Author Archives: Iiiireader

31 Beautiful and Unusual Mandalas featuring Celestial Designs printed on one side of perforated page

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Iiiireader

Creative Haven Celestial Mandalas Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

I really enjoy Marty Noble’s coloring books and own a number of them. This coloring book includes 31 designs featuring suns and moons. Some of the designs are simply one or the other or even both. Other designs incorporate various figures for a larger variety of coloring choices.

I generally color mandalas that are patterns rather than recognizable subjects, so this book was a great addition of something new to my coloring choices. I chose a design featuring the sun as my first project. I colored my design with a variety of alcohol and water based markers. I’ll include a photo of it as well as the two colored samples from the book. As I finish more projects, I’ll update my photos to show more of them.

This is what I found in going through this coloring book:

31 Mandalas featuring Celestial Designs by Marty Noble
Printed on one side of white page
Page is white, slightly rough, and perforated
Glue Bound
Designs stop before the perforation
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through to some degree
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this standard Creative Haven paper. Soft lead lays down good color, layers and blends well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

I either remove my pages from the book or use a blotter page under my working page. I do this to keep seeping ink and dents from ruining the pages below.

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31 Textile Style Designs in a variety of subjects by Marjorie Sarnat printed on one side of the page

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Iiiireader

Creative Haven Textile Designs Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marjorie Sarnat

Rating: 5 of 5

I own a couple of books by Majorie Sarnat published by a variety of publishing companies. With Textiles the overall feel of the designs are quite different from what I have come to expect from Ms. Sarnat but are certainly lovely, fun to color and show her usual artistic style. True to the theme, the designs are reminiscent of prints on cloth or wallpaper. There is a feeling of repeating elements just as you would expect on a printed textile.

There are a number of designs with lots of flowers but there are also such diverse subjects as Raggedy Anne, Sock Monkeys (which I chose for my first project), cowboys and cowgirls, travel posters, birds, and more. Because of the nature of the small elements, the designs are quite detailed to color. I used Polychromo coloring pencils for my first project as I wanted a pencil that I could sharpen to a good point. I’ll include a picture of the finished project along with the two colored samples from the book as well. I’ll add more photos as I finish projects in the future.

This is what I found in going through this coloring book:

31 Textile Repeating Style Designs by Marjorie Sarnat
Printed on one side of white page
Page is white, slightly rough, and perforated
Glue Bound
Designs stop before the perforation and have a framing line around the outer edge of the design
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through to some degree
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this standard Creative Haven paper. Soft lead lays down good color, layers and blends well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

I recommend a blotter page be used under the page you are working on, regardless of coloring medium you use. That way you can keep the pages below free from seeping ink or marring dents.

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

55 Beautiful Collage Style Designs by Marty Noble printed on one side of cream page

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Iiiireader

ESCAPES Collage Art Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

Marty Noble is one of the first two artists to release coloring books on Dover’s new Escapes line. The books are still standard size but are presented horizontally with each of the designs being horizontal as well.

Ms. Noble is one of my favorite designers and this book has 55 wonderful designs in it. Some of the designs are reminiscent of those in her older books (steampunk, art nouveau, winter, etc.) but the designs are all original in their presentation. They are quite detailed and are a fun challenge for me to color. The designs run a large range of subjects and have the beautiful artwork I have come to expect from Ms. Noble.

The book does not have colored samples in it (unlike Dover’s Creative Haven line.) It does have some line art on the inside of both the front and back cover. The paper is cream color and is similar in feel to that of the Creative Haven line.

The pages are perforated but I found them a tad more difficult to remove without tearing the pages. I think it may have to do with the width of the book being longer. After slightly tearing a couple of pages as I tried to remove them, I put a chipboard under the page and scored over the perforations with a box cutter (though a knife or scissor would have worked as well.) Once I did that, I could easily remove the page from the book without tearing it.

For my first project which is a wine collage, I used Marco Raffine coloring pencils which I was testing as well. For my second project which features fuchsias, I used my Prismacolor Premier Soft Core pencils along with a skin tone marker. I also tested a number of other coloring pencils, markers, and pens as well.

Here is an overview of what I found in this coloring book:

55 Collage style designs by Marty Noble
Printed on one side of cream color paper
Paper is perforated and has a slight roughness to to the touch
Book is presented horizontally
Designs stop before the perforations
Designs have a framing line around the outer edge for a natural and more finished stopping point
Glue Bound
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through the page (though water based spotted more than a complete bleed through)
Gel pens and India ink pens left shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils worked well with this paper. I found that wax-based pencils blended with a deeper color but oil-based pencils provided a deeper coverage with less effort. Hard lead pencils left dents on the back of the page.

While I removed my pages from the book to color, if you plan on coloring the pages while they are still in the book, you should consider using a blotter page behind your working page. That will help stop ink and dents from marring the page below.

