Daily Archives: July 15, 2016

Natural Patterns: A Coloring Book by Janelle Dimmett

By: Janelle Dimmett

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my first coloring book by Janelle Dimmett. It’s a wonderful hardback book (part of a new series by Pomegranate) which is filled with 50 designs. The designs are detailed and often intricate requiring smaller nib pens, markers or sharp pencils in order to color. The designs are focused on the natural world with animals and plant life. The designs contains tiny doodle style elements which allows you to color the natural world in your own (and potentially quite unnatural) fashion.

What was different for me in this particular book versus the others from Pomegranate is that there were no color thumbnails at the front and back of the book. In this case, it seems that the artist works in ink on paper so it makes sense that the thumbnails were missing. I will admit I was a tad disappointed, though.

There is a table of contents which provides the names for each of the designs. The pages are also numbered to the table of contents but in some cases, the page numbers ended up incorporated into the design. It might have been better to have put the page numbers on the back of each page with this particular artist’s work.

This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and using my coloring medium to test the pages:

50 Natural Designs with a high level of detail

Printed on one side of the page

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

Sewn binding with a thin glossy hard back cover

Some designs merge into the binding area

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper quite readily

Water-based markers can spot through. The exception was my Tombow brush ends did not spot through even with dark and bright colors.

Gel pens and India ink pens did not bleed through but some gel pens took much longer to dry than usual.

Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based in several brands. I was able to get light pigment as well as heavy (with multiple layers) and to layer colors and blend well using a pencil style blending stick. My hard lead pencils were good color as well with crisp lines and did not dent through the page.

Color the Proverbs: An Adult Coloring Book for Your Soul (Color the Bible)

By: Michal Sparks

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of 37 Scripture-based designs from the Proverbs. I’ve found that the Proverbs is the chapter I go to when I need reminding of what is important and true in life. The lessons that are included cover all of my questions and needs as to what is the right and good thing to do.

The designs are very nice but the words are what are most important for me in this book. The designs serve to bring the words into the forefront. They are definitely more elegant than cute and I will enjoy coloring in this book as I have Coloring the Psalms also by Michael Sparks.

The translations used in this coloring book are: New American Standard Bible, New King James Version, Holy Bible New International Version (NIV), and the Holy Bible New Living Translation.

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

37 Designs with Scripture from the Proverbs

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is medium weight, white, smooth and perforated

Glue Binding

Designs either have a framing line around the outside or have finished elements.

Book opens fairly flat for coloring if you crease or break the spine.

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the paper to some degree (water-based is mostly in spots while alcohol flows through rapidly.)

Gel pens and India ink do not bleed through but can leave shadows on the back of the page.

Colored pencils work well with the paper. I get good pigment lay down, layer, and blend easily with a pencil style blending stick with both oil and wax based pencils. Hard lead pencils can leave dents on the back of the page.

I use and recommend the use of a blotter page to keep ink and dents from marring the pages below. I use a piece of card stock or several sheets of heavy weight paper.

Color Super Cute Animals

By: Jane Maday

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a really fun and cute coloring book filled with 56 different original designs by Jane Maday. There are so many animals in this book, including: dogs, cats, frog, fox, birds, horse, butterfly, fish, rabbits, and so much more. The animals are generally set in a background which can be as simple as a few flowers or more elaborate. Some of the animals include doodle elements while others are line drawings.

The designs are generally detailed but are not overly intricate or difficult to color. The book is well published with one small nit. In some cases, the designs cross over the perforations near the binding and you will lose some portion of the design if you remove it from the book. In some cases it causes the symmetry of the design to be lost. You can remove pages in whole by snipping the sewn binding, so I didn’t detract stars from this remove for this issue.

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

37 Cute Original Animals Designs by Jane Maday

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is heavyweight, white, smooth and perforated

Sewn Binding

Some designs merge over the perforations and some designs merge into the binding area

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper

Water-based markers can leave shadows on the back of the page. I had this issue with both Stabilo 88, and Staedler triplus fineliners ultra-fine nib markers. My Tombows brush end did not leave shadows.

Gel pens and India ink pens did not leak through the page.

Colored pencils work well with the paper. Though it was smooth to the touch, it still had enough tooth to get good pigment with multiple layers of same color, layered well with multiple colors and blended well using a pencil style blender stick. I found that oil based and water-based pencils did equally well.

I use a blotter page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper below my working page. That keeps seeping ink from damaging the pages below.

Fantasia An Adult Coloring Book Of Fantasy & Mythology: Spiral Bound, 100lb Coverstock Paper, Perforated Pages, Story Edition

By: Casey L Gilmore

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a beautiful and very different type of fantasy coloring book. Along with the extremely well-drawn artwork, the artist has included an interesting story about each of the design characters in the book. The story pages are printed on the left side and the designs are on the right. It helps put the character into context and gives me a back story to think about as I am coloring. The designs are detailed and some include a considerable amount of shading. It stops short of grayscale but some of the techniques I use in grayscale, I use with portions these designs.

It seems to me that some of the characters come from mythology and legend, some from fantasy games, and others possibly from the imagination of the artist. It proved to be a really nice mix of design concepts.

The book is published in a fantastic manner. The pages are heavyweight card stock and the binding is spiral. This makes it easy to get the book to lay flat for coloring. Add to that, the pages are all perforated and you simply can’t get a better published coloring book format than this one.

This is what I discovered as I colored in this book and tested the paper with my coloring medium:

20 Fantasy Detailed Fantasy designs with story included

Printed on one side of the page

Pages are heavyweight, warm white, lightly smooth, and perforated

Spiral binding

Designs stop before the perforations for ease of removal without loss of design elements

Book opens to flat position effortlessly

Alcohol-based markers can lightly spot through the page with heavy application. If you use a free flowing marker, such as Copics, you might want to use a blotter page below for peace of mind though I doubt it will bleed through to the page below.

Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens do not bleed through the page

Coloring pencils work well with this card stock. I was able to blend, layer and get good pigment lay down with both oil and wax based pencils.

I received a free sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.