Monthly Archives: April 2016

25 x 2 each Steampunk My Besties Girls and Friends printed on one side of the page

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Iiiireader

Sherri Baldy My-Besties Steampunk Coloring Book: A coloring book for Adults and all ages. Color up some of Sherri Baldy’s fan favorites Steampunk Besties

By: Sherri Baldy

Rating: 5 of 5

I have all three of Sherri Baldy’s previous coloring books and am really enjoying coloring in them. I enjoy Steampunk as well, so when I saw that Ms. Baldy had just released a My Besties in Steampunk coloring book, I knew that it was for me. The My Besties girls are all adorable with huge eyes. Ms. Baldy’s vision of Steampunk is fun and whimsical rather than overly mechanical. I love that she has little teddy bears in the book as well as a few other friends. There are 25 different designs but you get two copies of each for a total of 50 coloring pages.

These designs are so cute. I find them rather like potato chips it’s hard to stop at one. When I sat down to color this afternoon, I colored a number of them using a variety of markers and pencils for shading. The projects are quick and fun to color and don’t require any special or small coloring medium.

Here is what I found within this book:

25 x 2 (50) My Besties in Steampunk Designs
Printed on one side of the page
Page is white, slightly rough, and is non-perforated
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge into the binding
Room enough to cut pages out if you wish to do so
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on back of the page
Coloring pencils work well: soft lead lay down color, layer, and blend well; hard lead dent the back of the page but lay down good color

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

92 Pages of Animals and Plants printed on both sides of the page

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Iiiireader

Color Yourself to Happiness: And reduce stress with these magical illustrations of animals, flowers, birds, and trees

By: Clare Youngs

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a fun to color book of designs of animals, birds, flowers and other plants and trees. The designs are all hand-drawn and have quite a bit of doodle design within them. The style is kind of a mash-up of folk art and doodle and as I really enjoy folk art designs, it is a great book for me to color.

In addition to simply coloring, there are activity pages where you are instructed to do something (such as give the ladybugs their spots, etc.) Generally, that type of activity does not appeal to me but in I liked a few of the activities in this book and will take a shot at completing them.

The book is printed on heavy weight paper and the cover of the book is hard cardboard (front and back) that gives a sturdy surface for using below the pages I am coloring. I utilized it as when I did my first coloring project of a squirrel with which I used coloring pencils.

Here is what I found in going through this coloring book:

92 pages of hand-drawn nature designs
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is heavy weight, white, smooth, and non-perforated
Designs do not spread across two pages
Quite a few of the designs merge into the binding area
Sewn binding so you can remove pages a few at a time by snipping the binding threads without loss of design
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens did not bleed through the page
Coloring pencils were mixed. All soft lead pencils laid down good color with deep pigment and I could layer fairly well. Blending did not work well waxed base left too much color in the center and when I attempted to blend the oil-based, the color more color came off on the blending pencil than remained on the page. Hard lead pencils worked well with good color and did not dent the back of the page.

I wasn’t too troubled by the blending issue. There are so many details on these designs that I was not planning on attempting blending. I liked that I could still layer the colors.

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32 Unusual and Beautifully Drawn Intricate and Detailed Designs printed on one side of the page

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Iiiireader

Mori Myth Coloring Book

By: Chun Yen Hsu

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my second coloring book by the talented artists at Dream State Studio. I have been enjoying Fantastic Animals and though I am not sure the same artist is responsible for Mori Myth, the artwork is just as unusual and beautiful in the this new book. The designs include many birds as well as animals and people. They are imaginatively drawn and fit well within the concept of mythical creatures.

There are 32 designs which are extremely detailed and intricately drawn. There are many tiny spots which require either a very sharp pencil or tiny nibs on pens and/or markers. I am finding that my 0.38 size gel pens work really well for the tiny spots.

I used primarily alcohol-based markers on my first project that I will upload but it did not have the tiniest of coloring elements that I have found in a few of the designs in this book. I consider these designs to be a fun and interesting challenge compared to most other books I have.

This is what I found out about this book while testing and coloring in it:

32 Unusual and Imaginative Designs
Designs are printed on one side of the thin white non-perforated paper (typical of CreateSpace coloring books)
Title and description are printed on the back of the page in Chinese and English
Some of the designs merge into the binding area and you will lose some portion of the design if you remove it from the book
Glue Bound
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper
Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. The soft lead pencils blend and layer well; however, the hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

As with all CreateSpace published books, I highly recommend using a piece of card stock or other heavyweight paper under the page you are working on. This will keep dents and seeping ink from ruining the pages below.

Posted in Adult Color Books | Leave a comment

Another wonderful book of coloring designs by Kerby Rosanes – UK Version printed on both sides of heavyweight paper

Imagimorphia

By: Kerby Rosanes

Rating: 5 of 5

I first found Kerby Rosanes coloring artwork in his book, “Doodle Invasion” and then again, in last year’s “Animorphia”. When I saw that his new book, “Imagimorphia” was available for order on Amazon, I ordered the UK version in a blink of an eye.

