Daily Archives: March 8, 2016

This is my second coloring book by this wonderful artist, Georgie Woolridge. I have been enjoying her first book Birds and when I saw this book was available, I pre-ordered it immediately. The quality of her artist is superb and she adds just enough additional design in her animals to provide hours of coloring fun. The designs are detailed without being overly intricate or hard to color.

In additional to the beautiful designs, on the backside of preceding page (i.e., directly opposite the page you will be coloring) is a thumbnail of the animal along with information about it so you can familiarize yourself with it while you color. There will be a full list of the waterlife included in the book at the end of this review.

I will provide in-depth information about the physical properties of the coloring book below for anyone interested. Here is a quick overview of the book:

37 Designs of Unusual and Lovely Hand-drawn Waterlife
Printed on one side of heavyweight, white, non-perforated paper
Binding is sewn rather than glued
Waterlife information is printed on backside of opposite page
Designs do not merge into binding
Alcohol-based makers bleed through page
Water-based markers and India ink pens leave shadows on back of page
Coloring pencils work well

As with Birds, Waterlife is beautifully made. The cover has a wonderful sea turtle with cyan foil accents. The inside flaps have colorful fish on both front and back flap. While the cover folds out, the publisher lost an opportunity to provide extra coloring as they used a simple orange tone on the interior rather than designs to color. I have now purchased several books by this publisher and I am generally impressed with the production. The only thing I could ask for would be for them to consider adding perforations to make it easier to remove pages.

Designs are printed on the front of each page with information and a thumbnail of the next creature on the back. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so you can remove several pages at a time by snipping threads. The images do not merge into the binding, so you won’t lose any portion of the design if you remove it from the book. I can easily get the book to lay flat. This seems to be the case generally when the binding is sewn.

I test my coloring books with a variety of coloring medium. Keep in mind that everyone colors differently. I generally make three passes with the medium to check on how the paper will hold up to blending. This may mean that I use more medium than others. I will list the coloring medium I used for testing in the comments section below. Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol-based markers bled through immediately. Water-based markers and India ink pens left slight shadows on the back of the page. Gel pens did not bleed through but needed more time for drying than usual. Coloring pencils worked well, went on thick with full coverage and blended well. Hard lead pencils did not leave an indent on the back of the page.

As with Birds, I personally will not be removing pages from the book. I want it to be one of my coffee table books while I am coloring and when I have finished the books as well. I am using a blotter page below the page I am working on to keep ink from seeping through.

Here are the waterlife included in this book: Atlantic Mackerel, Banggai Cardinalfish, Bigfin Reef Squid, Blue Discus Fish, Bottlenose Dolphin, Clown Triggerfish, Coconut Octopus, Coral Trout, Crown of Thorns, Dragon Wrasse, Dugong, Emperor Angelfish, Giant Clam, Giant Grouper, Green Sea Turtle, Harlequin Tuskfish, Hermit Crab, Killer Whale, Leafy Seadragon, Lionfish, Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, Mandarinfish, Nudibranch, Orange Clownfish, Oriental Sweetlips, Pacific Sea Nettle, Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Picasso Triggerfish, Pufferfish, Purple Striped Jellyfish, Raccoon Butterflyfish, Rainbow Parrotfish, Ribbon Eel, Seahorse, Spotted Eagle Ray, Spotted Trunkfish, and Striped Marlin.