all stop well before the binding, so if you decide to cut a page out, you will not lose portions of the designs. The book opens to a fairly flat position but all you have to do is push down slightly to get it really flat.

All of my alcohol-based markers (fine, ultra-fine, and brush) bled through this paper. None of my water-based markers, gel pens, or India ink artist pens seeped through. My gel pens (all brands) required extra drying time. My soft lead coloring pencils went on the paper very thick and creamy and were very easy to blend. My hard lead pencils went on with good color and had some blending capability, too. In the comments section below, I will list the coloring medium I used to test this coloring book.

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

20 Lovely Faeries Coloring Designs printed on one side of the page

Amy Brown Faeries Coloring Book

By: Amy Brown

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my first coloring book by Amy Brown. I’ve seen other books by another publisher in the past but this is the first one that I have purchased. I hope that Ms. Brown brings out more of her fantasy designs under this publisher. I would love to color some of her dragons, etc. as well as these beautiful faeries.

The faeries in this book are adults and they seem almost to be caught in the act of movement. Ms. Brown is able to draw static lines in such a way that you believe you will see them walk right off the page. The dresses flow beautifully and gracefully and the placement of arms and legs and tilt of head are all spot on.

The book is printed on one side of the page with the typical CreateSpace thin white paper. The book is glue bound so you will need to cut designs out if you want to remove them from the book. All of the designs stop well before the binding and all elements are finished on the page (no half dangling open items where you have to guess where to stop coloring.) I was able to get the book to lay flat by breaking the spine.

All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens and India ink artist pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper and as expected for the type of lead (soft or hard.) I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink. In the comments section below, I will list the coloring medium I used to test this book.

24 Wall Paper Designs with Small and Intricate Designs details printed one side of the page

Art of Coloring Coastal | Leisure Arts (6809)

By: Leisure Arts

Rating: 4 of 5

This is a coloring book of 24 designs that pertain to the coast, water, and activities common to those areas. The images are licensed from AE Publications Ltd./Shutterstock, Inc. That may mean that you will have seen some of these images before in other coloring books.

While the coloring book is very nicely made and the images certainly pertain to the coast, I was a little disappointed that every single page of the book was what I call wallpaper. These are designs that repeat over and over again with the page. The elements are cute but I am not one to really enjoy coloring 24 pages of this type of designs. In prior books, Leisure Arts had wallpaper designs but interspersed them with full page designs as well. As Leisure Arts is licensing the images, I would have thought they could have found a few designs that filled the page without repetition to include in the book. I’m very surprised that they did not do so.

The other issue I have with the book is that due to the many repetitions of the elements, the coloring areas are extremely small. I had to resort to ultra fine markers (for the larger areas) and Prismacolor Verithins and Uni-ball Signo gel pens in 0.28 and 0.38 sizes. In some cases, the areas were simply too small to get my pens and pencils in. I resorted to coloring a larger area with a single color rather than the separate colors I would have preferred. I placed a dime in the middle of a design I am coloring to give you an idea of the scale of the items. This design is about in the middle of the range. There are others which have much smaller areas to color. You will need a steady hand and good eyesight to color in this coloring book.

While this is not my favorite type of design, I do enjoy some wallpaper repetitious designs. These are well done for anyone who likes really small, intricate elements which repeat many times within the page. Because of the lack of full page designs, I like the book but I don’t love it.

The designs are printed on one side of the white perforated paper. You can easily remove the pages all at once as the binding is stapled rather than glued or sewn. I prefer to remove them one by one at the perforations. The book easily lays flat by pressing down on the page. All of the images merge into the binding but as the designs are all repetitious, nothing of importance is lost when you remove the page.

