Daily Archives: June 6, 2016

The Adventures of Rover’s Magical Kingdom 1: Coloring Book for all … (Volume 1)

By: Global Doodle Gems

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my first coloring book by Rover Hsiao. The designs range from fairly simple with wide open areas to color to more detailed and intricate designs. The designs have a very playful look and feel which is in line with the title referring to the author’s magical kingdom.

There are cute little girls, animals, doodle hearts, mandalas and sweet looking young women in these designs. I chose one of a little girl and another of a young woman for my first two projects. I enjoyed coloring them with various coloring pencils.

This is also my first book by the publishing company, Global Doodle Gems, so I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as paper quality, etc. I found the book to be on par with books published through CreateSpace (similar paper quality, printing, etc.) so if you are familiar with that company, you will have an idea of what to expect there.

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

60 Cute Designs in a variety of styles and subjects

Printed on one side of the page.

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

Glue Bound

Designs stop before the binding area

Book can be forced into a fairly flat position by breaking the spine.

Alcohol and water based markers bleed through this paper.

Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page and India ink pens can spot through if more than one coat of color is applied.

Colored pencils work well with this paper. I found that both oil and wax based pencils put down good color. I use multiple light coats to build up to a deeper pigment. I could layer and blend well with all pencils except some of the harder lead pencils did not blend as well as the other brands of pencils. Very hard lead pencils, such as Verithins, also had good color but could leave dents that could be seen at the back of the page.

I recommend using a blotter page of card stock or heavy weight paper or several sheets of regular paper to keep ink or dents from marring designs below the page you are working on.

Creative Haven Steampunk Devices Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Jeremy Elder

Rating: 5 of 5

I own a couple of steampunk style coloring books and those books focus on the fashions and on people rather than on machines and methods of transportation. I was pleased to find this older Creative Haven book which is more about the devices.

The coloring book, by Jeremy Elder, has a much more masculine feel to it. There are bold lines and scenarios that are more Jules Verne than the more romantic and stylized designs in my other books. The people in this book have more of a cartoon look and feel than anything true to life. The fun part of coloring in this book is in making the robots come to life or playing with shading color to bring attention to a newly imagined type of machinery or transportation.

For my first two projects, I had fun using a variety of colored pencils. For the boat, I used Prismacolor Premier Soft core pencils and for the robot, I used Marco Raffine’s 72 color pencils.

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

31 Steampunk style designs with focus on machines and transportation

Printed on one side of white page

Paper is white, slightly rough, and is perforated

Glue Bound

Designs stop before the perforation. Most, but not all, designs have either a framing line around the outer edge or finished elements.

Alcohol and water based markers leak through this paper. The alcohol markers bleed through immediately while the water-based markers leave heavy spots of color depending on how much I have to use to fill in the spot properly.

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page

Coloring pencils work well with this standard Creative Haven paper. Both wax and oil-based soft pencils lay down good color. My preference is several coats of light finish to get the pigment I prefer. I was able to blend and layer well with this paper as well. Hard lead pencils may leave dents on the back of the page.

I use a blotter page under my working page or I remove each page at the perforation before coloring to prevent damage from seeping ink or marring dents.

Balance – For Crayons And Wide Tipped Markers: Angie’s Gentle Mood Menders – Volume 1

By: Angie Grace

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my second coloring book by Angie Grace. The first one, Breathe is part of the Extreme Stress Menders series. This book, Balance is the first in the Gentle Mood Menders series. It is a re-working of her popular and best-selling original Balance book.

This big difference is that this book has been made easier to color. Rather than the large and somewhat intricate designs of the first book, this one focuses on the central portion of the design but it is in the same space as the original book. That means a more open design that you can use larger coloring medium with. The mandalas are still quite detailed and are certainly fun to color.

In addition to larger tipped medium, I think it is also a book that can be used by individuals who could not color in the original book due to fine motor or visual issues. While I can’t compare it to the original book as I don’t own it, I did compare it to Breathe. I find that coloring in this book is a lot of fun and that the projects went by quickly for me without having to work in small detailed areas with tiny nib pens.

For my first two projects, I did one in spring colors and the other in fall colors. I plan to do a winter and summer one as well. I used a variety of Sharpie and Bic Mark-it Fine point markers (as opposed to the ultra-fine I used in the other book.) As promised by the title (for use with crayons and wide-tipped markers), I had no problems at all with the fine-point (wider tipped) markers. It was fun to be able to use them for mandalas as I generally cannot due to the size of the nib.

This is what I experienced while coloring in and testing my coloring mediums with this book:

50 Mostly Circular style Mandalas with wider lines and more open space than most mandalas

Printed on one side of the page.

Smaller format book to save paper and lessen dead white space above and below the mandala. This also makes it easier to frame if you choose to do so.

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

Designs stop well before the binding area with plenty of room to cut pages out.

Book lays open fairly flat if you break the spine by pressing down hard on it.

Alcohol and water-based markers seep through this paper to varying degrees (water-based are more spotty depending on the brand.)

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

Colored pencils work well with this paper. I got good color with repeated layers with light pressure. I can layer and blend well with both oil and wax-based pencils. Hard lead pencils can dent through the page.

I recommend the use of a blotter page for under your working page. That way you can keep seeping inks and marring dents from damaging the design below. I like card stock for this but you can use any heavyweight plain paper or multiple sheets of lighter weight paper.