Daily Archives: June 28, 2016

Harry Potter Magical Artifacts Coloring Book

By: Scholastic

Rating: 5 of 5

Attached to this review will be a silent flip-through of the entire coloring book so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not it will work for you. I will also include sample photos of a few of the pages in the book.

Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or movie series, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book. There are, once again, color image pages at the back of the book in case you wish to stay true to the original colors.

As with the first three books in this series, there is a team of illustrators involved with the designs in this book. It seems like the list is much larger this time and perhaps that is why there is even a less cohesive feel to this book than in the prior three. It is easy to see the differences in design styles and the feel is much more cartoon-like than in the previous books. That may be due, in large part, to the subject matter.

Dealing with the artifacts may lend itself to less realistic style drawing but I think that some of the images might have been improved upon but on the whole, I may fairly pleased with the book. There are some designs that are just a tad more detailed than simple line drawings while there are also many which involve extremely small and intricate elements. These will probably take sharp pointed pencils or ultra-fine nibs to color.

I am pleased that, as with the second and third books, there are less designs with heavy black space. I consider this change from the first book to be a huge improvement and am happy with my design options apart from printing issues (see below.) Once again, they have included glossy pages at the end of the book. I will use them as I did the first time around, as a reminder of the actual colors of the characters and scenes. I don’t necessarily use those colors but it is nice to have a reminder handy.

I will provide details on the physical coloring book below but here is a quick overview of what I found:

78 Pages of Harry Potter Designs (not including title page)

Designs are printed on both sides of the page

Paper is heavyweight, cream paper that is slightly rough and non-perforated

Designs merge into binding

Designs spread across two pages

Glue Binding

Alcohol based markers bleed through page

Water-based markers leave slight shadows of color on back of page though Tombow brush end markers did the best with most colors not leaving any shadows if applied lightly.

India Ink pens do not bleed through

Gel pens leave a slight shadow on back of page

Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. It is rough enough to provide good tooth to hold the pigment. I got good results with both oil and wax based pencils for coloring, blending, and layering.

The book is printed on both sides of off-white (almost cream) heavyweight and non-perforated paper. Only a few of the designs are printed across two pages and merge into the binding (which is glued rather than sewn.) I did a count and this is what I came up with: 68 one page designs, 7 of which are wallpaper repeating patterns; 5 designs spread across two pages but only one of them had elements of importance in the binding area while 2 of them were wallpaper style patterns.

In my copy, the images on the two page designs are mixed as far as lining up. Three of the designs do fairly well and two do not.

My first book in this series had a very weird kind of musty odor. I’m happy to say that the final three books in this series, including this one, did not have the offensive odor I encountered in the first book. I hope this is true for everyone who buys this coloring book.

I will use coloring pencils and India ink pens primarily for this book. If I use other mediums, I will do so knowing that it will ruin the design on the back of the page. I do this when I don’t really care that much for the backside of the page design. While using markers, I recommend the use of a blotter page (heavy weight paper or several sheets or regular paper) under the working page to keep the ink from seeping further.

Harry Potter Magical Creatures Postcard Coloring Book

By: Scholastic

Rating: 5 of 5

I’ll include a silent flip-through video as well as a few sample photos so you can see if this set of postcards will work for you.

Once again, Scholastic has released a set of postcards based on a Harry Potter coloring book. In this case, the subject is Magical Creatures which was the second coloring book in the series. Postcards are inherently a little more difficult to work on as everything is scaled so much smaller than in a book. I’ve found that if I use small nib gel pens, ultra-fine point markers, and very sharp and hard pencils, I have an easier time getting into all the small and intricate details.

The mix of designs in the postcards are fairly good for my taste. I enjoy coloring the small details and should enjoy coloring these to give to all the Harry Potter fans in my family. I will probably mount these on folded cards and either frame them or give them as cards versus sending them through the mail as postcards. That is my personal preference but these should hold up well as postcards in use provided you use waterproof medium so that rain and moisture won’t cause havoc with your coloring.

