Category Archives: Adult Color Books

“The Buns” is the first coloring book I have by artist Dea Lenihan. I’m certainly going to look at some of her other books as I think this one is very cute and fun to color.

The Buns are little tiny creatures, easily able to fit inside of the bowl of a teaspoon. They seem to be equally at home in a forest, a garden or even inside a house. The first design in the book shows the Buns next to a regular size rabbit so you can get a sense of their size.

All in all, there are twenty full page coloring designs with two copies of each page. In addition, there are two pages which tell what the Buns love and what they are afraid of. There are also two pages of labels which you can color and cut out for use with gifts.

The designs are detailed as there are full backgrounds and there are a few spots with intricate and smaller areas to color. It is not what I consider a difficult book to color but will provide hours of fun for each design.

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This is a lovely poster edition of Animorphia. I really enjoy Kerby Rosanes artwork and own the original coloring book both in the US and UK edition (the UK one being the better by far when the books were first available. When I found this UK version of the book (set up in what we normally call an artist’s edition), I ordered it right away.

While I love the artwork and the format of the new book (thick paper, larger size and perforated pages at the top), what I am not so happy about is the cropping of the designs and the choice of designs included. This really could have been the opportunity to provide the peacock in a way that could be colored (the first one disappeared into the binding of the book) but it was not included.

What was included were designs which are chopped at the edges. They still work but it would have been nicer to have the whole design. Perhaps sizing it down would have made it impossible to color. Maybe not. In any case, it was a bit disappointing to me.

Notwithstanding that, these pages are ready to frame once you color them and remove them from the book. The book has a nicely illustrated cover and a heavy cardboard backing page which makes it easy to color on a flat surface.

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This is the second Alice in Wonderland coloring book published under the imprint Jade Summer. There are a number of artists (and probably groups of artists) who are responsible for the designs under this publishing name. While I enjoy Alice coloring books and collect many of them, I still wish that the publishers had chosen another fairy tale or two before going for the second one of Alice.

Having said that, this is a fun Alice. The characters have a manga feel with large eyes and younger faces. The evil characters look a little too nice and happy (hence my detracting half a point.) Part of Alice is having the mean Queen for her to escape from.

Because it is a little happy happy, it would make a good coloring book for an child eight and above. I’m included in the “above” range and will have a lot of fun coloring the characters. It’s cute but not my favorite of the Alice books available.

The designs are detailed and have full backgrounds. This is a nice change from some of the more recent Jade Summer books which are a little too childish for my taste. There are no intricate and difficult areas to color but finishing the whole of each design will take some time and prolong the fun of coloring in it.

Along with the book, you receive the ability to download a copy as well. The contact information (along with access code)for that copy is included in each book.

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This is a the second in a series of really cute dragons by artist Tatiana Bogema (Stolova). The dragons in this book are quite different from those in the first one. If possible, these seem even cuter. My grandson is enjoying coloring in his copy of this book along with me. We do a lot of coloring together when he comes to visit (when he came fit time in between Legos and puzzles.)

There is an adorable design of a little dragon asleep in his bed, all covered up with his cap on his head and his little stuffed animals scattered about. Another designs shows a little dragon with a birds next in his antlers as he waits impatiently for them to grow and fly away. I must admit my favorite is a little dragon coloring in what looks to be one of the Nice Little Town series designs.

While the designs of the dragons themselves have some detail, most of the pages are what I would categorize as fairly easy to color. There is plenty of room to add your own special touches if you wish.

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I really enjoy Angela Porter’s style of design. I find her illustrations to be detailed and fun to color. Until now, her coloring books that I have purchased have not only been detailed but also extremely intricate with lots of tiny spots to color. I do enjoy those books and designs but was really pleased to see her do a book where the design elements are larger.

The book is being marketed to tweens but I think it is a great book for adults as well. It is also a good way for individuals who may not have been able to color her previous books due to the complexity to buy and color in a book that has her fun style. The designs are still quite detailed but definitely larger and with less elements than her previous books have been.

