Category Archives: Adult Color Books

I was surprised at how well this Lang coloring book is constructed; however, I was not surprised at all by how cute the designs were. I have seen Susan Winget’s designs in household goods and needlework for years and was really happy to find a coloring book filled to the brim with her designs.

The book is called Doodle House and it appears to be a glimpse at Ms. Winget’s sketchbook. The designs are hand-drawn and have the charming less than perfect look I expect from hand-drawn. I think that it makes coloring them more interesting and I am enjoying this book quite a bit.

Two things that I really like about the construction of the book are the spiral binding and the hard covers. The binding makes it easy to open the book to a flat position for coloring. It also makes it easy for leftys to color with the same easy as rightys. The hardcover gives a good flat surface for coloring on the go.

There are many designs with sayings as well as birds, animals and flowers. While it is not a book dedicated to the natural world, many of the designs lean that way. The designs are quite detailed but not what I would call intricate with tiny spots to color. As I mentioned previously, the hand-drawn nature of the artwork does show less than perfect. There are disconnected lines, a bit of uneven spacing, and even lines of varying thickness. It is that which gives it the sketchbook quality.

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This is my first floral books by Nathaniel Wake publishing. It is definitely an interesting take on flowers and some fantasy creatures. As with many Nathaniel Wake designs, many of the images seem to be slightly menacing. In some designs, I’m reminded of Audrey II in “Little Shop of Horrors.” It’s not what I generally look for in a floral coloring book but it is fairly fun change of pace.

The designs have detailed areas but do not have full scale backgrounds. Because of this, I don’t find it a difficult book to color in.

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This is the first coloring book I have based on Little Red Riding Hood. It covers the story from beginning to end (though leaving out the most frightening scenes.) I like that the artist used some discretion and substituted in pepper and sneezing for how Grandma gets back out. I also like that the wolf seems so mild at first (very friendly looking) and his wolf demeanor changes when he gets to Grandmas.

It will be a lot of fun to color in this book. I especially like getting two copies of each design in this book (25 different designs but two copies each) as I can share with my grandchildren when they are ready to color something this detailed.

The designs are quite detailed and some of them contain what I consider intricate and small elements to color. I found that my ultra-fine points, brush points and small nib gel pens worked well as did my colored pencils when sharped to fine points. Crayons would be much more difficult to work with unless you can sharpen them to a small point.

While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from CreateSpace. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.

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I own several of Thaneeya McArdle’s coloring books, including one called “Dapper Animals”. In this new book, Ms. McArdle goes to the other end of the fashion spectrum and gives us “Hippie Animals”. While most fall firmly in the category of Hippie, I think a few cross over into the more modern category of Hipsters. In any case, they are cute and are extremely fun to color. It’s time to pull out your psychedelic colors and make a groovy rainbow out of their outfits. There are love beads, bell bottoms, and granny glasses. The peace symbols and the flower headbands remind me of my older sisters during the hippie period.

The designs are detailed with lots of fun doodles to color. The eyes on most of the animals has been done in a shaded grayscale. It makes for a very different eye that what I usually do but it is an unusual and nice change. The back of the page has quotes by famous individuals and unknowns that mostly deal with peace and love (the hippie mantra). I really like that a number of them are quotes from songs. It appears that the publisher has changed from color print on these back pages back to light gray print. I prefer that as sometimes the color could show through to the front of the page depending on which medium I work with.

Once again, I love the designs in this book but I am less pleased with the way that the publisher is printing 8 of the designs in less than full size. They have included a thumbnail color sample, some sample colors used in their design for inspiration and a few words to talk about the colors. It takes up the bottom 2.5 inches of the page. This information could be printed on a separate page or on the actual color sample page rather than on the coloring page.

In this book, it makes less of a difference than in other books. The designs can still be colored as there aren’t tiny elements but I would much rather color a full page designs. As the designs are not difficult to color, I won’t detract any stars from my review.

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This is a Charles Santore coloring book published by Pomegranate. It is a mix of various fairy tales and story books, including some designs which are included in his coloring books on a specific title, such as “Snow White” and “Aesop’s Fables”. Some of the pictures have darker shading than others and most have elements of grayscale coloring rather than simple line drawings. I treat them as if I were working on a full grayscale design by laying down a foundation of color using alcohol-based markers. Once that I am done with that layer, the gray shading became the shading in my colors. I then add colored pencil details and highlights.

