Author Archives: Iiiireader

I love coloring books with cats and this book has 30 fun designs to color. The designs are stylized with lots of doodles which allows me to use a variety of colors. The designs range from open and easy to color to those that are more intricate. The lines are thin on some while others have heavy black lines which stand out boldly in a finished project.

These cat coloring designs have been curated by the publishers from a variety of image licensing companies. That means that we get a variety of designers work in a single book, which is generally a great thing to get at a reasonable price. While most of the designs are new to me, I found that a couple of them are ones that I have seen in other books before but in a larger format. I will include a silent video which will show all of the designs included in this book.

The designs are printed on one side of thin white paper. The book is a smaller than usual format. The pages are not perforated but the artist has left ample room to cut a page out if you choose to do so. The binding is glued rather than sewn, so you can have it cut off if you wish to have sheets rather than a book. The designs all have finished elements or framing around them so I have a natural stopping point when I am coloring. I really like this as it helps give work a more polished a finished look.

All of my markers and gel pens bleed through this paper and coloring pencils work well with it. You can see a list below of the coloring medium that I tested on this book. As the backside of the page is blank, I can use a heavyweight paper or chipboard beneath my working page to keep ink from leaking through. Chipboard can be purchased at an office supply store or on-line fairly inexpensively. I can reuse it many times over, so that is becoming my standard blotter sheet.

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) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castel Polychromos

This is a coloring book filled with flowing doodle style designs. A few of the designs are more geometric but most of them have a beautiful and delicate flow to them. There are both abstracts and takes on real subjects in the various designs. There are even a couple of mandalas, too! The designs range from open and flowing to quite intricate and detailed. While almost all of the designs are fairly intricate, only a few have small details. I find that the designs in this book will take some time to complete but won’t be too intricate to get the tip of your coloring medium into to color.

The pages are printed on thin white paper which is not perforated. The designs are printed on one side of the page with the back left blank. The designs stop well short of the glued binding and can easily be removed with a pen knife if you so choose.

My gel pens and markers all leaked through this paper. My coloring pencils went on well but left a shadow at the back of the page, too. Not a problem, though, as I can put a piece of chipboard or a couple of heavy weight pieces of paper under the page I am working on to keep the ink from leaking through.

What is really quite nice about this line of books by Grace Sure is that she is also making them available for you to print additional copies if you purchase the book. You can either purchase the book and get the access to the on-line version. If you prefer, you buy the Kindle version of the book or, at the time I am writing this review, you can use your Kindle Unlimited to borrow it, too. You can decide to print the designs on whatever paper can use in your printer. When I have this option, I use my laser printer on chipboard. It keeps it safe from my water-based markers and water colors and gives me a good surface to color on. I may do this for a couple of prints but I am happy with the quality of the printed book for most of my coloring needs.

A free sample of this coloring book was provided for test and review purposes.