Here is a brief overview of what I found in this set of postcards:

20 Different Harry Potter Postcards with black and white artwork from Harry Potter Magical Creatures Coloring Book

Printed on one side of heavy weight, slick, white card stock

Address and stamp areas are defined and printed on the back of the card

Postcards are glue bound but can easily be removed from the booklet without design loss

Alcohol and water-based markers, India ink and gel pens do not bleed through the card stock.

Gel pens take a much longer time to dry than usual.

Colored pencils are mixed. I can get fairly good color from both oil and water based pencils but layering and blending don’t work as well (probably due to the very slick surface of the card.)

Mystical Cats in Secret Places: A Cat Lover’s Coloring Book

By: Honoel

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a wonderful coloring book for anyone who loves cats or simply loves to color cats. The artwork is beautifully drawn by Honoel A. Ibardolaza. This is a new artist for me but I am sure to buy any other coloring books that the artist releases. The cat designs in the book are fun to look at and even more fun to color. There are simply so many, it is hard to choose where to start (though I started with what I call the Cinderella cat.)

The artwork is reminiscent of that of Marjorie Sarnat’s Creative Cats but with even more detail if you can imagine it. That there are 80 designs to color in this book makes it a real bargain. The only draw back is that the designs are printed on both sides of the page and that limits me as far as what I want to use to color the designs. The easy solution is to purchase another copy of the book and I am giving a lot of thought to that as the price is so good for the amount that is included.

The designs are definitely intricate and many have small details. It might not be the best choice of coloring books for anyone who has vision or fine motor issues but if you can color in tiny spots, it is a beautiful book to add to your cat coloring book library.

I’ve had cats as pets for many years but over the last year, the last of my very senior cats have passed away. For now, coloring cats will be my way of remembering my little friends. This book has so many different cats, its easy for me to see my little ones in their faces and attitudes.

This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing the paper for coloring medium:

80 Imaginative Cat Designs

Printed on both sides of the page

Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly smooth and non-perforated

Glue Bound

Only 2 Designs merge into the binding area; none spread across two pages

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper

Water-based markers, except for Tombow brush end markers, can leave spots on the back of the page. The spots are small but you can see them on the other design.

Gel pens and India ink pens do not bleed through the page.

Colored pencils work well with the paper. Both oil and wax based pencils had good color and could layer and blend well with a pencil style blending stick.

All Creatures of Our God and King: Coloring Book (Coloring Faith)

By: Zondervan

Rating: 5 of 5

All Creatures of our God and King is the latest coloring book in Zondervan’s Coloring Faith series. It is the third such book that takes the lyrics of a famous hymn and provides illustrations to go along with it. The beautifully drawn illustrations celebrate the creatures of God’s creation but are not generally Christian in nature. The lyrics are most definitely faith-based and inspiring.

I own both of the other books (Amazing Grace and It is Well with my Soul) and what I find different and perhaps better about this book is that the artists (Suzanne Khushi and Julianne St. Claire) have provided great illustrations on both sides. In the previous books, the lyric pages were only lightly illustrated. With this book, the left-hand lyric pages are just as beautiful for coloring as the illustration only pages on the right hand side.

This hymn was inspired by St. Francis of Assisi in the Canticle of the Sun poem. An English pastor, William Draper, translated the words into English around the turn of of the twentieth century. He also set the words to music. The hymn was published in 1919 in the Public School Hymn Book.

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

45 full page designs printed on right hand side of page

45 pages of equally fully illustrated lyrics on the opposite side of the page

Designs/Lyrics are printed on both sides of the page

Paper is heavyweight, white, lightly smooth, and perforated

Glue binding

Some designs extend beyond the perforations but nothing of important will be lost if you remove a page from the book

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper

Water-based markers and India ink pens leave shadows on back of page

Gel pens do not leak through the page

Colored pencils work really well with this paper. I was able to use both oil based and wax based pencils and get good color and to layer well. Using a pencil style blending stick, I was able to blend all of my colored pencils equally well.

If you use alcohol-based markers, they will ruin the design on the back of the page. To minimize further damage, you should consider using a blotter page of heavyweight paper to keep ink from seeping further into the book.