All of my markers bleed through this paper. My gel pens and India ink artist pens either bled through or left color shadows at the back of the page. My coloring pencils worked exceptionally well with this paper. All soft and hard lead pencils went on thick and creamy and I was able to easily blend both types of pencils. You can either use a blotter page below the page you are working on or, as I do, remove the page from the book before starting to color.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. 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:

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, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

50 Great Saying Designs with cute designs printed on one side of the page

Attitude Is Everything: Coloring Book (Doodle Art Alley Books) (Volume 3)

By: Samantha Snyder

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of Sayings designs by Samantha Snyder. I have a couple other of her coloring books but this is the first time I have tried one that is primarily words with designs drawn to support them. All of the sayings in the book are uplifting ones which talk to improving the way you look at life in order for life to be better. I found the designs both fun and quick to color. I enjoyed the experience and walked away from coloring each design with a better attitude about things that were troubling me.

The coloring book is a smaller format book which is typical for Ms. Snyder’s coloring books. The designs are printed on one side of bright white non-perforated paper. The designs are centered well on the page and the print quality is excellent. The binding is glued rather than sewn so you will have to cut out pages if you want to remove them from the book. By breaking the spine a bit, I was able to get the book to lay flat. I really appreciate that the artist has included a framing line around each design. That gives me a stopping point and saves me time and ink if I choose to color in the background of a designs.

All of my markers (water and alcohol-based) and India ink artist pens bleed through the paper. My various gel pens all left a shadow of color on the back of the page. My coloring pencils worked well for their lead type. The soft lead blended really well. The hard lead left indents at the page of the page if I pressed hard when coloring. I used a blotter page of card stock with working with any medium to protect the rest of the book from seeping ink or being marred by indents from my pencils.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. While I did not specifically test Marco Raffine coloring pencils with the book, I did complete one design with the pencils when I was testing the pencils. 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:

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, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

I was provided a sample copy of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

Two romances in one – two women find love again after painful divorces

A Girl’s Guide to Moving On: A Novel

By: Debbie Macomber

Rating: 4.5 of 5

While “A Girl’s Guide to Moving On” is listed as a stand-alone novel by Debbie Macomber, it is really the follow-on to last years “Last One Home.”

In the newest book, we are following the youngest of the three sisters whose life has fallen apart. Nicole’s husband has cheated on her and she walks out taking their toddler son with her. Her mother-in-law, Leanne, has lived with her own husband’s infidelities for many, many years and decides to courageously follow Nicole’s example and finally divorce him.

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32 Designs with some inspired by the Bible smaller format than original book printed on side of perforated paper

"Inspiring Moments" Pocket Edition Inspirational Adult Coloring Book

By: Christian Art Gifts

Rating: 5 of 5

I purchased the larger format of this book which includes more designs and some very sturdy punch-out coloring elements. In this book, the designs have been sized down and have been cropped. At approximately 6 x 8 inches, it is indeed pocket size and very portable. In some instances, the cropping has taken a pretty big bite of the picture but there sometimes has to be a trade-off to get a small format book. I plan to take this book and its companion pocket format book with me when I report for jury duty. It will certainly be a great way to spend time while waiting to be called for a jury.

If you take it on the go, just be sure to take appropriately sized coloring medium with you. When the designs were shrunk, they also became intricate and small versus merely detailed. I find that my small nib markers, gel pens, and my hard lead ultra sharp pencils work best with these designs in this format. I also enjoy using my Tombows and doing a large swathe of color rather than trying to color in each tiny detail. I will save the same design in the larger book to have fun doing the detail work. I suggest that this is a good book for individuals with steady hands and good eyesight. If you have issues in those areas, you may want to take a look at the larger version of the book.

There are 32 hand-drawn designs in the coloring book with 12 of them Biblical inspired. That gives the colorist a good range of designs to color with a little more than a third being spiritually inspiring. The Scriptures in the book are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation and The Holy Bible, New International Version.

While I am always looking for Christian-based coloring books which focus entirely on the scriptures, it is good to have a more varied book on hand, too.

