Daily Archives: December 27, 2015

This is a really lovely book of animal coloring designs. I have a number of other animal coloring books and yet I have never seen anything similar to this book. The animals are drawn very realistically and, for some, they remain realistic. In many cases, the artist has added doodle style patterns, designs, and flowers into the animal shape or the background to give the colorist a more fun and challenging experience. There are horses, giraffes, lions, birds, fish, elephants and many others. For the animal lover, this is a challenging and fun book that can take many hours to complete.

The designs are quite intricate and some have a bit of gray scale shading already added to them. I like to use my Tombow water-based markers on this type of area to let the already done shading work with the color I have chosen. This type of coloring reminds me when colorizing black and white photos was popular a number of years ago. It is very much a similar concept.

The designs are printed on one side of non-perforated paper. The binding is glued rather than sewn so you will have to cut pages out if you wish to remove them. Many of the designs merge into the binding, so you will lose some portion of the design if you cut the page out. In some cases, it would be portions of framing and would make your design unbalanced. I will probably not be removing pages from this book because of this reason. I was able to break the spine of the book and get it to lay fairly flat.

All of my markers (see coloring medium below) bled through this paper. My gel pens did not bleed through but left a shadow on the back of the page. That didn’t surprise me as the design is also noticeable from the back of the page. The gel pens did not take any extra drying time. My coloring pencils worked fairly well and according to the type of lead used. I will certainly be using some markers (especially my Tombows) when coloring these designs, so I will use a piece of chip board or card stock under the page that I am working on to keep the ink from leaking through the rest of the book.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castel Polychromos

I was provided a free sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

I have several books by Penny Farthing Graphics in my collection. They are published via CreateSpace which is generally used for self-publishing. The designs are drawn by a variety of artists from all over the world and are licensed via Shutterstock.com. What we end up with is a great coloring book (although on thin paper) with a large and varied selection of designs.

There are 60 designs in this book with realistic looking outlines but which, for the most part, have doodle style designs within those outlines. The designs are of the animals by themselves rather than of animals in their natural habitat. There are a wide range of animals, including many birds, lions, deer, fish, bears, insects and many more (even a dragon!) Most of the designs are intricately drawn but only a few have small intricate spaces that might cause a little extra work in coloring.

All of the designs stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so.

All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink.

While I could wish for thicker, perforated paper, it appears that this is the quality that comes from CreateSpace (which is an Amazon company.) What I really like about the CreateSpace is it is a way that independent artists can get their work self-published. That way, I get a huge choice of design styles albeit with not the best paper.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premiere Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castel Polychromos

A free sample of this coloring book was provided for test and review purposes.

This is a coloring book of 48 designs that have lots of patterning within them. Most of the designs are intricate while others are fairly open and easy to color. The intricate designs are not difficult to color (i.e., they don’t have tiny little spaces) but certainly take a little more time and thought. Most of the designs are mandalas which I find fun to color as it gives me the opportunity to try different colorways. These designs are curated which means that they are licensed from various artists. It gives you a wider range of design styles but along with it, you get very different quality of lines and print. Some designs have heavy and/or dark black lines while others seem almost dark gray in color. In a few very, some of the lines seem less distinct than in others.

The designs are printed on one side of thin white. The pages are not perforated but the artist has left ample room to cut a page out if you choose to do so. The binding is glued rather than sewn so you will have to cut the pages if you want to remove them. The designs all have finished elements or a small framing line on the outer portions of the designs. I really like this as it helps give work a more polished a finished look.

You can see a list of my coloring medium used for testing below. All of my markers (water-based as well as alcohol) and all of my gel pens bleed through this paper. My coloring pencils work well with it and behave according to their type of lead (though my hard lead pencils leave a noticeable indent on the back of the page. As the backside of the page is blank, I can use a heavyweight paper or chipboard beneath my working page to keep ink from leaking through or my indents from marring the page beneath. Chipboard can be purchased at an office supply store or on-line fairly inexpensively. I can reuse it many times over, so that is becoming my standard blotter sheet.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premiere Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castel Polychromos

I was provided a free sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

This is my third coloring book by Stefania Miro and I am enjoying this book as much as I did the first two. In this coloring book, she has drawn beautiful flowers but has simplified the coloring aspect of the designs. The flowers are very pretty but they are flowers rather than doodled flowers with small and intricate spaces. This makes it a great book to color when you don’t have the time or patience to color in tiny spots. It is also a great coloring book for those who may have some challenges with fine motor skills or whose eyesight may not be up to the tiny parts of other coloring books.

All of the designs stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so.

All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink.

While I could wish for thicker, perforated paper, it appears that this is the quality that comes from CreateSpace (which is an Amazon company.) What I really like about the CreateSpace is it is a way that independent artists can get their work self-published. That way, I get a huge choice of design styles albeit with not the best paper.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premiere Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castel Polychromos

I purchased my first copy of this coloring book. The publisher was kind enough to provide me a sample copy at no charge for test and review purposes. This allowed me to give my original, purchased copy to a friend.