Category Archives: Adult Color Books

I am a big fan of Kerby Rosanes. I’ve enjoyed his coloring book artwork ever since I first found it the 2013 book, “Doodle Invasion”. I was looking forward to “Fantomorphia” which I pre-ordered without looking at the book information on the product page. Had I done so, I would have seen this book contained half the number of pages his prior books in this line contained.

What I could not have foreseen was that he would also put the designs on one side of the page where previous books were printed on both sides of the page. That also reduces the number of designs by half. When you do the complete math, you are getting one quarter the number of design pages in this book at approximately the same price.

One might ask, “Where is the rest of the book?” Well, I think I have found it. It is in a second book being released later this year, “Geomorphia” (here is the link on Amazon: link.

So, if you are still interested in his work at effectively four times the price, go for it. I am torn about it but I know that, in the end, I will be buying the next book because I love the work. I’ve also found that by pre-ordering, I generally am paying much less and still have the option, before publishing date, to cancel my order.

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I have been looking for a coloring book which highlights the words of Jesus. I was very happy to find this book after a long search. While I appreciate all of my Christian coloring books, rather like seeking a red letter Bible, it is wonderful to pick up a coloring book and know that I am reading words from Christ himself. The artist, Marie Michael, is actually a group of three artists: Nicole Wallace, Chris Dugan and Terry Dugan. I own another coloring book by this group and have enjoyed it tremendously (“Color the Names of God”.)

The words are front and center on the designs while the designs support them. Coloring in the book adds to both my prayer and worship time as I focus on the verse that I am currently coloring. Some designs are obviously inspired by the verse while others are lovely but serve more as a frame. The designs are detailed and a few have intricate and small areas to color. The designs are elegant and flowing rather than cute or filled with “doodle” elements.

The translations used in this coloring book are: Holy Bible New International Version (NIV), New King James Version, and New American Standard Bible.

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This is a really “sweet” coloring book of desserts. The variety range from wedding and birthday cakes to counter displays of penny candy. It is the perfect set of designs for those who like to color delicious and sweet treats. The desserts are displayed in a beautiful manner rather than just a cake or such. You will see a full table design with drinks or backgrounds in many of the illustrations. It certainly makes it a lot more fun to color when I can imagine the whole table set with deliciousness.

The designs are detailed but not what I consider intricate with small areas to color. I am able to use a wide variety of coloring medium on these designs.

While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. 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 four other coloring books by Teresa Goodridge, which were her four seasons books. In this, “Country Charm”, rather than a season, Ms. Goodridge explores country scenes. There are season with horses, with flowers and gardens, farm stands, lake views, farms, cottages, clothes hanging out drying on a line and even a covered bridge.

The two colored samples in the book appear to be that of the artist’s original artwork rather than someone’s coloring of the actual design in the book. The designs themselves have a sketch-like quality to them. They are detailed and some contain intricate and small areas to color.

The faces of all of the people in the designs are large enough to easily color which was an issue with only the first of Ms. Goodridge’s coloring books. With that issue solved, I have had a lot of fun with the last three previous books and look forward to a good time coloring in this book.

I’ve noticed that the paper quality 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 the Easter version of the Nice Little Town series by Tanya Bogema (Stolova). In this coloring book, it is Easter and springtime in one of the Nice Little Towns. The town is a very traditional one with brickwork houses and lots of multi-family buildings. Some of the pages include slight amounts of grayscale but nothing too difficult to deal with. I love the detail this artist goes to. In one design, she has purposefully blurred the image behind a curtain to give it the look of actually seeing it through the curtain.

The focus is on the fun side of Easter. There are bunnies (of, course), little chicks, sheep, decorated eggs and Easter baskets. Then there are all of the lovely treats! Add all together for a fun coloring experience. I own all of the Nice Little Town books and enjoy each one of them as they are never the same town.

