Daily Archives: April 8, 2016

Where my other books by Ms. Sarnat focus on a single subject (owls, cats, fashion), Pampered Pets is more generalized over a variety of pets. These include many cats and dogs (singularly and together). There are also a number of pig designs and a reptile, bird, horse, and others especially in designs where there are more than one animals. As you can expect from Ms. Sarnat, the pets are adorable and are in various places with lots of additional fun elements added to them.

This book is published by Skyhorse Publishing. I have two other coloring books by another artist by this publisher in their premium line (New York Times Bestsellilng Artists’ Coloring Books note this is the name of the line and not necessarily indicative of the status of this book as a best-seller.) I currently have three other coloring books by Ms. Sarnat by two other publishers (including Dover) and the art in this coloring book is of the same excellent, fun and cute quality.

I chose to do a cat design for my first one. I used alcohol-based markers and a new (to me) type of coloring pencils (Tombow Irojiten Colorpencils.) Please note that I did not test these pencils with this book. I usually spend a month or more with a new medium learning how to use it properly before adding it to my tests. I will say that I loved the lighter pastel tones for doing the background of this design and that I really enjoyed coloring this cute cat.

I will provide details about what I found in the physical coloring book below, but here is a quick overview:

49 Embellished Pet Designs
Designs are printed on one side of perforated paper
Glue Binding
Designs do not merge into the binding area
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
India ink pens leave shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens do not bleed through
Coloring pencils work well with this paper

The designs are printed on one side of a good weight white perforated paper. The binding is glued rather than sewn. I was able to get the book to open to a fairly flat position for coloring but if the hump in the middle is an issue for you (I know left-handed people have this problem) it is really easy to remove a page at the perforations.

I always try to mention when a coloring book artist puts a framing line around the designs, as Ms. Sarnat has done with this book. For my use, I like having these lines as it completes any dangling edge elements and saves me time and ink in coloring.

My alcohol and water-based markers all bled through this paper to some degree. The alcohol, typically, bled through quickly. The water-based marks came through a bit spotty. I think it might still be enough to ruin the project below, so I suggest that you use a blotter page if you work on your designs in the book. You can also simply remove the page from the book to color as well.

My India ink artist pens left a shadow at the back of the page. None of my gel pens bled through and they did not require additional drying time. My coloring pencils worked well with the paper for coverage. I found that the soft lead pencils were especially easy to blend. However, the hard lead pencils left slight dents on the back of the page.