Monthly Archives: June 2016

One Calm Day: Adult Coloring Book

By: Siri Carlen

Rating: 5 of 5

One Calm Day is the US version of Siri Carlen’s original Swedish coloring book, En Dag. In it, we get to see a typical lovely day as experienced by this gifted artist. The day starts when the sun rises and before the girl in the story awakens. It follows her throughout her day, beginning at 6am one day and ending at 5am the next. We get to see the day from two vantage points we get to see her and then we get to see what she sees.

I like the concept of the book. It is really different from my other coloring books. I really appreciate that the drawings are all done by hand and are original artwork. The designs have a nice level of detail and I found them easy to color as well.

The book is printed with the designs on the right hand side of the page and a short blurb about the day is printed on the left hand side of the page. For me,, that equals designs on one side and lets me use whatever coloring medium I choose though they can leak through onto the wording.

This is what I experienced in coloring in this book and testing the paper with my various coloring medium:

47 Designs depicting an average day in life

Designs are printed on one side of the page with words on the reverse side.

Paper is heavy weight, white, very smooth, and non-perforated

Sewn Binding you can cut threads to remove several pages in whole at a time if you choose to do so

Almost all designs merge into the binding area

Opens fairly flat for coloring by breaking spine. I still had some problems coloring into the design areas closest to the binding.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper.

Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens do not bleed through the paper. Some gel pens required a little extra drying time.

Colored pencils did not work as well on this paper. While I was able to get nice color from both oil-based and wax-based pencils, I wasn’t able to get good results from blending. The color smeared more than blended. I used, as usual, my standard blending pencil.

Hard nib medium, such as gel pens and hard lead pencils, left dents on the back of the page.

If you choose to use alcohol-based markers, I suggest using a blotter page under your work to keep ink from seeping through to the design below.

Doodle Dogs Coloring Book for Adults

By: Happy Coloring

Rating: 5 of 5

I own most of Amanda Neel’s coloring books and really appreciate her artistic ability. In her previous dog coloring book, Lovely Dogs, she portrayed a realistic version of various dog breeds. In Doodle Dogs, she takes a different approach by creating a realistic outline of the dog and then filling them with beautiful doodles. That allows me to go experiments with colors to create a dog of my own imagining.

The designs are quite detailed and have intricate spots to color. Other than using an ultra-fine point marker, I didn’t have to use anything special to color the designs.

There are two types of designs in the book. One is a head portrait and the other is a full body portrait. The head portraits have elaborate doodle style frames around them. The full body designs have backgrounds included and a simple line frame around the outside of the design. There are a variety of breeds included but, unfortunately, no listing of which are in the book.

Magical Cats (Pads of Color)

By: arsEdition

Rating: 4 of 5

Once again, Barron’s has delivered a coloring book filled with designs that have been licensed through a variety of on-line sites. I have seen and colored a number of these designs before in other books. What makes this book a little more unique is the tear-off pad format, printing on one side of the page, and a slightly better quality of paper than I usually see in books of licensed images.

The format of the book is smaller than the usual coloring book. It is bound at the top of the page which makes it easy to get to all parts of the design. It has a glue-type binding similar to a notepad. The designs are of cats of all makes and sizes from tiny kittens to lions. Some designs are white on black background while most are black lines on white background. A good number of the cats have doodle style designs within their outlines.

I normally try to avoid licensed image coloring books because I own a number of them already and I end up duplicating a lot of what I already have. In this case, there were a number that I didn’t own, so I will enjoy coloring those. The print quality of the book is quite good, so that is a big plus as well. If you don’t own coloring books with licensed images and you like cats, you may very well love this book. I certainly like the way it is published with the tear off binding, top bound, hardboard backing and even the lovely foil touches on the cover.

This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with various coloring medium:

80 Cat Designs printed on one side of the page

Paper is white, medium weight and slightly smooth

Glue bound but pages tear off easily from the notepad style binding

Book is bound at the top of the page

Opens flat and has a hardboard backing to allow easy coloring on the go

Alcohol-based markers bled through the paper

Water-based markers with mixed. The only marker that bled through for me was Staedler triplus fineliners

Gel pens and India ink did not bleed through the page. Gel pens required additional drying time.

Coloring pencils did okay. I was able to get good color with multiple coats from both oil and wax based pencils. Layering did well but blending was not as good as it could have been. I found that the pigment smeared rather than blended.

If you use markers, you should either remove the pages from the book as I do or use a blotter page under your working page to keep ink from bleeding through.