It seems that the artist is moving to standard size coloring books (rather than the smaller format she has used in the past.) I really appreciate that as I find it much easier to color on the larger page.

The designs are detailed and some contain a few small elements but for the most part, I don’t consider it intricate or difficult to color. As I mentioned previously, some elements of background on some designs are in grayscale. Just color over the gray with your choice of color and you will be fine.

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I really enjoy Marty Noble’s coloring book designs and am pleased that she has come out with one with unicorns. While the coloring book is based on a single subject, her treatment makes for a wide variety of designs. Some are flowing and elegant while others have a more stylized look to them. In most designs there is a single unicorn but there are others which involve a beautiful maiden or several unicorns. There are even rectangular shaped unicorn mandalas. Ms. Nobel’s unique style is recognizable in each of these designs.

The designs are detailed (including backgrounds and/or framing.) A few of the designs have small and intricate areas to color. On the whole, I don’t think it is a difficult book to color in due to small shapes. The designs present a nice challenge and have plenty of room to try blending and shading techniques as well as embellishments to the original design(s).

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This is the second in a series of Classic Coloring books featuring the artwork of Charles Santore. The story is Margery Williams Bianco and the illustrations are by Charles Santore. Along with the story and the designs, there are thumbnail color pictures from the storybook on the inside front and back covers. That way, you can use similar colors if you so choose.

The book is a larger than standard format. The designs are mostly done in grayscale with a small amount of line drawings in most of the designs.

It is set up in true storybook style, with the text on the left hand side (back of page) and the illustration to the right. Some mediums will bleed through the page (see below), which will interfere with the text but if that doesn’t bother you, you can treat the book as if the designs were one sided.

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While I own “Secrets of Coloring” by Jennifer Zimmermann, this is the first coloring book that I have by this artist. I’m so impressed by the quality and the subject of the designs in this book, I will certainly be buying more books in the future, starting with
her “Glamorista” book which is also currently available.

The designs are of women and/or animals with a futuristic look. At the same time, there seems to be an Art Nouveau quality to the designs. As that is one of my favorite art periods, I really enjoy this book. The animals are called beasts but they are so cute, I can’t refer to them as such.

An added bonus is that not only do you receive two copies of each design, one copy of each is done with a black background. I appreciate that the artist took the time to customize each of these black background designs – they are not simply printed on black. Instead, she put black in where it made the most sense. Because of that, coloring both copies of a design will be a completely different experience.

The designs have a nice level of detail but are not at all what I consider intricate or hard to color. The artist has left plenty of room for the colorist to add their own touches. A good place to find out how to do so is in her how-to book I mentioned above, “Secrets of Coloring”.

While most of the designs are single page designs, one is spread across two pages. The artist took care to make sure that each page was still blank on the back of the page. That design does merge into the binding but no essentially elements are included at the merge point.

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This is a coloring book of really cute springtime scenes with animals. In some designs, the animals are the focus while in other designs, the springtime setting is what stands out the most. It is a fun book to color in just as winter departs and spring is on the way.

The designs are detailed with full backgrounds. They are still fairly easy to color but take longer to finish due to the backgrounds.

I was glad to see that Fritzen Publishing LLC now states in their books that Jade Summer is an imprint (rather than an individual.) They also state that the designs are created by a team of independent artists. This explains the various styles between books and how rapidly the books are made available. I had figured it out months ago but am glad to see that books now carry the explanation as well.

While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. 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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This is a book based on “The Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. It is part of a series of story book coloring books by Fabiana Attanasio. The first seven pages of the book tell the story briefly and also have a couple of coloring elements scattered throughout. The next 69 pages line drawings based on this story. In addition to these great coloring pages, there is a huge removable poster at the end of the book.

The characters are drawn in a very cute style. Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, The Tin-man, The Cowardly Lion, The Wicked Witch are all present. The scenes begin with the tornado which takes Dorothy and Toto to Oz and end with her arriving back home once again.

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