Daily Archives: March 8, 2017

Victorian Romance – The Memory’s Wake Coloring Book (Fantasy Colouring by Selina) (Volume 13)

By: Selina Fenech

Rating: 5 of 5

I really like Selina Fenech’s artwork and am absolutely thrilled with her take on Victorian Romance. It appears that the artwork is inspired by her series of novels called The Memory’s Wake. I just picked up the first volume of the series and will enjoy reading it as I color in this coloring book.

The designs, which are detailed and have some intricate and small areas to color, follow in a story format with the brief story excerpt or summary printed on the facing page. Thus, the designs are printed on the front of the page and there is a continuing story printed on the back of the page. If you use bleed-through media (see below), it will disfigure the story but it should remain readable.
The figures in the designs are beautiful and the settings are quite lush. It definitely evokes the look and feel of Victorian Romance novels that I have in my mind.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
25 x 2 each (total of 50 pages) beautiful line drawing designs based on Victorian Romance by Selina Fenech
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical inexpensive quality used by CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not extend into the binding area. The designs have double framing lines at the outer edges
Glue Binding
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.
I like to use a blotter when working in the 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.

Colour My Sketchbook WILD

By: Bennett Klein

Rating: 5 of 5

I have a number of Bennett Klein’s coloring books and those have generally deal with fantasy. In Wild, the emphasis is on wild animals with a very realistic look.

The animals are set against beautiful lace-type backgrounds. For the most part, the animals are done in grayscale and the background are more like line drawings but are done in lighter tones of gray. All but one of the designs are printed primarily on white background with the lone exception done on a black background.
Because of the way the designs are presented, I will be able to use both my markers and my colored pencils while coloring in this book. I really like this as this is my preferred coloring method (markers for background and pencils for details.)
This coloring book is done as a collaborative effort with Mae Klein (his daughter, I think?) and I noticed that was also true of the recent Dragons coloring book, too.
The artists have once again provided a table of contents with the title of the designs. While they don’t list the animals by name, it is fun to see what they thought of each of their designs, such as Baying Babes for a set of three wolves.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.
25 Hand-drawn wild animal grayscale designs with beautiful backgrounds
Designs are printed on one side of thin, slightly rough non-perforated paper typical of CreateSpace. All of the paper is white; even the one with black background, (it is black tone 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.

Memory’s Wake Victorian Romance – Grayscale Coloring Edition (Grayscale Coloring Books by Selina) (Volume 5)

By: Selina Fenech

Rating: 4 of 5

I think it is really interesting that Selina Fenech is releasing both the line drawing version and this grayscale version of Victorian Romance at the same time. I purchased both and found that the same designs are in each but, of course, have a completely different look and feel (line drawings versus grayscale.)

I’m pleased to have both but I found that, as with another of Ms. Fenech’s grayscale books, a number of the designs in this book are somewhat dark compared to others of her books. I can still work with designs but I will have to be careful which colors I use to avoid having the finished designs look a bit muddy. I will post a silent flip through video of the entire book so you can decide for yourself if it will work for you.
I believe that the artwork in these books are inspired by her series of novels called The Memory’s Wake. I just picked up the first volume of the series so I will understand more about the designs as I color them.
The designs, which are detailed and have some intricate and small areas to color, follow in a story format with the brief story excerpt or summary printed on the facing page (same storyline as the line drawing version of the book.) Thus, the designs are printed on the front of the page and there is a continuing story printed on the back of the page. If you use bleed-through media (see below), it will disfigure the story but it should remain readable.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
25 x 2 each (total of 50 pages) Victorian Romance inspired grayscale designs
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical inexpensive quality used by CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not extend into the binding area. The designs have double framing lines at the outer edges
Glue Binding
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; however, some of the darker designs had a tendency to smear using this type of blender. I found that liquid forms (gamsol or mineral spirits) did a better job. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I also found that hard lead pencils (like Verithins) leave dents through the paper.
I like to use a blotter when working in the 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.