Daily Archives: February 10, 2017

Colour My Sketchbook DRAGONS

By: Bennett Klein

Rating: 5 of 5

I have a number of Bennett Klein’s coloring books and have been hoping that he would do one dedicated to dragons and here it is! It is everything I had hoped for and more. The designs are printed primarily on white backgrounds but a few of them have black printed backgrounds. The dragons have a fierce and very realistic look to them. They are fearsome dragons but seem very gentle with their chosen companions. I am so appreciative of this particular book that I am buying extras for gifts for my friends and family who enjoy coloring fantasy.

As with his other coloring books with black backgrounds, the designs in this format in this book also have wonderful gray tone elements which give the overall look a wonderful accent.
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.
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.
25 Hand-drawn Dragon illustrations with both white and black backgrounds
Designs are printed on one side of thin, slightly rough non-perforated paper typical of CreateSpace. All of the paper is white; if there is a black background, it is printed on white paper.
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.

Bless Our Nest Coloring Book:Including Designs for Bible Journaling (Creative Faith)

By: Robin Pickens

Rating: 5 of 5

Bless Our Nest is a Christian inspired set of designs. Some of the designs have Scripture quotes (with cites) and others have inspirational Christian sayings. Some of the words used in the designs can be colored but many are printed in black on white and the coloring is in the design portion rather than the words. I’m not sure which translation the verses come from as there isn’t a copyright statement to that effect.

The back of the design page has questions and suggestions for activities which will lead you in your Christian walk. There are also some smaller coloring elements and journal lines in a very light gray tone.
The designs put the message front and center. The hand-drawn coloring elements support the message either by emphasizing it or bringing the subject of the message to life in illustration. The drawings are detailed and some have intricate areas to color.
There are 32 pages of designs. Twenty one are of full size designs, three are of smaller elements (such as bookmarks, corner illustrations, and gift tags) and eight are of purposefully reduced designs.
The publisher continues to print 8 pages of their books as medium rather than full size (to include information at the bottom which could be printed elsewhere in the book.) As this is something that they are doing with all of their books, I know when I purchase one what to expect.
While it has caused me to buy many less books by this publisher, especially when I know that artist does extremely intricate designs, I won’t detract a star from my rating on this book as I know that the book will contain these smaller than desirable images.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
32 pages of Christian based designs
Printed one side of the page back of page has soft gray design, journal lines and thought provoking questions or activities
Paper is medium weight, white, slightly rough and perforated
Glue Binding
Designs stop well before the perforations
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers leave colorful shadows and bleed through in very noticeable spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on the back of the page and can spot through to the back of the page if applied heavily.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. Both oil and wax based pencils provide good color, layer, and blend well using a blender stick. 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.