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Net Galley
Monthly Archives: October 2015
Beautiful adult coloring book with a wide variety of interpreted designs
The Official Outlander Coloring Book
By: Diana Gabaldon
Rating: 5 of 5
Attached to this review will be a silent flip-through of the entire coloring book so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not it will work for you.
Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or TV series, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.
I really like this book. What is different about this one from others that I have is that six different artist have contributed to the designs. It makes for a variety of coloring opportunities. Some designs are simple almost child-like. I can color those as-is or put some of my doodling/art skills to work and add some unique elements to the designs. Others are moderately challenging and will be good ones to work on when I simply want to color. Finally, there are designs with a lot of intricate and small detail. They can be colored, but it will be a challenge and one that I will enjoy because these designs are so beautiful.
Physically, the book is very well made. The designs are printed on one side with details from the books written on the back of the page. The pages are thick and white; however, they are not perforated. The binding is glued rather than sewn, so removing pages from the book will be a little more difficult. Most of the designs merge into the binding, but the portions that might be lost if I cut the pages out are not the central theme of the design.
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Beautiful illustrations and designs but with a problematic issue
The Official A Game of Thrones Coloring Book (A Song of Ice and Fire)
By: George R. R. Martin
Rating: 4 of 5
Attached to this review will be a silent flip-through of the entire coloring book so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not it will work for you.
Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or TV series, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.
First of all, the illustrations are beautiful. I say illustrations rather than designs because a number of them appear to be finished ink and pen studies rather than designs that a colorist can finish and interpret in their own unique way. For those designs, I can’t envision how I would color them (possibly with watercolors) but I certainly will try as I’m up for a challenge. Because of this, I detracted a star from my rating.
There are still many designs which I feel that I can, as a moderately experienced colorist and artist, be able to color and enjoy. For those, there are intricate details and I may need to use my magnifying lamp to work on those areas.
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Another Fantastic Coloring Journey this time into the Ocean Deep
Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure and Coloring Book
By: Johanna Basford
Rating: 5 of 5
Johanna Basford is the designer who started my hobby of adult coloring books with her genre defining book, Secret Garden and her equally fantastic follow-up Enchanted Forest. With her newest book, Lost Ocean, she builds upon the stunningly beautiful and extremely intricate designs that I have come to expect from her.
The subject of the coloring book is the ocean. There are so many designs, including: sailing ships, mermaids, fish, sea mammals, jellyfish, and shipwrecks and more flora of the deep than I can count, each page is a wonderful experience in coloring. There seems to be about 80 designs to color which is less than in both of her earlier books. The book is also a hunt for hidden items and there is a key for what you are looking for as well as where they can be found. There is a picture of an octopus that reminds me way too much of Homer Simpson. I may have to color its head yellow with white and blue tentacles.
The one disappointing thing about this book is the paper. It seemed that the artist and publisher had finally understood the need for thicker and/or better paper. Recent versions of Secret Garden had improved paper so much so, that this note is now included at the top of the page in all italics and with caps Good news for all SECRET GARDEN fans! All editions of SECRET GARDEN now feature thicker and heavier paper stock, fighting bleed-through from ink pens. From my point of view, one would think Lost Ocean would have the upgraded paper. It does not. In fact, it does not even have the same publisher. The paper is thinner and is worse and not as good as the last book. Maybe that is because of the change in publisher, but the artist and her staff should have verified what grade of paper was being used. The artwork makes up for this but I really wish an artist of this caliber’s work was presented in the best possible way.
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Angels, Polar Bears, and Fairies, oh my!
Holiday Coloring Fun by Molly Harrison: Angels, Polar Bears, Fairies, and More!
By: Molly Harrison
Rating: 5 of 5
This fun coloring book by Molly Harrison includes 21 designs of angels both young and adult as well as polar bears and fairies. There is even a design of a collage of snowflakes. While the angels and fairies evoke a holiday theme, the polar bears and snowflake are more of a winter vibe. That’s great with me as I like winter designs, too. It gives me a chance to do some work with blues, whites, and silver as those colors really bring winter to my mind.
The designs range from pretty adults to child-like angels. I especially like a wreath design that has a mixture of young girls and young angels on it. The line drawings range from simple to complex to color. I love Ms. Harrison’s elegant drawings and should have as much fun with this book as I am having with her Halloween and other books.
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Intricate and Beautiful Hand-drawn Designs for Fantastic Coloring Fun
Beautiful relaxation: Coloring book for everyone
By: Danny Dimm
Rating: 5 of 5
This my first coloring book by artist Danny Dimm. There are 30 hand-drawn designs in the book which have a wide range of appeal, including animals, landscapes, and flowers. The artist has put a border around the designs. I really appreciate that extra touch as it allows me to finish elements that are only partially in the picture. That is important with this book as there are many lines throughout that end up stopping at the border. Without a border, these are a bit of a nightmare but with the border, they become fun to color and even more fun to experiment with wild colors.
While many of the designs are intricate, they do not contain really small elements. It is easy to get pen, pencil and marker into all parts of the designs. There are a number of bird designs that I especially like, including flamingos and a rooster.
