Daily Archives: October 27, 2015

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)