I really enjoy his unusual look at design and have a really fun time coloring all the bits and pieces that he includes in his work. What is even more wonderful is that as much as I like the prior book, each new book is even better. That is absolutely true for me with this book. It still has a good number of animals in it but it expands beyond them into other design concepts as well. My first two projects included a compass and a clock. I used various coloring pencils as I usually do with his artwork.

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Beautiful and realistically hand-drawn long panel of cats with lovely backgrounds – printed on one side of a single folded page

Pictura: Cats

By: Laurie Hastings

Rating: 5 of 5

“Cats” is the latest release in the Pictura line of panel designs. This is my first of this nature and I can see that it will be a challenge and will take a lot of thought as to how to finish it in a somewhat timely manner and with cohesive coloring. The book is made up of a single panel which folds into eight pages. The front of the panel has the long design and the back of the panel provides tip and information about coloring.

The cats in the design are realistically drawn and the scene shifts from a garden with potted plant to a pond back to the garden with bench and birdbath. From there, it moves to the outside of a garden shed with potted plant and finally to the end of the garden with stepping stones. Each portion of the panel has beautifully cats integrated into the design.

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Good Debut Legal Thriller set in Boston

Mission Hill: A Novel (Abby Endicott Novels)

By: Pamela Wechsler

Rating: 4 of 5

“Mission Hill” was an interesting legal thriller. While I was able to figure out the surprise ending well before it was exposed in the story, I still enjoyed the story that led up to it. The only thing that didn’t ring quite true to me was the relationship between the main character, Abby Endicott and her boyfriend. There seems to be a missing link as far as why they are together when there are a lot of reasons for them not to be.

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Second Book of Beautiful Horse Designs by this talented artist 40 Designs printed on one side of the page

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Iiiireader

The Magical World Of Horses: Adult Coloring Book (Volume 2)

By: Cindy Elsharouni

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my third coloring book by Cindy Elsharouni and my second one that is devoted to horses. The horses are once again beautifully and elegantly hand-drawn. They can be realistically drawn or have lots of doodle artwork within them to allow me to play with various colors. This book has a few more designs with a young girl in them along with her horse rather than just the animal.

I like the idea of colorful horses, so for my first two projects I decided to have fun. In one design, I colored the horses somewhat realistically with lots of colorful emblems and in the second design, I decided to go all out with imaginary horse colors. I like using my Tombow brush end water-based markers with Ms. Elsharouni’s artwork. Flowing brushwork appeals to me along with the free-flowing designs of these horses.

This is what I found in the coloring book:

40 Horse Designs with additional thumbnails at the front of the book.
Designs are printed on thin white, slightly rough non-perforated paper typical of CreateSpace coloring books
Some designs merge into the binding area
Glue Binding
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on back of the page
Coloring pencils work well: soft lead lay down color, layer, and blend well; hard lead dent the back of the page but lay down good color

I use a piece of card stock as a blotter page below the page that I am working on. It keeps ink from seeping through and dents from marring the page below.

25 x 2 Adorable Garden/Flower Girl Designs My Besties printed on one side of the page

Sherri Baldy My-Besties Bloomin Besties Coloring Book: Some of Sherri Baldy’s fan favorites Bloomin Besties are available as a coloring book ! You … Bestie, each page has a blank backside. .

By: Sherri Ann Baldy

Rating: 5 of 5

Bloomin Besties is the second of three coloring books recently released by Sherri Baldiy. Her My Besties illustrations have a world-wide following but I only recently discovered her adorable big eyed girls. As I love to garden, the Bloomin girls are especially cute for me to color. A good number of the designs actually show the little gardeners at work but others are lovely girls with lots and lots of flowers. There are also a couple of cute animal designs as well. I really appreciate getting two copies of each design. That gives me the opportunity to try two colorways or to share a copy with my husband who also colors along with me.

I really like these designs for fun and quick projects I can use my markers for base color and then shade with a variety of pencils and finish it in one sitting. I chose a cute little garden girl who is helping her flowers become just a tad more colorful as my first project and used alcohol-based makers to color the design and then oil-based pencils for shading.

Here is what I found within this book:

25 x 2 (50) My Besties Garden/Flower Girl Designs
Printed on one side of the page
Page is white, slightly rough, and is non-perforated
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge into the binding
Room enough to cut pages out if you wish to do so
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave color shadows on back of the page
Coloring pencils work well: soft lead lay down color, layer, and blend well; hard lead dent the back of the page but lay down good color

31 Flower Mandala Designs with a black background printed on one side of the page

Creative Haven Flower Mandalas Coloring Book: Stunning Designs on a Dramatic Black Background (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

First, let me note that major parts of this coloring book are reprints in whole or in part from other coloring books. Namely, there all sixteen designs from Floral Mandalas Stained Glass Coloring Book (2011), eight designs from 3-D Mystic Mandalas Coloring Book (2011) as well as seven new designs which have not been published before. As I don’t own either of the other two books and generally don’t purchase the stained glass books at all as I don’t care for the vellum pages, these designs are all new to me.