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Wildly different with more than 45 interesting and fun designs to color
Off the Bookshelf: 45+ Weirdly Wonderful Designs to Color for Fun & Relaxation
By: Samarra Khaja
Rating: 5 of 5
This is my first coloring book by this talented artist, Samarra Khaja. I hope there will be more books in the future as I find the art to be so very different from what is generally available in a quality coloring book. There is a modern and whimsical air to the hand drawn designs. I like so many of them, I am having a little difficulty choosing my first project. I am leaning towards the pigs in what looks like the interior of an airplane (maybe that is a play on “if pigs could fly”).
The pages are a good medium weight white paper. All of my markers (both alcohol and water based) bleed through the page. My gel pens do not but I do see a shadow on the back side of the page. Not a problem, though, as the designs are printed on only one side with the back side left blank. If you are using regular markers or watercolors, you can put an extra page in between just in case some color leaches through.
The pages are perforated and are extremely easy to remove. Some of the designs run over the perforated edge, so you may lose a small part of those designs if you remove the page from the book (as I do.) Additionally, the binding easily lies flat and gives you access to make coloring in this book and easy and fun thing to do.
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Inspirational messages with lots of opportunity for coloring fun on heavyweight perforated paper
Joyful Inspiration Adult Coloring Book (31 stress-relieving designs) (Artists’ Coloring Books)
By: Peter Pauper Press
Rating: 5 of 5
This is my second book of coloring designs by artist Joy Ting for Peter Pauper Press. There are 31 designs with inspirational messages that that have lots of abstract designs surrounding and inside of the words on the page. The designs range from fairly easy to color to much more complex and a number of them have fairly thick black lines with them. Thirty of the sayings are simply that while one is attributed to Confucius.
The pages are a heavyweight white paper. This is fantastic as my pencils, gel pens, and ultra fine markers (except for alcohol based markers) do not bleed through on this paper. The designs are printed on only one side with the back side left blank, so if you are using regular markers or watercolors, you can put an extra page in between just in case some color leaches through.
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Elegant animal design printed one sided on great heavyweight perforated paper
Wild Kingdom Adult Coloring Book (31 stress-relieving designs) (Artists’ Coloring Books)
By: Peter Pauper Press
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a wonderful set of coloring designs by Peter Pauper Press. The various designs in this book are based on images licensed from both Bigstock and Shutterstock, so it is possible that you may have seen similar or even the exact images in other books.
There are 31 animal related designs with lots of various animals including fish, birds, and mammals. The designs range from fairly easy to color to much more complex. Many of the designs have intricate components but they don’t look that difficult to color provided you have ultra-fine point pens/markers/pencils. I don’t know that crayons would work that well on those particular designs.
The pages are a wonderful heavyweight of bright white. This is fantastic as my pencils, gel pens, and ultra fine markers (except alcohol-based markers) do not bleed through on this paper. The designs are printed on only one side with the back side left blank, so if you are using alcohol based markers or watercolors, you can put an extra page in between just in case some color leaches through. Be sure to check your particular markers/pens to see if there is any leaking for that brand.
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Beautiful Bird Designs 30 Intricate and Graceful Coloring Book Designs
Creative Coloring Birds: Art Activity Pages to Relax and Enjoy!
By: Valentina Harper
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a set of 30 bird designs that are simply beautiful and intricate to color. It is one of the newer coloring books by Valentina Harper. For some reason, it has a misnomer of activity book on Amazon when it is really a coloring book. This is my first coloring book by Valentina Harper but I will certainly look for more books by her in the future. I have purchased books by this same publishing line (Design Originals) by other artists and this book is the same high quality book.
In addition to the designs, the artist has included information about basic color ideas and basic color tips at the front of the book, along with some great color examples (some of which I will show in my attached photos.) The lessons are generic to the color book line but the samples are specific to the designs in this book.
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Beautiful and Intricate Ocean theme Mandalas printed on only one side of paper
Coloring Ocean Mandalas: 30 Hand-Drawn Designs for Mindful Relaxation
By: Wendy Piersall
Rating: 5 of 5
This is my first coloring book by artist Wendy Piersall though this is her fourth publication. I am so impressed by her artistic design that I will certainly look at her past books, too. All four of her books are based on mandalas. She incorporates a variety of themes into the mandala form. In this book, the theme is the ocean fact and fiction.
The designs in the book are a wide assortment of subjects. From a sailing ship to a mermaid, from whales to Neptune with his trident, and with a wide assortment of fish and other sea creatures and flora, this book has a nice variety of ocean subjects to color and to enjoy. Most of the designs have intricate details that will require that I use a ultra-fine point pen, marker, or pencil.
The mandala format makes this book different from my other ocean coloring book (which is mostly just fish.) While the designs are intricate, they are on the smaller side (as compared to average format coloring books) and will be projects to color when I feel like finishing in fewer days than some of the larger designs take. I like large challenges but some days, I really prefer a smaller design that is pretty and fun to color.
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