Jim Shore’s Angel Coloring Book: 50+ Glorious Folk Art Angel Designs for Inspirational Coloring

By: Jim Shore

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of Jim Shore’s Angel designs. In addition to the 50 angels, there are also three pages of thin cardstock which has small 3D cut out designs which you can color. The angels are easily recognizable to anyone familiar with Mr. Shore’s art. I’ve been a long time fan and own a number of his sculptures, including some angels. His signature folk art quilt look to the artwork is a major component in the designs and are part of the angels themselves as well as the backgrounds.

The designs are done in both black and gray tones to give different effects in coloring. I found that using markers on the areas where the black lines are predominant and using coloring pencils on the gray areas gave the finished project more of the dimensional effect that the book suggests.

I am really happy to have this coloring book and hope that it is the beginning in a series. I would love to have coloring books which include his many animal designs (including cats, dogs, and farm animals), lighthouses, holidays, and maybe even some of his Disney designs. My husband also likes Mr. Shore’s artwork and is ordering his own copy as well.

Fairy Fantasy: Adult Coloring Book

By: Jason Hamilton

Rating: 5 of 5

I own all of Jason Hamilton’s coloring books and I was happy to pick this one up as well. It is quite different from the others both in subject matter as well as being full body designs. There are 24 standard size designs and as a bonus, Mr. Hamilton includes 14 4 x 6 inch copies of some of the designs as well as 5 full size designs that are zoomed in to highlight certain elements of the original designs. The smaller size are printed two to a page and the design on both small and the zoomed in pages are also featured in the original 24 pages.

Mr. Hamilton has a distinctive style fairy, with beautiful faces, long pointed ears and lush figures. He places his fairies in scenes which provides me with a fun coloring experience. While I haven’t colored it as yet, I absolutely love the fairy being threatened by the bumblebee. It reminds me of the old movie posters of the fair heroine being threatened by whoever or whatever was the villain of the week.

I have been using a mix of alcohol-based markers, colored pencils, and a touch of gel pens in coloring these designs. The designs are detailed with backgrounds. Some parts are somewhat intricate and include smaller details that I used my Verithins to color.

This has been my experience while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:

24 full size fairy designs, 14 4 x 6 inch designs, and 5 zoomed in designs for a total of 43 coloring designs (note some are duplicates of other sizes, etc.)

Printed on one side of the page

Typical CreateSpace paper thin, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated

Glue Bound

Designs stop well before the binding area leaving room to cut out pages if you chose to do so

Can open fairly flat for coloring if you break the spine to do so.

Alcohol and water based markers all bleed through the page though alcohol bleed through more fully and quickly while water based spot through.

Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows at the back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you use repeated layers or try to blend several colors.

Colored pencils work well with this paper. Both oil and wax based could be used with a light or firm hand. I use a light hand and get good pigment color by repeated layers and use of my blending pencils. Layering and blending work well with this paper. My hard lead pencils like Verithins dent or score through to the back of the page.

I use and recommend the use of a blotter page of either heavy weight paper or several sheets of regular white paper.

INKLINGS 2 colouring book by Tanya Bond: Coloring book for adults, teens and children, featuring 24 single sided fantasy art illustrations by Tanya … and other charming creatures. (Volume 2)

By: Tanya Bond

Rating: 5 of 5

I so enjoyed Tanya Bond’s first book in this series of coloring books (Inklings) that when I saw the second book was available, I purchased it sight unseen. It is another book filled with beautiful designs of big-eyed, wraith-like young women. The designs are all titled to give you some idea of the artist’s concept though for the most part, you can gleam this from simply looking at the designs. A good number of the designs have animals in them as well and those are also beautifully drawn.

The designs are detailed but not overly intricate. I didn’t need anything more than alcohol-based markers and a variety of coloring pencils for the first projects I colored in this book. I’m really happy to see that the artist released this volume 2 and I am looking forward to more coloring books in this series.

This is what I experienced in coloring in this book as well as testing my various coloring mediums on the paper:

24 Fantasy Designs of young women with large eyes

Printed on one side of the page.

Typical CreateSpace paper thin, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated

Glue Bound

Designs do not merge into the binding area (so you can easily cut the pages out and no twisting and turning to try to color into the binding.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper.

Water-based markers bleed through to a lesser degree with mostly a lot of spotting

Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page. India ink can bleed through if multiple coats are applied

Colored pencils work really well with this paper. I can get deep color with repeated thin layers with both oil and wax based pencils. I can layer and blend well using a blending pencil. Hard leads such as Verithins can dent through to the back of the page.

I used and recommend the use of a blotter page of card stock or several sheets of paper under your working page to keep seeping ink and dents from ruining the design below.

