Daily Archives: May 13, 2016

The Aviary: Bird Portraits to Color

By: Richard Merritt

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the second book by Claire Scully and Richard Merritt. The Aviary follows in the footsteps of The Menagerie. The new books is filled with designs of various birds. The initial line drawings are realistically portrayed but then the inside of the birds have elaborate details added for coloring. The blue jay on the cover is included in the book; however, the cover photo is a reversed image close up of the actual coloring design (which includes the body of the bird as well.)

As with The Menagerie, this coloring book that is designs for tremendous amounts of shadowing and blending as the details of the book are too small for much of that kind of work. It may also not be the best book for those who have vision or fine motor skill issues. For those who like intricate work, it is one of the two best coloring books I have come across as yet. I will include a full list of the birds in this coloring book in the comments section of the review.

The designs are printed on one side of a good weight, smooth, white perforated paper. The paper is a good enough quality for framing. The attached cover is beautifully illustrated with coloring and light touches of matte silver and royal blue metallic foil on the front artwork.

Slight elements of the background design are already colored. While I would have preferred they left that blank, I am okay with the small amount they have colored in this instance. The designs do merge into the binding and you will lose portions of the design if you remove a page at the perforations. Some of parts of a few birds could be lost You can remove the entire page by snipping threads but you will have the perforation line.

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

Alcohol and Water based markers bleed through this paper to some extent (with Tombow brush ends faring the best with slight spots on the back side of the page.)
India ink pens left shadows on the back of the page.
Gel pens did not bleed through and did not require extra drying time.
Coloring pencils worked well. Good color and layering for both oil based and wax based pencils (hard and soft lead.) Hard lead did not dent through the page.
Blending was something I think worked not as well for oil-based pencils. This was not an issue for me as I am not planning on doing blending with these tiny elements.

Spellbinding Images: A Grayscale Fantasy Coloring Book: Beginner’s Edition (Volume 1)

By: Nikki Burnette

Rating: 5 of 5

When I recently experienced some difficulties in coloring grayscale in a coloring book that was printed quite dark, I was advised by many individuals to check out this book, Spellbinding Images Volume 1 for beginners to learn how to color with dark prints. While I still have issues with the other book, I am absolutely blown away by the designs in this book as well as the how-to tips provided by Artist Nikki Burnette.

Before getting this book, I was only using colored pencils in my grayscale. With Ms. Burnette’s suggestions, I have now been able to successfully use both alcohol and water-based markers in my grayscale projects. I’ve yet to try gel pens but that will be next. I not only used these hints with this book but also with several other grayscale coloring books I have purchased and I have been extremely pleased with my results. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning grayscale as the tutorial is so well-written.

Then there is the book itself. What a great set of designs and how well thought out this book was put together. In addition to the 20 designs being printed on one side of the page, Ms. Burnette has included thumbnail color samples of each design along with two additional thumbnails in which you can test your own colors and mediums. I used these thumbnails to become comfortable with markers and then with pencils over markers as well.

The artist also has a tutorial on her website which has proved invaluable as well. If all of this wasn’t enough, she has graciously provided permission to copy her designs onto other forms of paper if your coloring medium doesn’t work well on the paper in this book. The paper is a medium weight that has what she calls a satin sheen and to me, a glossy feel to it.

As I mentioned, the designs are printed on one side of the page. The page is non-perforated but can open flat very easily for coloring. The designs all stop well before the binding, so you won’t have to twist and tweak the page and book to color in it.
I’m so impressed by this book, I will certainly be purchasing the advanced version of this book (lighter scale coloring with more opportunities for blending, etc.) and will be looking forward to more grayscale books by this artist in the future.