Daily Archives: June 8, 2016

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.

Color the Classics: The Wizard of Oz: A Coloring Book Trip Down the Yellow-Brick Road

By: Jae-Eun Lee

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the fourth storybook coloring book I have purchased by Jae Eun Lee. I know that there is a fifth one due out this year and I am sincerely hoping that there will be more next year. I had some issues with the first book in the series (Anne of Green Gables) having too many story pages as opposed to coloring pages but each book since then has had a much better mix. I also prefer that much of the story is now incorporated into the coloring pages rather than taking up a page by itself. To be fair, those story pages have very elaborate designs to color as well but I wanted more of the actual designs to color.

In this book the mix 18 story pages and 50 design pages for a total of 68 actual storybook pages. There are also four pages of thumbnails of the images and nine other pages (preface, forward, and title pages or those pages following the end of the story) which have designs that you can color.

Once again, the pages are beautifully illustrated with highly romanticized images. The designs are detailed but are not intricate with tiny elements. I was easily able to color using just the standard pencil point.

This is the story based on the original book by L. Frank Baum. The story is certainly not complete, so you will want to keep a copy of the book along with it. The story included just gives a little bit of foundation to the pictures which immediately follow it but will not give anyone reading it a real idea of what the story is fully about.

For my first project in this coloring book, I chose a picture that included Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion. I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos for this book and found that though these, as well as other oil-based pencils did not blend as well as I might like, I liked the way the pencils worked with the paper otherwise and I used them more for layering colors and shading more so than for any blending. For fun, I will use a different brand of colored pencils for coloring each book in this series to give each one a slightly different appearance.

Here is what I found in a brief overview:

68 pages of Designs and Story Book Illustrations plus extra pages that can be colored as well

Printed on both sides of page

Pages are heavyweight, slightly smooth and non-perforated

Glue Binding

Some Designs merge into the binding

Some Designs spread across two pages

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page

Water-based markers do not bleed through

India ink pens do not bleed through

Gel pens do not bleed through but require extra drying time

Coloring pencils did well in laying down good color with this paper. I found that for the most part both oil and wax based pencils worked well except neither were great for blending. Wax-based pencils did better at blending than did oil-based colors but both were acceptable for my use. Hard lead pencils did not leave dents on the back of the page.