Daily Archives: May 12, 2016

The Majestic Flight of the Owl

By: Shawn Mayo

Rating: 4 of 5

The Magnificent Flight of the Owl is a cute coloring book of 24 owl designs. At the time I am writing this review, for some reason, the title is under The Majestic Flight of the Owl so that is the only way to search and find this book.

The designs are all licensed from Shutterstock and the Mayo family has done a good job of curated these images as most are not familiar to me. The printing is well done, the editors put a framing line around each of the designs for a natural stopping point, and the designs are generally well fit to the page. If you like to color owls and want a good inexpensive with a variety of artists work, this could be a good coloring book for you.

Keep in mind that it has the typical CreateSpace thin, non-perforated paper. While I am not a great fan of the paper and wish that Amazon (who owns CreateSpace) would offer a better grade, I accept it as a way to get inexpensive artwork as well as coloring books from artists from around the world. Because of these two factors, I accept the less than stellar paper when I purchase a coloring book published by CreateSpace.

For my first project in this coloring book, I chose to do a grouping of snow owls. I left these cute little cartoon owls white for the most part and played with color (Sharpies and Bic Mark-its) on their accessories and distinguishing features.

This is what I found in this coloring book:

24 Owl designs (licensed from Shutterstock)
Page for checking colors, etc.
Designs printed on one side of the page
Paper is thin, white, slightly rough, non-perforated.
Glue Bound
Designs do not merge into the binding area
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page (I suggest you use a blotter page under your work.)
Gel pens and India ink leave colorful shadows on the back of the page.
Coloring pencils work well good color, layer and blend well. Hard pencils dent the back of the page.

Landmarks of the World: Color Your Way from Barcelona to Beijing

By: Abi Daker

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of various iconic buildings from around the world. The buildings range from religious to museums, government, castles, and more. The buildings are from a variety of continents, including: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. The cover of the book (front and back) fold out with coloring opportunities in red line drawings on off-white paper.

I will list the buildings at the end of this review (in the comments section) for anyone interested. The designs are quite intricately drawn and include many small areas to color.

When I first pre-ordered this book, I didn’t realize that it would be architecture in nature. When I think of landmarks, I think of things other than simply buildings. While I am pleased with the book, I was surprised to see only buildings in it. The designs are printed on one side of the page and on the page opposite (the back of the preceding page) is a short blurb about the design what it is, when it was constructed, etc.)

My first project in this book was of of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. My husband recently spent weeks in Beijing for business and brought back beautiful pictures, including one that was very close to the design in the book. I used a variety of colored pencils to finish my project. I took my inspiration for color from his photo, which I will upload as well as my colored design. I will probably stray from realistic colors in my next projects and just have fun re-making these famous buildings in a wide range of colors.

This is what I found in coloring in this book and testing it with various coloring mediums:

35 Landmark Buildings hand-drawn, detailed, intricate
Designs printed on one side of page (though information about designs are printed on the back side.)
Paper is white, slick, heavyweight and non-perforated
Sewn Binding
Designs merge into the binding area (can remove pages without loss of design by snipping binding threads
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper. I suggest using a blotter page below your working page with these. They will bleed through on the writing on the back of the page but the blotter will keep the design below from being ruined.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through this paper. Gel pens require additional drying time.
Coloring pencils were mixed. I found that both wax and oil based pencils had good color and layered well but blending was a problem on this smooth paper. The color seems to adhere to the original spot and only light blending happens as the very edges. Hard lead pencils did not dent the back of the page.