Daily Archives: March 31, 2016

Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or movie series except to note that, once again, most of the iconic images seem to be taken primarily from the movie, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.

As with the first two books in this series, there is a team of illustrators involved with the designs in this book. I thought the second book in the series was fairly cohesive but I think this new book takes a step back again. It is easy to see the differences in design styles. There are some designs that are just a tad more detailed than simple line drawings while there are also many which involve extremely small and intricate elements. These will probably take sharp pointed pencils or ultra-fine nibs to color.

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This review is for the 30 design set of glue-bound coloring postcards. I will address the differences between this and the 50 design postcard set towards the end up this review. The silent video with this review will show what is included with this set.

This set of 30 postcards is based on Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom coloring book. This was her first and hugely successful book though at this time she has two others and a fourth one planned for this year. The subject of the postcards are a wide variety of animals from land, sea, and sky. The cards are all from the book and vary from full designs which have been shrunk to fit the new size or which are a subset of the original design (and possibly smaller, too, but not to the same degree as the full designs.) Some of the designs contain many extremely small and intricate details. I was able to use my 0.38 and smaller gel pens and Verithins to easily color in those spots. This may not be a set for anyone with vision or fine motor skills issues.

I will provide detail below of what I found with the physical set of postcards, but here is a quick overview:

30 Animal Kingdom design Postcards
Printed on one side of heavyweight card stock
Excellent print quality
Glue bound but easy to remove pages
Alcohol markers bleed through
Water-based markers, India ink, and gel pens do not bleed through
Coloring pencils work well (especially hard lead)

The cover of the cards is beautiful and is a small version of what was on the coloring book. It has very pretty gold foil touches. Unlike the book, the postcards are definitely printed on only one side. The size is perfect for use as a postcard or to color and frame to make small gifts or a collage of prints on a wall. The back of the design is pre-set for postcard information. The postcards are glue-bound and you pull a card off like you would a note from a notepad.

I test all of my coloring materials with various coloring medium. I will list the medium I used for my tests in the comments section below. Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol-based markers bleed through. My water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens did not bleed through. Gel pens definitely need extra drying time. Coloring pencils work well. I could blend my soft lead pencils but the real issue is a matter of having enough design room to utilize blending. My hard lead pencils worked like a dream and were great for coloring in small areas.

50 versus 30 postcard sets:

There are two sets of postcards based on Animal Kingdom: this one which is a 30 design glue-bound set and a slightly more expensive set of 50 designs which are loose-leaf and come with a nicely decorated heavy-duty cardboard holder. I bought this set to have with me on-the go. I like that it is glue bound rather than loose leaf as it will stay together in my tote.

There are really only two main differences between the two sets: 1) the bigger set has 20 designs which are not included in this set, and 2) the bigger set is also just slightly larger so a tiny bit more of images are printed. They are not printed in a larger size, just less of the design is cropped. The differences in size in each direction is approximately 1/8th of an inch. The real difference is the number of cards and the carrying box.

As to which to buy at the time I am writing this review, the larger set is on sale for less than this one. I found I wanted both and for different reasons. It comes down to which set works best for you and how you wish to use them. I think they are both great provided you have the proper coloring medium to get in those tiny spots.

I purchased this coloring book on the basis of the description saying that the designs were original. In the sense that someone did originally create these designs, that is a true statement. However, I did not expect what I received which was a coloring book filled with designs that were licensed from Shutterstock.com. I’ve purchased and reviewed a number of these types of books and had no plans to buy any more of them.

I have seen a few of these designs in other of my coloring books, so be sure to watch the video to see if you are duplicating those in your collection. The majority of the designs are new to me, so in the end, I was happy with the number of design pages I received for the price I paid. Also, and I will get into more detail about this below, the way the book was printed makes it head and shoulders above most of the licensed books that I own.

There are 46 animal designs in this book. They are mostly doodle style which allows me, as a colorist, to use a wide variety of colors which would not be possible with a realistic representation of an animal. The designs range from very simple to extremely detailed and intricate with many tiny spaces to color.