The designs in this book are focused on the tropical rainforest with lots of plants, flowers, birds and animals. An extra fun part of coloring these designs are the hidden pictures (really more elements) that you can look for on the various pages. There are only four different elements in this book, which are: ladybugs, snails, hearts, and stars. Some are larger and some are smaller. What especially like is that they are not obtrusive and out of place as I have found with a few other hidden picture designs.

At the time I am writing this review, the product description mentions 44 designs in this book. There are only 35 so hopefully the publisher will get this error fixed in the future.

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This is a really cute coloring book of designs by Jessica Mazurkiewicz. She has dressed a wide variety of animals in some fun cozy clothing. There are dogs, cats, llamas, tigers, turtles, koalas and even an octopus garbed in (mostly) sweaters. Each design is more adorable than the last and should make for fun coloring during the cold months of winter when I am wearing by cozy clothes as well.

The drawings in this book are detailed but not what I consider intricate or difficult to color. I especially like that the animals are placed in scenes rather than simply having a dog or cat dressed in a sweater and no background. The cute backgrounds give context to the designs.

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.

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I always look forward to a lovely new coloring book by Marty Noble. I’m also a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz in coloring book as well. That made this book an easy one to pre-order. I knew, without even seeing the book, that it would be one that I would enjoy.

The designs are in Ms. Noble’s signature style with lots of flowing elements and mandala pages. The portions of the story I most like are well covered in the book. This coloring book is not a storybook at all. It is designs which are inspired by the story. I like both formats but find that I actually prefer the storybook style I have seen by other artists.

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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This is a really beautiful and different coloring book. Unlike Daisy Fletcher’s last coloring book (“Birdtopia”), this book does not use pre-colored elements. However, the pages are tinted a distinct yellow ivory (the same as shown on the cover of the book), so your palette will need to work around that. I must say I am pleased with the change as the pre-colored portions of “Birdtopia” were the reason I returned that book.

This coloring book focuses on animals and flowers in the wild. There are gorgeous little foxes, deer, rabbits, wolves and more. The flowers are very lovely as well. At the back of the book, the artist has included thumbnails of the designs along with the names of the animals and flowers on each page. There is a fantastic four-page spread at the back of the book which provides a beautiful and detailed coloring experience.

There are pages with lots of detail and some with a simple single flower or animal. Some of the designs do have small and intricate areas to color.

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This is a fabulous coloring book inspired by the fashions and society of the 1950’s. I haven’t really seen anything like it before and was captured by the cover page and bought it sight unseen otherwise. It turns out that it is part of a series that (currently) includes the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s.

The book includes everything from a sock hop to a singer who is more than slightly reminiscent of Elvis. I love the design with the young woman and the typewriters as I learned to type on an old mechanical typewriter. The design with the young girl and the forty-fives reminded me of my older sister, though she listened to music on that style of record player in the 1960s.

The designs are definitely detailed but do not include tiny and intricate areas to color. The designs have full backgrounds. My only nit with the book is that the designs simply stop at a certain point. I wish that the artist/publisher had included a framing line at the outer edges for a more polished look.

I hope that they plan on doing a sixties version (from Jackie Kennedy to hippies and Sargent Pepper style psychedelic fashions.) How cool would that be. ETA – apparently the company has published a sixties issue which I will be picking up soon!

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This is a lovely book of bird and birdhouse designs. The designs are quite detailed though not what I would consider intricate with small areas to color. Tim Coffey’s designs are fairly open with easy to color spaces.

My only issue with the book is that all of the designs extend to the edges of the paper on all four sides (including past the perforations and spiral binding on the bound side.) This makes it difficult to color.

The coloring book has 100 pages and is very well made. I wish most coloring books were made to this level, let alone having so many designs to choose from. It is an extremely well published book (as are all of the spiral bound Lang books.)

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