Daily Archives: October 10, 2016

Doodle Animals Coloring Book for Adults

By: Happy Coloring

Rating: 5 of 5

I own a couple of coloring books by Amanda Neel and while I am familiar with her doodle style, this is the first such book I have seen by her which includes a variety of animals. The designs are nicely printed with fairly easy to color doodle areas. Some designs make the doodles so intricate it is hard to get a pencil or pen point into the area to color. That is not true with this coloring book. I also appreciate that these are original designs versus books based on licensed (e.g., Shutterstock) designs.

The designs are a wide range of animals, including: horse, tiger, bear, seal, fish, alligator and many others. I choose to do the zebra as my first project. I’m fairly new to Inktense as a coloring medium but wanted to try it on this type of paper. While I don’t test Inktense or other watercolors (due to my lack of experience with the medium), I can note that the paper rippled a bit from the water. I tried to use it sparingly but it may be that I still put too much on the page.

Here is what I found while coloring in the book and testing my coloring medium on the pages:

30 various original doodle animal designs some with backgrounds (plus a bonus title page to color)

Printed on one side of the page

Paper is typical of CreateSpace publishing thin, white, slightly rough and non-perforated

Glue bound

Designs do not merge into the binding area and have a framing line at their outer edges

Pages can be cut out of the book without losing any portion of the design

Book can be opened fairly flat for coloring by breaking the spine.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper rapidly.

Water-based markers bleed through in spots.

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through in spots if you apply the ink heavily or in multiple layers.

Colored pencils work well. I tested both oil and wax-based and had good results with both. I was able to lay down good color, layer the same and multiple colors, and blend easily using a pencil style blender. Hard lead pencils can leave dents through the paper.

I use a blotter page of card stock to keep seeping ink and dents from damaging the pages below my working page. A couple of pages of heavyweight paper works well, too.