Daily Archives: January 6, 2016

My first coloring adventure with Deborah Muller was her 2016 Coloring Calendar. The calendar is definitely Christian in nature. This collection of 126 pages of designs is more universal. It certainly includes some Christian elements but it also has quotes from others, including Ghandi, as well as just great motivational and inspirational sayings. The designs are very pretty and are fun to color. I find myself grabbing lots of colors and various medium when I sit down to color Ms. Muller’s designs. There is so much going on, I feel that I can pretty well do anything as far as color is concerned and it will come out great. The designs are detailed and a good number are what I would call intricate (with some including small areas to color.)

I own a couple of other books by Posh Coloring and it looks like they are (wisely, in my opinion) venturing into books based solely on a particular artist’s work rather than a subject matter. I love to get a great book with a variety of a single artist’s designs that way I know which book to grab when I am in the right mood.

The designs are printed on both sides of a medium weight non-perforated paper. The designs do not merge into the binding nor do they spread across two pages. The binding is glued rather than sewn. You can cut the pages out without losing any of the design but you will have design on both sides of the page, so you should look to see if you are cutting on the proper spot for both sides. I was able to break the spine enough to get the book to lay fairly flat. Most of the designs have finished elements on the sides and/or have a framing line that defines where the colorist can stop. I really appreciate this as it gives my project a good finished look when I am done. There are a few that are open-ended but the majority are well finished.

All of my alcohol-based markers bled through the paper immediately. The water-based were rather mixed. My Tombow’s did not leak through when I used the brush end. My other water-based markers did not bleed through completely but you could definitely see a shadow of the color on the backside of the page. None of my gel pens leaked through and they did not require additional drying time. My coloring pencils worked great and behaved according to their lead type (hard/soft core). If I decide to use markers other than my Tombow’s, I will be giving up the design on the back of the page I am working on. If you want to color with any medium other than coloring pencils, there is a good chance you will destroy the design on the back of the page you are working on (and be sure to put a heavy weight piece of paper or card stock under your work so it won’t leak through further.)

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 0.38/0.28 and Tekwriter

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