Daily Archives: August 6, 2016

Tangle Magic: A spellbinding colouring book with hidden charms

By: Jessica Palmer

Rating: 5 of 5

Tangle Magic is the third in a series of coloring books by Jessica Palmer. I own the previous two as well as this one. My first observation of this book is that the designs are much more intricate than those of the prior two books. The designs are still quite lovely but they are more difficult to color and most require the use of ultra-fine markers, small nib gel pens or sharp pointed pencils.

The 76 pages of designs (not including the title page) are done in Ms. Palmer’s flowing style. There are also hidden charms on each page some are easy to find and others are a tad more difficult. A key to their location was not provided in this book. There is a page at the front which gives a few examples of what charms may look like. While the book is printed on both sides of the page, most designs are contained to a single page. I counted 11 designs that spread across two pages.

I was happy to find fairy tale characters interspersed through the book. There are other magic related designs that I understood quite easily but there are others that I may have to spend some time thinking about.

Here is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the pages with my coloring medium. I will list, in the comments section below, the coloring medium I used for testing and for most of my coloring projects.

76 pages of Magical and Fairy Tale style intricately drawn designs

Designs are printed on both sides of the page.

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

Sewn Binding (You can remove pages a few at a time by snipping a couple of threads though it is difficult to realign designs printed across two pages once they are out of the book.)

Some designs merge into the binding area

Eleven designs spread across two pages

Book can be made to lay fairly flat due to its special style of book cover/binding.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper. If you use this style of marker, you will mar the design on the backside of your working page.

Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens do not bleed through the paper. Gel pens can require additional drying time.

Colored pencils work well with the paper. Even though it is somewhat smooth, I was still able to layer the same color, multiple colors, an blend easily using a pencil style blending stick. This was true of both oil an wax based pencils.

Home Harvest

By: Patrick Sullivan

Rating: 4 of 5

I love autumn with all of its beautiful colors. I lived most of my life in Southern California and autumn there is just an extension of summer. There are no changing colors, so I have always looked to my crafting and art to bring those tones into my life.

Home Harvest is a nice addition to my coloring books and I am always on the look out for autumn related coloring books (as they are simply few and far between.) This is also my first coloring book by Patrick Sullivan.

The 32 designs (not including title pages) are very much on the simplistic side. I was hoping for more detail but was happy with the book on the whole. The lines are clear, crisp, and broad without any form of intricate coloring. Because of the simplicity of the designs, the projects can be done fairly quickly. You can also spend a lot of time with shading and blending with these designs if you choose to do so.

I’ve finished two designs so far using Prismacolor Premier Soft Core: one with traditional fall colors and the second, as an homage to my years in LA, in the colors that Southern Californians are more likely to associate with the fall months.

As an aside, I have purchased other coloring books by this publisher in the past and all of those were printed double-sided. I’m really happy to see that this book has been printed only on one side of the page. I hope that means that future books from this publisher will follow this format.

This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium. I will list, in the comments section below, the coloring medium I used for testing this book and which I generally use for coloring my projects.

32 Autumn and Harvest related designs

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is heavyweight, white, somewhat smooth, and perforated

Glue Binding

Some designs cross over the perforations but nothing essential is lost if you remove pages from the book

Book can lay fairly flat if you break the spine by creasing it hard

Alcohol based markers bleed through this paper readily

Water-based markers can bleed through in very tiny spots if multiple coats are used

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

Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both wax and oil based pencils. I found that I could get good color, layer the same color and multiple colors, and finally, I could blend easily using a pencil style blending stick. Hard lead pencils did not dent through to the back of the page.

If I use markers of any type with this book, I will either remove the page from the book or put a blotter page under the page I am working on. I generally use card stock but have used several sheets of heavy weight paper as well.