Daily Archives: January 30, 2017

Color America: A God Bless the USA Coloring Book for Adults

By: Donna Moses

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my second coloring book by Donna Moses and I have found both books to be very charming. The characters in the designs in this book are in a folk style manner with patriotic subjects. The scenes represent individuals and concepts that have gone into making the United States the wonderful country that it is. There are scenes which harken back to the Revolutionary era, to Abraham Lincoln, to the settling of the land and to historic and social events.

This line of coloring books generally deal with the Bible and Christianity. While Color America is not inherently religious in its makeup, there is certainly elements of religion in some of the designs. One of my favorites is Beside the Still Waters which is evocative of Psalms 23 and shows a father and child fishing in a still water pond.
The designs are detailed but not overly so. I don’t consider the artwork to be intricate and small or feel the need to use special small nib pens and markers.
This is what I experienced when coloring in this book and testing the paper with my various coloring medium.
37 Patriotic Folk Style Designs by Donna Moses
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is medium weight, white, slightly rough and perforated
Glue Binding
Designs do not extend past the perforations
Designs all have a framing line around the outside for a more finished look.
Book opens fairly flat for coloring if you heavily crease the spine.
Alcohol based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers bleed through the paper in spots with colorful shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink do not bleed through but can leave shadows on the back of the page.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. Both oil and wax based pencils provide good color, layer, and blend well using a pencil style blending stick. Hard lead pencils can leave dents on the back of the page.
I either remove a page before coloring or use a piece of card stock or several sheets of heavy weight paper as a blotter sheet below my working page to keep ink or dents from ruining the pages below.