Daily Archives: January 9, 2017

The Selection Coloring Book

By: Kiera Cass

Rating: 5 of 5

I will attach a silent flip-through video of the entire coloring book, as well as some photos, so you can decide for yourself if this book suits your needs.

I really like the concept of coloring books which bring novels and series of novels to life for those who like to color. The Selection Coloring Book is a lovely example of beautiful illustrations which flesh out a series of books, in this case by Kiera Cass. It includes five of the six books in the series. The only one I could not find was Happily Ever After.
The books are included as chapters: The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir, and, finally, The Crown. I appreciate that only a few pictures from each book could be included but was really happy to see my favorite characters and scenes represented.
My only small nit with the book is the number of illustrated banner pages that are included. While I like to have a few in a coloring book of this nature, the split between character designs and banner pages is even at 20 each. My preference would have been to have at least five more character designs for a 25/15 split. I don’t consider this small nit to rise to the level of removing a star from the rating, it would just have been my preference.
In addition to these 40 pages which are black line drawings on white background, there are five chapter heading pages which are black background with white words and designs. I think that all of the illustrations: characters (by Sandra Suy) and lettering by Martina Flor are beautifully drawn. I will have a lot of fun coloring in this book and will re-read my books as I go along.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
45 Design pages including 20 character designs, 20 banner designs, and 5 chapter heading pages (plus title and intro page designs) from the series The Selection
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is white, medium weight, somewhat smooth (but still good tooth), and perforated
Glue Binding
Many designs spread past the micro-perforations; however, if you choose to remove pages, nothing integral to the design will be lost.
The book opens fairly flat for coloring though I had to heavily crease (break) the spine.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper rapidly. If I were to use this medium, I would put a blotter page below my working page to keep seeping ink from ruining the design below. I prefer card stock but several sheets of heavyweight paper works well, too. You can also remove pages from the book before coloring. I prefer not to do so to keep the continuity of the series intact.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens did not bleed through but they did leave shadows on the back of the page. As the book is printed on one side of the page, this didn’t trouble me.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. While it is somewhat smooth, it still has sufficient tooth (roughness) to grip pigment well. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and liked both with this paper. I was able to get deep pigment with multiple layers of the same color. I was also able to layer multiple colors well and to easily blend colors using a pencil style blending stick.

Ancient Egypt: A Coloring Book with Egyptian Gods, Mysterious Hieroglyphics, and Ancient Architecture

By: Jade Summer

Rating: 5 of 5

I have been looking for a coloring book with Egyptian style hieroglyphic designs and was really pleased to find this one. This coloring book has 25 different designs (the referenced 50 comes from getting two of each of the designs.) The designs really evoke the look and feel of ancient artwork to me. While they are not perfect replicas of known work, they have many of the iconic images I am looking for.

The designs are very detailed with but not what I consider intricate. There are many areas to color but I can use most coloring medium without any issues. I think crayons might be more difficult unless you can sharpen them to a fairly fine point.
While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
25 x 2 Designs based on Egyptian Hieroglyphs with stylized poses
Paper is typical of CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated. The back of the page is printed black which is something I am find typical of Jade Summer coloring books.
The designs do not merge into the binding. There is a heavy framing line at the outer edges of the design to give the project a more finished look, especially for framing. There is a slight shadowing effect to the framing line which gives the image an almost 3D effect.
Glue Binding (there is room to cut the pages out if you choose to do so.)
Though you cannot see the bleed-through easily due to the back of the page being printed in black, I recommend the use of a blotter page when working in this book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats.
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.

1: Lady Mechanika Steampunk Coloring Book

By: Joe Benitez

Rating: 5 of 5

I will attach a silent flip-through video of the entire coloring book, as well as some photos, so you can decide for yourself if this book suits your needs.

