Daily Archives: April 9, 2016

39 Beautifully Hand-drawn Nature Designs featuring Birds

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Iiiireader

Birds and Botanicals Coloring Collection

By: Margaret Kimball

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a beautifully hand-drawn coloring book. There are 39 pages of designs, printed on only one side of each page. There are gorgeous bouquets in beautiful bases, flowers in mandala form, full page designs of feathers, eggs, flowers, butterflies, etc. and there are birds many designs of birds. The designs are detailed and have some intricate spots but nothing extremely tiny.

The designs have a crisp look to them that I find very appealing. I chose to do a mandala which included lots of plants and some insects as my first project. I used soft lead coloring pencils and was very happy with the layering I was able to do on this paper.

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

39 Designs Featuring Birds and other Nature subjects
Printed on one side of medium weight, white perforated paper
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge past the perforations
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well for my use (soft lead blended and layered well but hard lead did leave dents on the back of the page.

While I used pencils for my first project, I am sure to use wet coloring medium in the future. When I do so, plan to either remove the page from the book or put a blotter sheet of card stock under the page I am working on to keep seeping ink or marring dents from damaging the pages below.

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Fun and Unusual Interpretation of Alice in Wonderland printed on both sides of the page

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Iiiireader

Wonderland: A Coloring Book Inspired by Alice’s Adventures

By: Amily Shen

Rating: 5 of 5

I am a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, so I look at all of the various coloring books that have come out with this as their theme and choose my favorites to purchase. Wonderland has a really fun and different take on the illustrations compared to my other books (which are generally much more traditional.) In this book, Alice has an updated and trendy vibe that I find very cute. The artist (Amily Shen) has put her spin on the story.

The book is both a coloring book (in chapters) and an activity book. I generally do not do the activities but I know that many people do. There is writing on a number of pages but the print is so small, for me, it doesn’t distract me from the designs.

The book has 76 pages of coloring and activity (including the front piece and the title page.) The book is broken into 9 chapters and each of the chapter title pages has a decorated china plate for coloring.

For my first project, I chose a design that included Alice, a bird and a cupcake (both of which show up in several other designs.) I used my Derwent Coloursoft Pencils with a very light touch.

The book has a removable dust cover which is nicely decorated with some glossy touches. The dustcover has been printed for coloring as well. The fold-outs (front and back) are black on green and the inside of the cover (from one end to the other) is black on white. The attached cover of the book also has fun coloring opportunities. These designs are black printed on a medium peach and the feel is kind of slick to the touch.

Here is an overview of what I noted about the physical book:

76 Pages of Modern Alice in Wonderland inspired Designs
Printed on both sides of heavyweight, non-perforated white paper
Glue Bound
Some Designs merge into the binding area
Some designs spread across two pages (in my copy, some lined up better than others)
Alcohol-based markers bleed through slightly
Water-based markers and India ink pens did not bleed through
Gel pens did not bleed through but took extra drying time
Coloring pencils worked well in my tests and in my first project as well

I test my coloring books with various medium. My tests are not exhaustive as I spend about half an hour per book with my tests. The tests do give me an idea of how the different medium react to the paper but not the experience of coloring a full design. If you are interested in knowing which types of product I used in my tests, I will post those in the comments section below.

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