Daily Archives: September 12, 2016

Off the Beaten Path Coloring Postcard Book: 20 Adventurous Designs

By: Samarra Khaja

Rating: 4 of 5

I have enjoyed my first coloring book by Samarra Khaja (Off the Bookshelf) and have been looking forward to her releasing more in the same vein. I just discovered her new set of post cards in Off the Beaten Path and was happy to pick them up. The illustrations are rather quirky and show the interesting view that artist has of the world. Some of the designs are easy to color and some have very tiny and intricate parts that will require the use of tiny nib pens or very sharp pointed pencils.

While I really like the illustrations in this set, what I don’t like is how the set of post cards were put together. Usually, post cards are glue bound in a manner similar to notepads where you can remove a page easily and in whole. This set of post cards is set up with perforated pages. I’ve only experienced this with one other set and that was by the same publisher.

The perforations leave a rough edge when you remove them from the book but more problematic, in this book unlike the other one from the same publisher, the designs cross over the perforations and into the binding. I’ve found that in some instances (such as the one that I have colored and will upload with this review) that important parts of the design will be lost if I remove the post card from the book. Coloring over the perforations was also difficult.

I rate the illustrations a five and the publishing a 2, and as I cannot leave a 3.5 on Amazon, I always round up – hence an overall of a 4. I like the set but it could have been much improved with a little forethought. I wish that the pictures had been sized to fit on the page without crossing over the perforations or that the publisher had used the standard glue-bound post card binding. Either would have worked and made the set easier to color.

I found that only alcohol-based markers bled through the paper which is a medium weight card stock. Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens did not bleed through. Colored pencils (both oil and wax-based) did well with layering and blending and did not dent through the page.