Daily Archives: February 4, 2016

This is a set of 32 inspirations sayings with great coloring designs. It is the second inspirational coloring book by Valentina Harper. I have a number of other books by Ms. Harper and have been looking at the first inspirational book as well. I have purchased books by this same publishing line (Design Originals) by other artists and this book is the same high quality book. The designs all have words as their foundations but the subject of the designs vary there are a lot of flower and animal designs. I especially like one that has an older camera and another one where arrows have been turned into flowers.

In addition to the designs, the artist has included information about basic color ideas and basic color tips at the front of the book, along with some great color examples so you can get an idea of how Ms. Harper envisions her own designs. The lessons are generic to the color book line but the samples are specific to the designs in this book.

The pages of the coloring book are heavier weight white and are perforated for easy removal. The designs are printed on one side of the page only with a variety of quotes on the back. The quotes on the back relate to the inspirational sayings that are integrated into the designs. They are not the same but you can see how they relate. For instance, one design says Follow Your Dreams and the quote is from Dave Matthews Take what you can from your dreams. Make them as real as possible. Below the quotes on the back of the page are lines which the colorist can use to journal their own thoughts and feelings or perhaps the materials they used to finish the design.

As with all Design Originals books, most of my coloring medium either seeped through the paper or left a shadow at the back of the page. All alcohol and water-based markers seeped through with one exception. The brush end of my water-based TomBows did not seep through but did leave a shadow. The marker end of my TomBows not only seeped through but actually started tearing up the paper. I generally don’t use that end of those markers as I think the material is too hard for coloring paper. My gel pens left color shadows with the exception of my Uni-ball Signo pens. None of those left shadows, regardless of their nib size. My pens did not require extra drying time on this paper. My India Ink artist pens did not seep through but did leave a slight shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils all worked well and as expected from their type of lead (soft or hard) with my soft pencils blending well on the paper. Having said all of that, I will use whichever medium I prefer as the back of the page is, for my purposes, something that I can waste. I put a blotter page of chipboard or card stock below the page I am working on and have no fears that the rest of the book will be damaged.

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) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

India Ink: Faber Castell PITT artist pens (brush tip)

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, Uni-ball Signo in the following sizes – 0.28/0.38/0.5/1.0 and Tekwriter

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