Daily Archives: January 11, 2016

This is a coloring book with designs of animals and plants (including many flowers.) They are beautifully hand-drawn and will be a joy to color. There are all sorts of flowers and a few of the animals include: deer, rabbits, peacocks, an owl, and a swan. There are also some lovely mandalas included. The designs in this book are detailed and beautiful. While they will take some time to color, I don’t think that they will require anything special by way of coloring medium.

Some of the earlier Peter Pauper coloring books were by a variety of artists but this book focuses on only Flora Waycott’s work a change in focus that I am really enjoying. I have now purchased several coloring books from this publisher that focus on a single artist and have seen that there will be a few more in the coming year.

The pages are a heavyweight of bright white paper that is micro perforated. The designs are printed on one side of the page only and while most stop prior to the perforations, a few extend beyond it. The designs do not merge into the binding area; however, a number of design elements are cut off on the edges of the designs which leaves open-ended parts to the design. The paper is also acid-free which means that it will not turn colors with age and all the work you put into coloring the designs should be safe. Additionally, the glued binding can be pushed into lying flat to give you access to make coloring in this book if you prefer that over taking pages out.

The only markers that bleed through on this paper are my alcohol-based markers. None of my gel pens or water-based brush, fine, or ultra-fine markers bleed through. Coloring pencils work well and according to their type (hard or soft lead.) If you are using alcohol based markers or just for general safety, you can put an extra page of heavyweight paper under the page you are working on just in case some color leaches through. Be sure to check your particular markers/pens to see if there is any leaking for that brand.

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