Daily Archives: August 14, 2016

The Aquarium: Marine Portraits to Color

By: Richard Merritt

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the third book by Claire Scully and Richard Merritt. The Aquarium follows in the footsteps of The Menagerie and The Aviary. This latest book is dedicated to marine life, which is at odds with the title. Some of these fish and other marine life are not what I would consider to be in an aquarium (either the small home style or the building dedicated to showing marine life.)

While it is a little disappointing, it isn’t out of line with the rest of the series in style and content. I don’t think the intent was to mislead but rather to have a title consistent in form with the first two books (i.e., places where animals, birds, and/or fish are housed.) On, the other hand, both the product description and the back of the book mention a parrot fish and the book does not contain a design of that fish. This was definitely an error on behalf of the publisher/artist that should have been caught.

The initial line drawings are realistically portrayed but then the inside of the fish and other creatures are lots of doodle style intricate elements. The designs are highly intricate and contained many small and hard to color details. It may not be the best book for those who have vision or fine motor skill issues. For those who like intricate work and marine life, it should be a great book to consider. I will include a full list of the designs included in the comments section below.

The attached cover is beautifully illustrated with coloring and light touches of matte fuchsia and turquoise metallic foil on the front artwork. The paper that is used for this book is a very good quality and would work well if you wish to frame your finished work.

Slight elements of the background design are already colored. While I would have preferred they left that blank, I am okay with the small amount they have colored in this instance. The designs do merge into the binding and you will lose portions of some of the designs if you remove a page at the perforations.

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

31 Marine Life Designs which are very detailed and intricate to color

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is white, heavy weight somewhat smooth, has background slightly pre-colored and is perforated.

Sewn Binding

Book can be opened fairly flat for coloring

Designs merge past the perforations and into the binding area

Alcohol and Water based markers bleed through this paper to some extent (with Tombow brush ends did best with only light spotting to the back of the page.)

India ink left shadows on the back of the page.

Gel pens did not bleed through and did not require extra drying time.

Coloring pencils worked well. Both oil and wax based pencils worked well for good color, layering and blending.

If you use a wet medium with this book, I suggest using a blotter page of card stock or several sheets of paper to keep ink from seeping through the ruining the pages below. You can also simply remove a page from the book before coloring as well.

By: Hanna Karlzon

Rating: 5 of 5

Winter Dreams is my first coloring book by Hanna Karlzon. The book was originally published in Sweden and has now been published in the US. I enjoy seasonal designs, especially those for fall and winter. I lived most of my life in Southern California and did not get to experience a true winter season. Hobbies and crafts such as coloring were my only way of enjoying the idea of snow and winter scenes.

While Winter Dreams is not a Christmas coloring postcard set, there are some designs that evoke the holiday (ornaments and a gingerbread house.) The designs have a lush and ornamental feeling to them. There are some doodle elements but they don’t overwhelm the designs.

Many postcards are sized down designs which are intricate and hard to color. That is not true of this book. It appears that the designs were hand-drawn to this particular scale. The designs are detailed but not intricate. I was able to use my standard coloring medium without having to resort to special small nib pens or ultra sharp hard lead pencils.

This is what I experienced while coloring these postcards and testing the paper with my coloring medium.

20 Winter inspired postcard designs with mailing areas defined on the back of the card

Printed on one side of the card

Paper is heavyweight card stock in smooth ivory

Glue bound but in the style of easy to remove pages such as a notepad

Alcohol-based markers left colorful shadows on the back of the page and had the tiniest bit of spot through. I would put a blotter page of paper under my working page or remove the card from the book to color to keep the designs below safe from the slight possibility of seeping ink

Water-based markers, India ink, and gel pens did not bleed through the card. Gel pens took a little longer to dry than usual.

Colored pencils worked well with this paper. Oil and wax-based pencils worked well with good color, layering, and blending using a pencil style blending stick.