Daily Archives: August 25, 2016

Sugar Skulls Coloring Book (Coloring Is Fun)

By: Thaneeya McArdle

Rating: 3.5 of 5

I enjoy Thaneeya McArdle’s designs and have bought almost all of her coloring books. I really appreciate the designs in this book; however, the new publishing format is something I really don’t like. There are 32 Sugar Skull designs in the book and they are very well drawn and the larger images are quite fun to color. The ten smaller designs are very difficult to color and require ultra-fine pens and markers or very sharp pencils and a steady hand to finish.

Until now, I have not dropped star ratings on Design Originals books due to the format; however, as more of the pictures in this book were needlessly sized down and because it made already detailed images very difficult to color, I am giving this book a 3.5. The designs are 5 star and impressive. The publishing format is 2 stars (as still 2/3 of the book is printed well I cannot rate it 1 star.) The average is 3.5 and I round up as I cannot leave that rating on Amazon, on their platform it shows as a 4.

In this particular book, a full ten of the designs have been sized down to allow for coloring tips, etc. on the coloring page. The end result is that the designs have extremely small and difficult to color spots. While the designs are detailed, it would not have been difficult to color this book if the designs had been printed full size. If you have any issues with fine motor skills or vision, I think this book may not be for you as almost one third of it is so difficult to color.

In the new coloring books from Design Originals (started about mid-2016), they altered their format and the designs which are shown as colored samples in the book are no longer provided in full page format. They are included as medium designs with a thumbnail of the color sample, a few samples of the colors used and a quick sentence or two about the how the colors work with the design. These sized down designs range from 8 to 10 pages depending on the book.

I really dislike the change. I want the pages in full size for both ease of coloring and for consistency with the other pages in the book. The shrinking of the designs has made some of the details small and intricate and difficult to color. I wish they would go back to the older style and perhaps include the color tips on a separate page or on the actual color sample page. I have just canceled two pre-orders I had for Design Original books as I am unwilling to order them sight unseen at this point.

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

32 Sugar Skull Designs some with black backgrounds and some with white backgrounds with 22 large designs and 10 medium ones

The 10 Medium Designs include colored thumbnails and coloring advice on the page (info can be removed at provided perforations)

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is medium weight, slightly rough, white paper (black backgrounds are printed on) and is perforated for easy removal. The paper is noted as archival-grade and acid free for 200 years.

Designs stop well before the perforations

Alcohol and water based markers seep through the page and can mar the page below.

Gel pens and India ink pens can spot through to the back of the page

Colored pencils work well with the paper. I was able to get good color, layer the same color and multiple colors, and blend easily using a pencil style blender stick. Hard lead pencils (like Verithins) can dent through the page to the page below.

I like to use a blotter page of cardstock (or two pieces of heavyweight paper) below my working page to keep ink and pencil dents from marring the pages below. You can also remove the page before coloring to keep the rest of the book in good condition.