I enjoy many coloring books by Marty Noble and this is no different in that sense. What is different and something that I like all the more, is that the designs are a little less intricate than my others. They are still detailed and fun coloring challenges but compared to the two recent books I have by this artist (Collage Art and Celestial Mandalas), the designs in this book are something I can finish in much less time.

I really like using my various markers on designs with black backgrounds. I like the translucent feel that marker ink adds. It is really just a personal preference because I don’t care for how the black looks next to the way I use my coloring pencils (with a very light touch) and I generally use gel pens as an accent rather than a whole designs (except for postcards where I use them extensively.) I’m sure that others can and do create beautiful work with their coloring pencils on this style of book. For my first project, I chose a mixture of both alcohol and water-based markers.

This is what I found when going through this coloring book:

31 Mandala Designs with black backgrounds
Printed on one side of page
Page is smooth and perforated. Has a different feel from other Creative Haven paper (may be due to heavy black printing rather than actual paper)
Glue Bound
Designs stop well before the perforations due to the black background. You should be able to easily remove pages without design loss
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through to some degree

While I don’t plan to use these medium with my coloring book, I did test a variety of them to see how they worked with this paper:

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils were mixed. The soft lead pencils laid down good color but blending did not work well for me. My wax-based pencils worked better than the oil-based. Hard lead pencils dented the back of the page.

I preferred to remove pages from this book for coloring but if you want to keep it together, I suggest using a blotter page below the page you are working on. That will keep the rest of the book from being damaged by seeping ink or dents coming through.

55 Abstract Designs in Mosaic style printed on one side of cream page

ESCAPES Mosaics Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Jessica Mazurkiewicz

Rating: 5 of 5

Jessica Mazurkiewicz is one of the first two artists to release coloring books on Dover’s new Escapes line. The books are still standard size but are presented horizontally with each of the designs being horizontal as well.

I own a couple of Creative Haven books by this artist in her Scapes series. This is the first mosaic style book that I have from her. I was surprised to see that many of the designs look similar as if they were there were only a handful of original designs but for ensuing pages they cropped and/or enlarged to show details rather than the whole image. I am really enjoying coloring the designs (mainly using Tombows brush water markers at this point) but with so many that are similar my interest may wane before I finish the book as there are 55 designs in it.

The book does not have colored samples in it (unlike Dover’s Creative Haven line.) It does have some line art on the inside of both the front and back cover. The paper is cream color and is similar in feel to that of the Creative Haven line.

I have had some difficulties in removing pages from the new Escapes line. While the pages are perforated, they seem to have a tendency to rip into the design about midway down the page. I think it may have something to do with the horizontal format with the page being wider than it is long. After slightly tearing a couple of pages as I tried to remove them, I put a chipboard under the page and scored over the perforations with a box cutter (though a knife or scissor would have worked as well.) Once I did that, I could easily remove the page from the book without tearing it.

For my first project, I used my Tombows and really saw the design upside down as waves crashing into a rocky shore with the sun shining about. If you see this design in the book, it will be flipped.

Here is an overview of what I found in this coloring book:

55 Abstract Mosaic designs
Printed on one side of cream color paper
Paper is perforated and has a slight roughness to to the touch
Book is presented horizontally
Designs merge past the perforations but nothing of importance is lost when removing a page from the book
Glue Bound
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through the page (though water based spotted more than a complete bleed through)
Gel pens and India ink pens left shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils worked well with this paper. I found that wax-based pencils blended with a deeper color but oil-based pencils provided a deeper coverage with less effort. Hard lead pencils left dents on the back of the page.

I recommend either using a blotter page below your working page or removing the design from the book to color. This will keep the rest of your book safe from seeping ink and dents. I chose to remove pages because I found that this new format book doesn’t work well with my clipboard.

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Monthly Archives: April 2016

Sherri Baldy My-Besties Steampunk Coloring Book: A coloring book for Adults and all ages. Color up some of Sherri Baldy’s fan favorites Steampunk Besties

By: Sherri Baldy

Rating: 5 of 5

Color Yourself to Happiness: And reduce stress with these magical illustrations of animals, flowers, birds, and trees

By: Clare Youngs

Rating: 5 of 5

Mori Myth Coloring Book

By: Chun Yen Hsu

Rating: 5 of 5

Imagimorphia

By: Kerby Rosanes

Rating: 5 of 5

Pictura: Cats

By: Laurie Hastings

Rating: 5 of 5

Mission Hill: A Novel (Abby Endicott Novels)

By: Pamela Wechsler

Rating: 4 of 5

The Magical World Of Horses: Adult Coloring Book (Volume 2)

By: Cindy Elsharouni

Rating: 5 of 5

Sherri Baldy My-Besties Bloomin Besties Coloring Book: Some of Sherri Baldy’s fan favorites Bloomin Besties are available as a coloring book ! You … Bestie, each page has a blank backside. .

By: Sherri Ann Baldy

Rating: 5 of 5

Creative Haven Flower Mandalas Coloring Book: Stunning Designs on a Dramatic Black Background (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

ESCAPES Mosaics Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Jessica Mazurkiewicz

Rating: 5 of 5

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