There are many animals in the book, including: deer, bear, owls, foxes, birds, butterflies and more. As to whether or not they are all woodland creatures, I cannot say, but they are well done and well printed. Since they are licensed, they are from a wide variety of artists. That reflects in the style of the designs and even how the lines look when you compare one design to another.

I colored two designs to show the vast difference in style and complexity. The first is a stag which I colored with a limited number of Tombow brush markers. The second is a mouse which I did very quickly with alcohol-based markers. There are a number of colored pages in the book of the designs. These are obviously all colored digitally and the color print quality of those pages leave a lot to be desired, so I won’t include the in my photos (but you can see them in the video.)

I will provide detailed information on the physical coloring book below but here is a quick overview:

46 Animal Designs Licensed from Shutterstock
Printed on one side of the page
Printed on thin, white perforated paper
Glue Binding
Designs stop before the perforations
Alcohol and water based markers leak through the page
Gel pens and India ink markers leave color shadows on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this paper

The designs in this book are printed on one side only of thin, white, micro-perforated paper. The designs all stop before the perforations, so you won’t have any loss of design in you remove pages from the book. The binding is glued rather than sewn and I was able to get the book to lay fairly flat for coloring. As a nice feature, the publisher included several pages at the back of the book specifically for testing colorways, etc.

This is the first of this large compilation licensed coloring books that I have bought that have perforations. Between that and the excellent print quality of the pages, I was really pleased to have bought this book. I don’t know if I will buy more of these in the future it will probably depend on the subject matter. However, the quality is good apart from the paper being too thin.

I test my coloring books with a wide variety of coloring medium (which I will list in the comments section below.) Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol and water based markers easily bleed through this thin paper. Gel pends and India ink leave distinct and heavy color shadows on the back of the page. The gel pens leave dents on the back of the paper. Coloring pencils worked really well with this paper. The soft lead pencils were very thick without much effort and blended and layered very well. The hard lead pencils provided good color and clear lines but left heavy dents on the back of the page.

Gothic Dark Fantasy is the latest great coloring book by talented artist Selina Fenech. There are 25 fantastic designs ranging from medieval maidens to rather elegant witches. I’m so happy that the book contains two of each design because it gives me the opportunity to explore each in different colorways. I don’t have to choose whether I go light or dark with each design I can do both in the same book.

The designs feature lovely women with beautiful, brooding eyes. The gowns inspire me with thoughts of elegance while the bustier style outfits of the witches give me the chance to go a little more flirty in style. I own a number of Ms. Fenech’s coloring books and each is better than the last.

For my first project, I choose to color a design as a tattered angel. I used a variety of medium on the design, including alcohol and water based markers and soft lead pencils. I went with pastel tones for my first go with the design. When I color it a second time, I will be sure to use deep and rich colors to give it a different look.

I will provide a more detailed description of the coloring physical book below but here is a quick overview of what I found:

25 x 2 Gothic Fantasy Designs
Printed on one side of page
Pages are not perforated
Designs do not merge into the binding
Glue Binding
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the paper
India ink pens and gel pens leave shadows on color on back of the page
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper

The designs in this coloring book are printed on one side of medium weight, white, non-perforated paper. The binding is glued rather than sewn and the designs do not merge into the binding area. You can easily cut pages out if you wish to do so without any loss of design. I was able to get the book to lay flat for coloring purposes.

The artist has placed a frame around the majority of the designs in this coloring book. The few that do not have frames have finished elements. I really appreciate when an artist includes this thoughtful touch. It makes it easier for me to complete the project with a finished look and saves me time, trouble, and especially ink.

I test all of my coloring books with various medium which I will list in the comments section of this review for anyone interested. Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page. Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. My gels pens also left dents on the back of the page. Coloring pencils work well with this paper. My soft lead pencils went on nice and thick and layered and blended well. My hard lead pencils provided good color and thin lines but they did leave dents at the back of the page.

For my coloring project, I used a piece of card stock as a blotter page below the page I was working on. It kept ink from seeping through. I highly recommend that you use a blotter regardless of which medium you use so that ink or dents don’t mar the rest of the book.