Daily Archives: February 6, 2017

Hippie Animals Coloring Book (Coloring is Fun) (Design Originals) 32 Groovy, Totally Chill Animal Designs from Thaneeya McArdle, on High-Quality, Extra-Thick Perforated Pages Resist Bleed-Through

By: Thaneeya McArdle

Rating: 5 of 5

I own several of Thaneeya McArdle’s coloring books, including one called Dapper Animals. In this new book, Ms. McArdle goes to the other end of the fashion spectrum and gives us Hippie Animals. While most fall firmly in the category of Hippie, I think a few cross over into the more modern category of Hipsters. In any case, they are cute and are extremely fun to color. It’s time to pull out your psychedelic colors and make a groovy rainbow out of their outfits. There are love beads, bell bottoms, and granny glasses. The peace symbols and the flower headbands remind me of my older sisters during the hippie period.

The designs are detailed with lots of fun doodles to color. The eyes on most of the animals has been done in a shaded grayscale. It makes for a very different eye that what I usually do but it is an unusual and nice change. The back of the page has quotes by famous individuals and unknowns that mostly deal with peace and love (the hippie mantra). I really like that a number of them are quotes from songs. It appears that the publisher has changed from color print on these back pages back to light gray print. I prefer that as sometimes the color could show through to the front of the page depending on which medium I work with.
Once again, I love the designs in this book but I am less pleased with the way that the publisher is printing 8 of the designs in less than full size. They have included a thumbnail color sample, some sample colors used in their design for inspiration and a few words to talk about the colors. It takes up the bottom 2.5 inches of the page. This information could be printed on a separate page or on the actual color sample page rather than on the coloring page.
In this book, it makes less of a difference than in other books. The designs can still be colored as there aren’t tiny elements but I would much rather color a full page designs. As the designs are not difficult to color, I won’t detract any stars from my review.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
32 Cute and detailed designed Animals in Hippie Fashions 24 Full Size and 8 Medium Size
Printed one side of the page back of page has soft gray design, journal lines and a quote appropriate to the subject of the coloring book
Paper is medium weight, white, slightly rough and perforated
Glue Binding
Designs stop well before the perforations
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through the page in heavy spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens can spot through to 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. Hard lead pencils can dent through the page.
I use a blotter page of card stock or heavyweight paper (two sheets) to keep seeping ink and dents from marring the pages below. I recommend using a blotter or that you remove pages before coloring.

Beauty in the Bible: Adult Coloring Book Volume 3, Premium Edition (Christian Coloring, Bible Journaling and Lettering: Inspirat)

By: Paige Tate

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the third in a series of Scripture and designs by Pen + Paint. I have the previous books in the premium version and was happy to see a new book of designs in the same format. The concept behind the designs is the same. The Scripture is what is front and center with the coloring design elements around it. Some of the designs pertain to the verse while others are more of decorative value.

It’s always a real pleasure to pull out my Christian coloring books. I use them as part of my prayer and praise time. I choose the verse that speaks to me that day, color it, meditate on it, research more about it and use it to guide my prayer that day.
Unlike the two previous books, this coloring book does not give attribution to images from Shutterstock. I’m not sure if that means that the designs are original as it does not list Pen + Paint as the illustrator either. The designs have a lovely hand-drawn look to them which is my favorite style of design.
This coloring book contains 30 larger designs and 12 smaller ones. All of the pages are perforated at the binding area. The small ones are printed two to a page and you have to cut them on the provided cutting line to separate them from each other. The larger design will fit an 8 x 10 inch frame and the smaller design will fit a 5 x 7 inch frame. The 12 smaller designs are not unique and new designs but rather smaller versions of 12 of the larger designs.
The designs are all Scripture-based with verse citations and are from the following translations: Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), New King James Version, and the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.)
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
30 Large Format and 12 Small Format Scripture Based Designs in for a total of 42 coloring projects
Designs are printed on one side of the page
Paper is perforated, antique white, slightly rough and medium weight
Designs do not cross over the perforations
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper
Water-based markers left shadows of color on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens left indistinct shadows on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils with good results. I was able to get good, deep pigment. I could layer easily (both same and different colors.) Blending was also easy using a pencil style blending stick.
I use a blotter page of card stock or heavyweight paper (two sheets) to keep seeping ink from marring the pages below. I recommend using a blotter or that you remove pages before coloring.