The coloring book has an elastic band which is attached at the back and holds the entire book together very nice if you have it thrown in a handbag or backpack. The designs are printed on one side of perforated paper. The design extend beyond the perforations and, in some cases, you will lose parts of the design when you remove the page. Some of the lost area may be important to the designs. The binding is glued rather than sewn but you can remove the designs at the perforations. I was able to get the book to lay fairly flat by push quite hard and breaking the spine. The publishers has used a red ink on the three unbound sides of the page and in some of the designs, a little of the ink as crept further onto the page. It didn’t interfere too much with my coloring but it was an additional expense on their behalf that had a detrimental effect.

All of my markers (both alcohol and water based) bled through this paper to some degree. My gel pens and India ink artist pens did not leak through. My soft lead coloring pencils worked well but did not go on as thick as on some better grade books. My hard lead pencils worked as expected and did not dent the back of the page. I recommend a cutting down some card stock or other heavy paper to act as a blotter with this book. Or, if you prefer, you can simply remove the page from the book before you start to color. In the comments section below, I will list the coloring medium I used in testing this book.

24 Great Mandala Designs from Leisure Arts printed on one side of perforated page

Art of Coloring Mandalas | Leisure Arts (6811)

By: Leisure Arts

Rating: 5 of 5

I have enjoyed all of the prior offerings by Leisure Arts in their adult coloring books, so when I saw that they had come out with some new books it was an easy purchase decision. This is a book of 24 mandalas and the images are licensed from AE Publications Ltd./Shutterstock, Inc. That may mean that you will have seen some of these images before in other books. I have not so these were all new to me. It is a bit surprising to me that Leisure Arts is licensing images as they have a huge group of designers in other crafts so I would expect that they would do something similar with adult coloring books. Perhaps that will happen in the future.

The designs are mostly full page rather than a singular circular mandala (though my first choice to color was a circular mandala.) Leisure Arts has taken the circular form and than added corner elements to fill the page. In some cases, there is a repetition of the mandala to form an almost wall paper effect across the page. Many of the designs are complex and detailed and a few have intricate and small details.

The designs are printed on one side of the white perforated paper. The binding is stapled rather than glued or sewn. You can easily release the pages all at once by removing the staples but I prefer to remove pages one at a time at the perforations. I can easily get the book to lay flat by opening and pushing down on the binding. Almost all of the images merge into the binding but nothing of importance is lost when you remove the page.

All of my markers bled through the paper easily. My gel pens and India ink artist pens either bled through or left color shadows at the back of the page. My coloring pencils worked exceptionally well with this paper. All soft and hard lead pencils went on thick and creamy and I was able to easily blend both types of pencils. I will probably remove pages as I go along to color but if you want to keep the book complete and use some of the medium that bleed through, put a blotter page under the page you are working on to keep the ink from seeping through.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. 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:

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, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

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Author Archives: Iiiireader

Joyous Blooms to Color

By: Eleri Fowler

Rating: 5 of 5

From Here To Home (A Too Much, Texas Novel)

By: Marie Bostwick

Rating: 5 of 5

Marty Noble’s Peaceful World: New York Times Bestselling Artists’ Adult Coloring Books (The Dynamic Adult Coloring Books)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

Kliban CatColor Coloring Book

By: Pomegranate

Rating: 5 of 5

Amy Brown Faeries Coloring Book

By: Amy Brown

Rating: 5 of 5

Art of Coloring Coastal | Leisure Arts (6809)

By: Leisure Arts

Rating: 4 of 5

Attitude Is Everything: Coloring Book (Doodle Art Alley Books) (Volume 3)

By: Samantha Snyder

Rating: 5 of 5

A Girl’s Guide to Moving On: A Novel

By: Debbie Macomber

Rating: 4.5 of 5

"Inspiring Moments" Pocket Edition Inspirational Adult Coloring Book

By: Christian Art Gifts

Rating: 5 of 5

Art of Coloring Mandalas | Leisure Arts (6811)

By: Leisure Arts

Rating: 5 of 5

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