Daily Archives: September 2, 2016

Colin Thompsons Fantastisches Malbuch

By: ?

Rating: 5 of 5

I have several Ravensburger puzzles by Colin Thompson and enjoy the unusual subjects and intricacies of those. When I saw this coloring book was available albeit in German, I purchased it immediately and then had the long wait for it to be shipped from Europe.

The designs are the same wild and imaginative ones that I have seen in my puzzles just in grayscale rather than in color. Coloring in this book is both a joy and an endeavor as there is simply so much to each and every design. For my first project, I used almost all 120 colors of polychromos and had a blast with it. For some people, the book may seem physically darker than expected but I was able to use grayscale techniques with results that were pleasing to me.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the only the outside and inside of the cover is in German. The designs themselves include English. The designs are done in grayscale have have extremes of both white and black as part of the designs.

The designs are printed on both sides of the page and are mostly spread across two pages with the designs merging up to the binding. I have found that the designs in my book line up well and I didn’t lose any portion of the design into the actual binding area itself. The binding is sewn rather than glued which really helps when I am coloring. I find that sewn bindings are easier it get to lay flat so I can get my pencils in to the parts closest to the fold.

The non-perforated paper is a nice white heavyweight and is ever so slightly rough which gives great tooth for gripping pigment from colored pencils. When I tested my pencils (both wax and oil based), I was able to get great pigment, to layer the same color for deeper tones, layer multiple colors, and to blend easily using my blender stick.

Alcohol and water-based markers all bled through the paper to some degree. India ink pens spotted through to the back of the page. My gel pens did not bleed through but some of the darker colors left an indistinct shadow on the back of the page. I found that colored pencils worked the best and will be what I use in this book exclusively.