I really like the concept of coloring books which bring novels and series of novels to life for those who like to color. While I am not familiar with the graphic novels of Lady Mechanika by Joe Benitez, I will certainly be looking for them in the near future.
Because I don’t know the stories, I can’t say whether the artwork is lifted directly from the books or not. I think so because I have seen that the first novel in the series has a similar cover to this coloring book. In my first project in the book, I decided to give the beautiful lady red hair. That is what is great about coloring books you can color the characters the way you prefer.
In any case, the 40 designs in the coloring book are beautiful and elaborately drawn. They are nicely detailed and have a heavy use of black as a shading/color element in many of the pages. Some of the designs have intricate and small areas to color. The main focus of the design is, naturally, Lady Mechanika. However, there are a number of design pages which feature other characters as well.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
40 Wonderful Steampunk designs based on the graphic novel series of Lady Mechanika
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is white, medium/heavy weight, somewhat smooth (but still good tooth), and perforated
Glue Binding
Designs stop before the perforations and nothing will be lost if you remove pages from this book.
The book opens fairly flat for coloring though I had to heavily crease (break) the spine.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper rapidly. If I were to use this medium, I would put a blotter page below my working page to keep seeping ink from ruining the design below. I prefer card stock but several sheets of heavyweight paper works well, too. You can also remove pages from the book before coloring. I prefer not to do so to keep the continuity of the series intact.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens did not bleed through but they did leave shadows on the back of the page. As the book is printed on one side of the page, this didn’t trouble me.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. While it is somewhat smooth, it still has sufficient tooth (roughness) to grip pigment well. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and liked both with this paper. I was able to get deep pigment with multiple layers of the same color. I was also able to layer multiple colors well and to easily blend colors using a pencil style blending stick.

Colour My Sketchbook DARKER

By: Bennett Klein

Rating: 5 of 5

I have several of Bennett Klein’s beautiful coloring books. I missed getting the limited edition Dark coloring book which was released for a short period of time late last year so I was very happy to see a new book, Darker just released. The designs are wonderfully drawn and take fantasy to a slightly darker level than some of Mr. Klein’s earlier books.

While I don’t have the previous book, I’ve compared some of the designs in my book with those shown on the review of Dark. It seems that there are many duplicates. Without having the first book to do a side-by-side comparison, I can’t confirm that all of the designs are duplicated. What I can say is that there seems to be more pages in Darker which may equate to more designs. You can check my silent video to see what is included in the coloring book.
This is my first book of Mr. Klein’s designs with black background. I have colored in similar style books before but trust Mr. Klein to take the concept forward a step by including beautiful elements in a deep gray tone to accent the final project. It gives a perfect background to those designs on which it is included. I guess you could color those areas but I intend to leave them as deep gray.
The designs are somewhat in gray scale but with so much black in the background, the artist wisely choose to leave more white space in the coloring elements. I will be able to use both my markers and my colored pencils while coloring in this book. As that is my preferred coloring method (markers for background and pencils for details), I am very happy with the way the book has been published.
With this book, the artist provides a table of contents with the title of each of his pieces of art. I really appreciate that extra touch as many of the titles give context to his intent with the design.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.
30 Hand-drawn illustrations with white on black background (some gray scale elements as well)
Designs are printed on one side of thin, slightly rough non-perforated paper typical of CreateSpace. While the paper is actually white, the background of the designs are printed in black.
Glue Binding
Easy to open to flat position for coloring
Designs do not merge into the binding and there is plenty of room to cut pages out if you choose to do so
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page to some degree. Water-based bleed through in spots while alcohol-based bleed through freely
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of page. India ink can bleed through if you use multiple layers or apply heavily.
Colored pencils work well with this paper. Both oil and wax based provide good color when I use multiple layers of the same color. I am easily able to blend (using a pencil style blender stick) and layer multiple colors as well. Hard lead pencils leave dents through the back of the page.
Because of the bleed through and dents, I suggest (and use) a blotter page below my working page no matter what medium I use. I prefer card stock but several sheets of heavyweight paper work as well.