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31 Beautiful dragonfly designs

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Iiiireader

Creative Haven Entangled Dragonflies Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Dr. Angela Porter

Rating: 5 of 5

I love coloring Angela Porter’s designs. I have them in another Creative Haven book Entangled and in several others by another publisher. Her designs are always beautiful and involved and a real pleasure to color. As I also love to color dragonflies, this book was a must have for me.

There are 31 different dragonfly designs. I like them all so it was hard to decide which one to color for my first project. Once I made my decision, I knew that I wanted to use a variety of alcohol-based markers to get a big pop of color. I’ll include a picture of the finished project along with the two colored samples from the book as well. I’ll add more photos as I finish projects in the future.

This is what I found in going through this coloring book:

31 Detailed and Intricate Dragonfly Designs
Printed on one side of white page
Page is white, slightly rough, and perforated
Glue Bound
Designs stop before the perforation
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through to some degree
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this standard Creative Haven paper. Soft lead lays down good color, layers and blends well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

I recommend either removing the coloring page from the book to color it or if you are keeping the book together, the use of a blotter page under the page you are working on, regardless of coloring medium you use. That way you can keep the pages below free from seeping ink or marring dents.

Beautiful artwork but printing is too dark printed on one side of the page

Fairy Art – Grayscale Coloring Edition (Grayscale Coloring Books by Selina) (Volume 1)

By: Selina Fenech

Rating: 4 of 5

I really enjoy Selina Fenech’s artwork and have a number of her coloring books, so when I saw her newly released grayscale coloring book Fairy Art, I purchased it immediately. The artwork is everything I could hope for and more. It is simply beautiful and I hope to see more books in grayscale by Ms. Fenech.

However, the printing in the book is simply too dark for me to work with. I admit it could be because I am new to grayscale coloring (I only have three other books in this style) so it may be due to my inexperience.

I did do a comparison of print against my other books and this one is much darker. The problem is that adding coloring can never make the print lighter (unless you are using a solid opaque medium and simply painting over the existing artwork to cover it up.) The images show much lighter in the digital images in the Look Inside feature than they are in print.

I tried three different sets of coloring pencils (Prismacolor Premier Softcore, Caran D’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromos) just in case it made a difference. I used similar style designs and similar colors. While I preferred the Pablo pencils for coverage, I had the same problems. For flesh tones, I had to use creams and the lightest pink I could find in each set and the tones still came out really dark.

I am hoping that my book is an aberration and that others get much lighter printing in their books. If not, I hope this is something that Ms. Fenech can get corrected immediately. If that happens, I hope that someone will let me know and I will re-purchase this book in a heartbeat. I am still coloring in this book and am liking it due to the artwork but I simply can’t say I love it.

The book contains 25 different but two copies of each for a total of 50 coloring designs. The book is glue-bound but has plenty of room to remove each design from the book. The designs do not merge into the binding area. I only use coloring pencils with my grayscale so I didn’t check for other mediums. As the designs are printed on one side, you can always put a blotter page behind the page you are working on and it will keep ink from seeping through. My pencils worked well but differently. The Blue fairy is Pablo, the Purple fairy is Polychromos and the Pink fairy and Bee fairy are both Prismacolor Softcore.

New Black Background Edition of Flower Designs Volume 1 printed on one side of the page

Flower Designs Adult Coloring Book: Black Background Edition, Volume 1 (Jenean Morrison Adult Coloring Books)

By: Jenean Morrison

Rating: 5 of 5

I own several Jenean Morrison coloring books, including her second book of flower designs. I had not picked this book up in the regular format, so all of the designs are new to me. The designs are beautiful with the type of symmetry that I have come to expect from her work.

For me, coloring with black backgrounds is a different experience from standard coloring. I find myself gravitating towards pastels and bright colors as the darker tones seem to blend into the black and don’t have the pop that I generally get using a rich deep tone. Because of this difference, I find myself using colors that I don’t usually use which is great as it expands my experience and comfort zone.

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27 Lovely Floral Designs with Flower Fairies printed on one side of the page

Enchanted Garden: Enchanted Garden: Coloring Book

By: Sandra S. Winfree

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book with 27 full page flower designs which also include a lovely flower fairy nestled within. Each of the designs is titled at the bottom of the page and each design has a framing line around it to provide a natural stopping point while coloring.

I like the fairies being integrated so well within the designs it makes it seem as if I might just catch a peek of one if I go out into my garden and lift of flower petals. The figures are quite pretty and match the flowers extremely well. The flowers have a lovely flowing look to them.