The designs are really elegantly drawn with fine details from the original artwork. Thumbnails of the original watercolors of each design are printed in glossy prints on the inside of the front and back covers. I appreciate this touch as at times I need to look at the pictures to determine which part of the design I was coloring. You can follow the colors in the picture or, as I do, use my own color palette.

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I really like this coloring book. It’s as if Hannah Lynn and Sherry Baldy illustrations got together and had a child which is Julia Spiri’s designs. It’s not that Ms. Spiri’s artwork is derivative, simply that elements of her designs remind me of both of these artists. Kind of like when someone mentions a child looks like both parents.

The eyes on these girls are big but they are kind of sloe-eyes in the sense that they are every so slightly slanted. Their eyes are where a lot of detail is done. Many of the figures are standalone and if they have a background, it is not extensive. The designs are easy to color and fun as well.

The book is called the Artist’s Edition, which made me wonder if there was an earlier version printed on lesser paper et al. While I could not find an exact name, I did find that Ms. Spiri has an earlier book called “Whimsical Dreams” which also has 50 designs. It is not the same designs but I can’t tell if it is done on the same paper.

Speaking of the paper; this is excellent paper. It is thick and only alcohol markers bleed through. I don’t yet water-color but I would think these heavy of a weight of paper would do well with wet mediums

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Before I discuss what is in this coloring book, I want to note that the designs are not new. They are taken from several other Dover books by Dot Barlowe. I don’t have any of the previous books but will list them for you so you can check to see if you already own most of these designs: “America the Beautiful to Paint or Color” (2006), “Flower Gardens to Paint or Color” (2007), “Nautical Scenes to Paint or Color” (2007) and “Tropical Paradise Scenes to Pain or Color” (2009).

It is a tad annoying that Dover does not list this information in the product blurb. For many, it appears that new designs are available from an artist they enjoy only to be disappointed. I’ve had this happen with other designers from Dover as well.

The designs in this coloring book are seashore inspired. There are boats, cottages, tropical huts, ocean scenes and more. The designs are quite sketchy in appearance. It’s easy to see that these were done by hand because of the thick and thin pen strokes.

The colored samples included in the book appear to be original artwork from the illustrator and not designs which have been colored from the pages in this book. I generally find when that is done by the publisher, it is because the designs are more intricate and won’t look like the original artwork. When I come across these types of books, I find them a bit more challenging as they include small areas to color. This is a book that my husband will enjoy coloring in more than I as he really loves ocean scenes.

I’ve noticed that the paper quality over the last few months seems to change quite frequently on the Creative Haven line. Because of that, if you buy one of these books, it may be slightly smooth or slightly rough depending on when and where it was printed. I’ve found that coloring medium, including pencils, work similarly with both slightly rough and slightly smooth paper from Creative Haven. In this case, my coloring book pages are slightly rough.

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I own a couple of coloring books by Amy Brown. She has a unique style and look to her faeries that is really fun to color. I was really pleased to see that other of her older and out of print books are being re-printed once again. This is the second book in her series of Faeries.

The designs has some detailed elements but are, for the most part, open and easy to color. I like the sense of movement I feel when I am coloring one of Ms. Brown’s designs. There is always a feeling of flow and grace to her lovely creatures.

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Based on the title of this coloring book, I had hoped to see animals in human clothing doing things that humans would do. What the book actually contains are 40 designs of animal heads with collars which are based on human clothing. The animals have the structure of the real animal but are filled with intricate doodles designs. While the animals are detailed, the clothing is not and in some cases are merely a few lines to suggest the top.

As the designs are extremely intricate because of the doodles, I don’t suggest this as a coloring book for anyone who has vision or fine motor issues. While it is a little too detailed for me, for those who like to use a lot of different colors, this presents a nice set of designs which have a lot of detail for that purpose.

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“The Magical Garden” is a smaller format book (8.5 x 8.5 inches.) The designs are extremely detailed with many small and intricate spots to color. The designs are inspired by plants and animals in a garden setting. The animals are drawn realistically though some are wearing clothes and are involved in more human type activities. The designs range from cute to pretty and elegant and are a good challenge to color.

While I enjoy coloring in detail, this is not a book I would suggest for anyone who has vision or fine motor issues. It is a book for individuals who like a bit of a challenge in their projects and who enjoy charming idyllic settings.

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