Author Archives: Iiiireader

This is my second book of coloring designs by artist Joy Ting for Peter Pauper Press. There are 31 designs with inspirational messages that that have lots of abstract designs surrounding and inside of the words on the page. The designs range from fairly easy to color to much more complex and a number of them have fairly thick black lines with them. Thirty of the sayings are simply that while one is attributed to Confucius.

The pages are a heavyweight white paper. This is fantastic as my pencils, gel pens, and ultra fine markers (except for alcohol based markers) do not bleed through on this paper. The designs are printed on only one side with the back side left blank, so if you are using regular markers or watercolors, you can put an extra page in between just in case some color leaches through.

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This is a wonderful set of coloring designs by Peter Pauper Press. The various designs in this book are based on images licensed from both Bigstock and Shutterstock, so it is possible that you may have seen similar or even the exact images in other books.

There are 31 animal related designs with lots of various animals including fish, birds, and mammals. The designs range from fairly easy to color to much more complex. Many of the designs have intricate components but they don’t look that difficult to color provided you have ultra-fine point pens/markers/pencils. I don’t know that crayons would work that well on those particular designs.

The pages are a wonderful heavyweight of bright white. This is fantastic as my pencils, gel pens, and ultra fine markers (except alcohol-based markers) do not bleed through on this paper. The designs are printed on only one side with the back side left blank, so if you are using alcohol based markers or watercolors, you can put an extra page in between just in case some color leaches through. Be sure to check your particular markers/pens to see if there is any leaking for that brand.

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This is a set of 30 bird designs that are simply beautiful and intricate to color. It is one of the newer coloring books by Valentina Harper. For some reason, it has a misnomer of activity book on Amazon when it is really a coloring book. This is my first coloring book by Valentina Harper but I will certainly look for more books by her in the future. I have purchased books by this same publishing line (Design Originals) by other artists and this book is the same high quality book.

In addition to the designs, the artist has included information about basic color ideas and basic color tips at the front of the book, along with some great color examples (some of which I will show in my attached photos.) The lessons are generic to the color book line but the samples are specific to the designs in this book.

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This is my first coloring book by artist Wendy Piersall though this is her fourth publication. I am so impressed by her artistic design that I will certainly look at her past books, too. All four of her books are based on mandalas. She incorporates a variety of themes into the mandala form. In this book, the theme is the ocean fact and fiction.

The designs in the book are a wide assortment of subjects. From a sailing ship to a mermaid, from whales to Neptune with his trident, and with a wide assortment of fish and other sea creatures and flora, this book has a nice variety of ocean subjects to color and to enjoy. Most of the designs have intricate details that will require that I use a ultra-fine point pen, marker, or pencil.

The mandala format makes this book different from my other ocean coloring book (which is mostly just fish.) While the designs are intricate, they are on the smaller side (as compared to average format coloring books) and will be projects to color when I feel like finishing in fewer days than some of the larger designs take. I like large challenges but some days, I really prefer a smaller design that is pretty and fun to color.

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This is a lovely coloring book by Molly Harrison which includes 25 hand-drawn designs of a variety of subjects. The line drawings are generally complex and somewhat intricate to color. Some of my other designs by Ms. Harrison include both elegant and younger, cute style designs. This book focuses on the elegant and beautiful adult fairy. I have several coloring books by this designer and am enjoying all of them. I look forward to more of her books in the future.

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This is my second coloring book by Cher Kaufmann and I will certainly be back for future books. The smaller format book has many, many designs. While a lot of coloring books are created from computer generated artwork (and I enjoy those, too), this book has 100 hand-drawn designs from the beginning to the end. The designs include many Celtic knots, mandalas, and other sacred symbols based on ancient cultures and traditions.

In addition to the designs, the artist has included information about the history of some symbols. She has also provided an Ancient Alchemy Symbols guide to explain a number of the symbols that she uses in the coloring book. Reading this information has certainly enhanced my appreciation of the artwork and what the artist is trying to convey with each drawing.

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This is a lovely set of 30 fun and different Christmas tree designs which span the gamut from traditional to rather avant garde. Some of the designs are intricate and others are open and easy to color. What is really nice is that all 30 designs have been hand-drawn. These are not the standard computer generated designs that are in such abundance. Personally, I like both styles, so I am always open to trying something new.

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This is a really unusual coloring book as it mimics chalkboard style art. It is printed on a soft black matte background and the words and other drawn elements have the appearance of being written in chalk. While there are no instructions on how the samples were colored, it appears that the white portions of the designs were filled in with color. I am guessing that you will need to use a lighter tone perhaps pastel or neon tones to allow the black underlying part of the chalked areas to show through.

The artist responsible for these designs, CJ Hughes, is a professional chalkboard artist. He works in both chalk artwork and chalk-look art and has had a wide variety of customers, including Microsoft, Wendy’s Hamburgers, ESPN, and Rachel Ray Magazine among many others.

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