Daily Archives: May 11, 2016

Portrait of the MERMAID Coloring Book

By: Sara Burrier

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my second coloring book by Sara Burrier. The first was a book dedicated to fairies while this new book is all about mermaid. Portrait of the Mermaid is a smaller format, pocket sized book. I really appreciate having designs that are sized properly to this size of book. Quite often, pocket coloring books are simplistic designs or full format designs which have been sized down to the point that coloring becomes difficult. Not so with this lovely book of 20 hand-drawn designs.

Each of the mermaids have their own personality. For my first three projects, I chose to use lighter almost pastel tones in a variety of alcohol-based Copic markers with Prismacolor pencils providing slight shading. I like that the mermaids range in age from children to adults. Their hair is drawn so beautifully and their bodies have a relaxed and natural look to them. As with Ms. Burrier’s previous book, I’m having lots of fun coloring her imaginative ladies.

This is what I found while coloring and testing this book:

20 Hand-drawn Mermaid designs in a smaller pocket size format
Designs are printed on one side of the page.
Paper is thin, white, slightly rough non-perforated paper typical of all CreateSpace publications
Glue Bound
Designs merge into the binding area
Book easily opens to a flat position for coloring
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper (I cut down a piece of card stock to use as a blotter page below my working project keeps the design below clean of seeping ink and marring dents
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.