Category Archives: Adult Color Books

This is the first Harry Potter Poster coloring book. There have now been three regular coloring books in this line and the poster book is based on the first two books “Harry Potter Coloring Book” and “Harry Potter Magical Creatures Coloring Book”. I feel that each of the books could have merited their own poster books, such as the ones that have been done for “Secret Garden” and “Enchanted Forest.”

A few of my favorite designs from both books are included; however, I feel that they included a few too many “wallpaper” repeating designs rather than putting in some of the more iconic scenes that were spread across two pages in the original books. There are so many designs I would have preferred but that is only my taste in the artwork. While I was a little disappointed, I won’t detract a star in my rating as the artwork that was included was done extremely well.

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This is my second grayscale coloring book by Molly Harrison. While I usually use coloring pencils, I used alcohol-based markers with my first project in this book and I enjoyed it so much, I will continue with it. The designs are grayscale versions of Ms. Harrison’s actual artwork. The designs are of young women’s faces with beautiful elements, such as the night sky or flowers twisted throughout their hair.

My first project was almost an abstract of a young woman though her face is shown realistically. I was able to use a wide choice of grays and purples for the sky and and for parts of her face. It was beautiful in a very understated way. The designs themselves are printed in a medium grayscale which allows for blending with pencils (which I used for her eye) as well as the translucent look of markers.

This is what I found when while coloring and testing this book:

25 Grayscale Designs from Molly Harrison’s actual artwork
Printed on one side of CreateSpace typical white, thin non-perforated paper
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge into the binding area. There is a framing line around the outside of each design so you can cut the page out without any design loss.
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper (use a blotter page below the page you are working on if you use these.)
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on the back of the page.
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. You can put down light to heavy color, it blends and layers well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page. I also suggest a blotter page when working with hard lead pencils as they can dent the next page as well.

I own a number of line art coloring books by Molly Harrison. I have enjoyed them tremendously for the beautiful artwork and design. I have recently begun working in grayscale and, while I am not very experienced with the process, I enjoy working with the actual grayscale of the artist’s actual artwork. It is a very different process from coloring and I am still exploring all the ways to accomplish it.

With this book and Ms. Harrison’s other new grayscale book (Bohemian Fantasy), I was inspired to work in alcohol-based markers rather than with pencils as I have been doing. It provides a really different look as markers give a translucent feel versus the opaque look I get when working with coloring pencils.

There are 25 pieces of art to color in this book. If you haven’t tried grayscale before, I found working in this book to be both easy and fun. That was why I was comfortable with trying new methods. There is a lot of shading present and the tone of the grayscale printing is medium which allows me to either add blending or not depending on my mood. In my first project, I did a lot of blending in the night sky but less in the other elements.

This is what I found when working with this book:

25 Grayscale Designs from Molly Harrison’s actual artwork
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is thin, white, non-perforated and slightly rough typical of CreateSpace paper
Glue Bound
Designs stop before the binding and have a framing line around the outside of the artwork to provide a stopping point and a more elegant look.
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on the back of the page.
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. You can put down light to heavy color, it blends and layers well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

You can cut pages out of this book without losing any portion of the design. I found that I could easily get the book to lay flat for coloring. I also decided to keep my pages in the book for right now and used a blotter page to keep ink and dents from marring the pages below.

This is a really beautiful grayscale coloring book. It features the artwork of Alena Lazareva and is the first book I have by this artist. I do have another quality book by the same design group, Wingfeather Books and have really enjoyed that one as well (Spirit Animals) which was the second grayscale book I had purchased. I’m very impressed by the beautiful of the artwork. Within minutes of receiving my copy, I ordered additional ones for some family members who want to try grayscale coloring.

There are 38 designs in this book plus four preview pages from Mermaids, Fairies & Fantasy giving you a total of 42 pages to color. I think that is a huge bargain considering both the price and the quality of the artwork.

I generally use just coloring pencils on my grayscale (and I am fairly inexperienced at it in general) and recently have done some in just alcohol-based markers. For my first project in this book, I wanted to use both. I used the markers as a basecoat and then went over the entire design with pencils. What was fun about doing it that way was that I could get the coverage I wanted with the markers and then still make pencil stroke marks in the hair like I do with regularly coloring. It was fun and maybe not as successful as it good be but I will keep trying until I learn the technique properly!

This is what I found while coloring and testing this coloring book:

38 Enchanted Fantasy Designs plus 4 bonus pages
Printed on one side of the page.
Paper is typical CreateSpace which is thin, white, slightly rough and non-perforated.
Glue Bound
Designs stop before the binding area
Book can easily open to fairly flat position for coloring
Pages can be cut out without loss of design
Alcohol and water based markers seep through this paper
Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page.
Coloring pencils work well with the paper. Soft lead can be put on thin or heavy, they blend and layer well. Hard lead dents the back of the page.
I recommend a blotter page under your working page to keep ink and dents from messing up the pages below.