Here is what I found within this book:

27 Floral Designs with Flower Fairies
Printed on one side of the page
Page is white, slightly rough, and is non-perforated
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge into the binding and have a framing line around them
Room enough to cut pages out if you wish to do so
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on back of the page
Coloring pencils work well: soft lead lay down color, layer, and blend well; hard lead dent the back of the page but lay down good color

I received a free copy of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

25 Elegant and Beautiful Fairies printed on one side of the page

Fairy Lane: Enchanting Fairies to Color (Fairy Lane Books) (Volume 1)

By: Barbara Lanza

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my second book of fairy designs by Barbara Lanza. The first was a best-selling book by Creative Haven. This book is by another publisher and while the artwork is as good if not better, the one thing that I miss in this book are the perforated pages. That certainly would not keep me from enjoying coloring in this book but it is something to note if you also own the prior book

The fairies are beautiful and are in a variety of settings and poses. I really enjoy that some are fairly simple (such as my first project with a fairy and a sunflower) and that others are much more detailed with lots of back ground setting design.

This is what I found in and about the coloring book:

25 Elegant Fairy Designs
Printed on one side of thin, slightly rough, non-perforated white paper
A few designs merge into the binding area
Glue Bound
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
Gel pens and India Ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page.
Coloring pencils work well with the paper. Soft lead pencils go on with good coverage and layer and blend well. Hard lead pencils work well but also dent the back of the page.

I recommend using a blotter page below the page you are working on to keep ink or dents from marring the design on the next page.

25 x 2 Designs Cute and Whimsical My Besties Fairies printed on one side of the page

Sherri Baldy My-Besties Fairy Time Coloring Book

By: Sherri Ann Baldy

Rating: 5 of 5

I’ve just recently discovered Sherri Baldy and her sweet My Besties designs. She has a world-wide following for these cute little girls and has recently released her first three coloring books. Fairy Time is the third in the series and has sweet designs of fairies. These little girls have gorgeous big eyes and are lots of fun to color.

I’m having a blast playing with my markers and coloring pencils with these cute designs. What I appreciate about them is that they are project that I can finish relatively quickly. I’ve been coloring a lot of detailed designs recently and it was fun and relaxing to simply color an adorable little sprite with my markers and then shade it with my various pencils.

Here is what I found within this book:

25 x 2 (50) My Besties Fairy Designs
Printed on one side of the page
Page is white, slightly rough, and is non-perforated
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge into the binding
Room enough to cut pages out if you wish to do so
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on back of the page
Coloring pencils work well: soft lead lay down color, layer, and blend well; hard lead dent the back of the page but lay down good color

Great Coloring Book for Cat Lovers a Day in the Life of a Cat

Day of the Cat: A Coloring Book with Hidden Pictures

By: Kong Hye Jin

Rating: 5 of 5

Day of the Cat is inspired by the artist’s cat Bono. Kong Hye Jin has created a coloring book that steps through the day from 6:30am until midnight. The cat in the book strikes many poses and has lovely additional designs drawn into its fur. There are also hidden pictures within the designs for you to find.

Most of the designs are printed on one side of the page with words printed on the back telling the story of the day as well as information about the hidden items. In a few instances, the designs spread across two pages.

As a former cat owner (all of my little friends have passed on at this point), I enjoy coloring cat design books. They help me recall and think of my sweet kitties. Many of the designs made me laugh because I had seen those particular poses and attitudes before.

Here is an overview of what I found with respect to this coloring book:

44 Cat Designs with hidden pictures included
Most are printed on one side of the page
Paper is heavy weight, white, smooth and non-perforated
A few of the two-page spread designs merge into the binding area
Sewn Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through the page; however, gel pens need extra drying time
Coloring pencils were mixed. I had good results with waxed-based soft lead pencils and hard lead pencils in general. Oil-based soft lead pencils laid down good color but did not blend well.

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Author Archives: Iiiireader

Creative Haven Celestial Mandalas Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

Creative Haven Textile Designs Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marjorie Sarnat

Rating: 5 of 5

ESCAPES Collage Art Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

Creative Haven Entangled Dragonflies Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Dr. Angela Porter

Rating: 5 of 5

Fairy Art – Grayscale Coloring Edition (Grayscale Coloring Books by Selina) (Volume 1)

By: Selina Fenech

Rating: 4 of 5

Flower Designs Adult Coloring Book: Black Background Edition, Volume 1 (Jenean Morrison Adult Coloring Books)

By: Jenean Morrison

Rating: 5 of 5

Enchanted Garden: Enchanted Garden: Coloring Book

By: Sandra S. Winfree

Rating: 5 of 5

Fairy Lane: Enchanting Fairies to Color (Fairy Lane Books) (Volume 1)

By: Barbara Lanza

Rating: 5 of 5

Sherri Baldy My-Besties Fairy Time Coloring Book

By: Sherri Ann Baldy

Rating: 5 of 5

Day of the Cat: A Coloring Book with Hidden Pictures

By: Kong Hye Jin

Rating: 5 of 5

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