Daily Archives: November 18, 2015

This is a very lovely slightly smaller format but thick coloring book which is pre-set for gift-giving (the first page is a removable To/From page.) I definitely think it would be a very nice gift but I also am happy to pick it up for myself, too. The designs in the book all have something to do with nautical or tropical subjects with a good number of lighthouses included. The words range from verses from the Bible (Old and New Testament), hymns (such as Amazing Grace), and other religious sayings (Serenity Prayer as an example.) Not all of the designs are directly related to faith some are merely fun to color designs.

The verses used in this book are from a variety of translations, including: New International Version, New Living Translation, and the New King James Version. The images used for the designs are licensed from Shutterstock.com which provides images for a number of other books, so a few of these designs may look familiar to colorists.

The cover art is included twice in the designs in the book, the first is the title page and the second one is enlarged slightly and has a Christian saying superimposed in the sky area. There are more than sixty pages of designs in the book, including two pages of cards which can be colored and cut out. I’m not quite sure of the purpose of the cards but they are included.

The designs are printed on one side only of heavyweight (almost card stock) white paper. The paper is perforated and the binding is sewn in rather than glued. A number of the images extend beyond the perforation and lost parts of several are part of the design you would miss (pieces of a mirror image banner, etc.) What appears to have happened is that the design was centered on the whole page rather than on the area to the right of the perforation. That is a shame and hopefully, the publisher will correct that for future coloring books. Otherwise, it is a well made book and one that is easy to color in. You can choose to remove the binding and cut the pages at the mid point in order to get the full design, though you will have a slight line of micro-perforations on the page.

My markers bled through to varying degrees and my gel pens did not but they needed extra drying time as the ink sat on the top of the paper than seeping through. My coloring pencils went on this paper really nice and creamy. I will use all of my coloring tools but I will either remove the page from the book (it is fairly thick) or I will place a piece of chipboard under the page I am working on to make sure nothing seeps through.

This is one of two Bible-based coloring book by this publisher that I have purchased that did not focus exclusively on Bible or Christian images. While it surprised me at first, I came around to it as a good all-around coloring book which has verses for the times when I want to concentrate on those.