Daily Archives: March 2, 2017

Ultimate Coloring Classic Pin-ups by Gil Elvgren Coloring Book

By: Editors of Thunder Bay Press

Rating: 3 of 5

First of all, I must say I love the artwork of Gil Elvgren. I’m pleased with the choice of designs in this coloring book and with the way the book has been printed. What I have problems with is the inordinate amount of shading/highlighting lines that have been pre-drawn on the designs overall and especially on the skin of the subject of each design. The designs have the appearance of having been converted using a software program (original image to line drawing) without much editing done afterward.

I would have loved this book if those lines had been removed or, at the very least, minimized by using an extremely light gray line. It seems as if an attempt to lighten the lines was done as some of them are a tad lighter; however, it should have been made much lighter. As it is, the designs have the mosaic look I associate with color-by-number artwork. That also would have been okay if a color key had been provided. In some cases, I have difficulty figuring out which line means what is it a shaded area, a highlighted area, or simply the skin tone?
Because I otherwise love the book, I’m going to attempt using opaque medium on this book to cover up those lines. As the paper is fairly heavy and the pages are removable, I think I should be able to try a variety of methods to see if something works. As I generally work with translucent medium, I will have to look into various opaque medium and learn how to use them properly.
The designs are quite detailed (even apart from the shading lines) and the artwork of Mr. Elvgren is beautiful. While most of the backgrounds are white, there are a number of designs which have pre-colored backgrounds.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
47 Designs based on the artwork of Gil Elvgren with very detailed shading/highlighting lines
Designs printed on one side of the page with wording printed on the back of the page.
Paper is heavyweight, white (though some have colored backgrounds), slightly smooth and perforated
Sewn Binding
Some designs merge past the perforations into the binding area. Nothing essential to the design will be lost if you remove a page from the book.
Opens fairly flat for ease of coloring.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use this medium, I suggest using a blotter page to keep ink from seeping through. I use card stock but a couple of pages of paper should work as well.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through the page. Some do leave light, colorful shadows on the back of the page.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and found that I was able to apply layers of the same color to get rich pigment. I could also layer multiple colors well and I could blend both oil and wax based pencils easily with a pencil style blending stick.