Fantasy Nouveau Coloring Boo

By: Herb Leonhard

Rating: 5 of 5

I really enjoy Herb Leonhard’s style of design. Art Nouveau (and Art Deco) are periods of style in art as well as textiles and jewelry, etc. that really appeal to me. In this coloring book, Mr. Leonhard has mixed the world of fantasy into Art Nouveau type style. While the designs are all Mr. Leonhard’s, I can’t help but think of some of the great artists of that period, most especially Alphonse Mucha, when I see the lovely and intricate arches and borders. Most of the designs are limited to one page; however, there are two designs that span across two pages.

The designs include many dragons, medieval maidens, unicorns, and castles. There’s even a knight, a sailing ship and a fairy mermaid thrown in for good measures. The only drawback to the book is that it is printed on both sides of the page, so using certain coloring medium will ruin the back of the page. However, for my use, the price is really reasonable and I decided to purchase a second copy of the book so I can use whatever type of medium I want and still be able to color all of the pages.

For my first two projects, I chose two dragon projects to color. The red dragon is colored using a variety of alcohol-based markers and the blue dragon is colored using wax-based colored pencils.

This is what I experienced when coloring and testing my coloring medium with this book:

23 Fantasy Designs in Art Nouveau Style (plus title page that can be colored.

Printed on both sides of the page.

Paper is thin, white, slightly rough and non-perforated.

Two designs spread across two pages

All other designs stop well before the binding area

Staple bound with only two staples so that it is really easy to take the book apart if you choose to do so.

Opens easily to flat position for coloring

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page

India ink pens spot through the page

Gel pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page

Colored pencils work really well with this paper. I was easily able to get good color from wax and oil based pencils whether they were hard lead or soft. I could layer and blend easily as well.

Legendary Landscapes: Pocket Coloring Book

By: Witek Radomski

Rating: 5 of 5

I own both of the larger format books by this talented group of artists. The original of Legendary Landscapes is large format with great paper but it was printed on both sides of the page. In this new pocket size version, 45 of the original designs are reduced in size and are printed on one side of the page. The tradeoff is that the paper quality is much lighter weight as well.

I don’t mind the difference in paper quality because I can always use a blotter page under my project as I am working on it. Because the artwork is printed on one side of the page, I can finally use my water and alcohol-based markers to color the designs. Having said that, the funny thing is that I used colored pencils to do my first project in this book go figure!

The designs show a world of imaginary landscapes, with some being somewhat more realistic than others. The designs are by a group of artists the names of which are included in the larger format book but as I an unsure of who designed what, I won’t list those names here.

Here is what I found when I colored in this book and tested my coloring mediums with it:

45 Imaginative Landscape Designs (including fantasy)

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is thin, white, and non-perforated. I found it very similar to that used by CreateSpace publishing but I didn’t see that they were the publishers of this book.

Designs merge into the binding area

Glue Bound you will lose portions of the designs if you cut pages out of the book.

Opens fairly flat for coloring once you break the spine

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page.

Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page. The Ink ink pens can spot through if you use more than one layer of ink.

Colored pencils worked well. Both oil based and wax based laid down good color. I use a light hand in coloring and use multiple layers to add more pigment and deeper tones. I was able to layer and blend easily with my various pencils. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, can leave dents through to the back of the page.

I used, and recommend the use of, a blotter page under my working page. I do this for pencils as well as pens to keep dents and ink from damaging the design below.

COLORING BOOK Fantasy Mermaids & Fairies: Amazing coloring book for all ages.

By: Alena Lazareva

Rating: 5 of 5

I have a grayscale coloring book that features the art of Alena Lazareva and I was happy to find a new line drawn design coloring book as well. There are 23 fantasy theme designs in this book as well as a sample of three grayscale designs one of which is fantasy. The designs include mermaids and fairies as well as beautiful women in decorative and old-fashioned garments.

It is really interesting to do both a grayscale and a line drawing coloring project by the same artist. In some cases, the artwork is of the same subject. I had fun coloring my first two line drawing designs in this book using alcohol-based markers.

This is what I found while coloring in and testing color mediums with this book:

26 Fantasy Designs (23 line drawing and 3 grayscale)

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is thin, white, slightly rough and non-perforated (typical of CreateSpace published coloring books.)

Some designs merge into the binding area making it more difficult to cut pages out

Glue Bound

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through (though water-based are mostly spotty bleed-through)

Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page. India ink can spot through if you use multiple layers of ink.

Colored pencils work well. Both oil an water based pencils provide good pigment and lay color down well in multiple coats. I was able to layer and blend well, too. Hard lead pencils can leave dents at the back of the page.

I suggest using a blotter page below your working page – plain card stock or multiple layers of lighter weight, blank white paper work well. This will keep seeping ink and dents from damaging the page below.