Daily Archives: January 4, 2016

This is a smaller format coloring book of 45 different Mandalas. While the edges of the mandalas vary, they are all in a circular format (versus square or freeform.) Most of the designs are intricate while others are fairly open and easy to color. I appreciate that the book is smaller as it cuts off the empty area above and below the circular design and makes it easier for me to frame should I choose to do so.

Some of the intricate designs also have small areas to color. I have just discovered Uni-ball Signo 0.38 gel pens which work fantastic for these small spaces. This gives me another medium to use other than my coloring pencils, so I am really pleased to have them (though they are missing what I call a true yellow.) I also had a lot of fun on one of the more open designs just using Sharpie Ultra-fine point markers (though you have to have a backing page.)

These designs in this book 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 paper. 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 as well as a small framing line on the outer portions of the design. I really like this as it helps give work a more polished a finished look, gives me a natural stopping point, and saves me time and ink.

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, Uni-ball Signo 0.38 and Tekwriter

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