Daily Archives: November 1, 2016

Creative Haven Deluxe Edition Artful Quotes Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Lindsey Boylan

Rating: 4 of 5

This is a large coloring book with 63 designs. The designs are built around a quote from a famous person. The designs are mostly flowers (though there are a fish animals as well.) What is different about this book is that some of the pages have white backgrounds and some have black backgrounds. I have a few issues with the black backgrounds that I will detail below.

The designs are very pretty and are quite detailed. Some of the designs have intricate areas that are small and more difficult to color. There is a wide range of individuals who are quoted from Buddha to Abraham Lincoln.
The problem I have with my copy is that on some of the pages that have black backgrounds, one of two different issues arise. On some, there are scattered dots of white in the black. On others, the black is printed unevenly with some parts much lighter than others. This occurs on about one third of the pages. The white based pages seem to be in much better condition. Because of this issue, I reduced my rating to a 4 star.
This is what I saw while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
63 Quotes with mostly floral designs
The designs are printed one side of the page
Paper is the usual Creative Haven quality: white (with a mix of white backgrounds and black printed backgrounds), medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages.
Glue Binding but with perforated pages so removing a page is fairly simple.
The designs cross slightly over the perforations (nothing essential lost if you remove the pages from the book)
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper
Water-based markers bleed through in spots and show colorful shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through when I apply more than one layer of ink.
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to get good color, layer the same color and multiple colors and blend easily using a pencil style blender. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils with similar results. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.
I suggest either removing pages from the book to color or using a blotter page under your working page. I like card stock as it keeps ink from seeping through and damaging the pages below.

The Dr. Seuss Coloring Book

By: Dr. Seuss

Rating: 4 of 5

I enjoyed Dr. Seuss as a child and have since read them to my children and their children. I was looking forward to receiving my new coloring book with artwork from the Dr. Seuss books. The book is nicely done but is missing some of my favorites (especially Green Eggs and Ham.) There are a good number of designs in the book and there are so many books to choose from that it almost seemed a given that many would not be included.

The designs are detailed but not too intricate. Many of the designs spread across two pages and parts of the design are lost in the binding area. In my copy, the pages line up fairly well. What is a problem is that the binding is a hybrid of glue and sewn. It has many stitches and the glue is heavier on certain pages. Those pages are difficult to lay flat for coloring. While there are not many of those pages, the ones that have the issue will be very difficult to color as even when I break the binding, I have to struggled to get my very sharp pencil point into the coloring elements. For this issue, I dropped my review to four star.
The designs are derived from Dr. Seuss books rather than exact duplicates. According to the publisher, these are the books utilized: And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street, The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hats Songbook, Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?, Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, The Foot Book, Horton Hears a Who!, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, If I Ran the Circus, If I Ran the Zoo, The Lorax, Oh Say Can You Say?, Oh, the Places Youll Go!, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!, On Beyond Zebra, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Scrambled Eggs Super, Theres a Wocket in My Pocket!, What Pet Should I Get?, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, and Youre Only Old Once.
This is what I experienced while coloring in the book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
46 Designs derived from a few of Dr. Seuss’ story books.
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is white, medium weight, fairly smooth and non-perforated
Hybrid glue/sewn binding that is difficult to open to lay flat
Designs reach into the binding area/spine
Many designs spread across two pages and important elements are divided onto both pages
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. These will leak through and mar the designs on the reverse of the page.
Water-based markers and India ink pens do not bleed through but do leave shadows on the back of the page. These will be noticeable on the designs that are on the reverse of your working page.
Gel pens do not leak through but require additional drying time.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. Though it is smooth to the touch, it still has enough tooth to grab pigment. I tested both boil and wax-based pencils and got good results from layering the same color, multiple colors, and blending with a blending stick.