Daily Archives: April 17, 2017

Vampires: A Vampire Coloring Book with Mythical Fantasy Women, Sexy Gothic Fashion, and Victorian Romance Scenes (Coloring Books for Adults)

By: Jade Summer

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of mostly female vampires. There are a few males but the focus is generally on the women. The vampires range from elegant to rather scantily clad pin-up style vampires and the designs range from romantic to battles scenes. Some of the designs have a hint of manga style but I would not characterize the book as that.

The designs are extremely detailed and have many intricate and small areas to color. The designs have a beautiful and flowing style with areas to provide shading and blending if you wish to do so. There are 20 designs in this book which is less than most others but as the publishing company (Jade Summer) has provided two copies of each design, it is still a good value.
While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
20 x 2 each Vampire inspired designs for a total of 40 coloring pages
Designs are printed on one side of the page
Paper is typical of CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated. The back of the page is printed black.
The designs do not merge into the binding. There is a heavy framing line at the outer edges of the design to give the project a more finished look, especially for framing.
Glue Binding (there is room to cut the pages out if you choose to do so.)
Though you cannot see the bleed-through easily due to the back of the page being printed in black, I recommend the use of a blotter page when working in this 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.
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.

Twilight Garden Coloring Book: Published in Sweden as “Blomstermandala” (Gsp- Trade)

By: Maria Trolle

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my first coloring book by Maria Trolle. It is by the same publishers who publish Hanna Karlzon’s books. It is the same beautiful quality publishing with a hardcover and thick cream pages. Ms. Trolle’s designs focus on the garden with lots of flowers and animals.

While most of the designs are done with black lines on cream background, there are a few designs which are cream elements on a black background. It makes for a lovely change of pace right in the same coloring book. While the designs in the book are detailed, I would not categorize them as intricate or having areas with extremely small spots to color.
Because the book is printed two-sided, I’m being very careful with what I use to color in it. I am avoiding using my alcohol-based markers as those bleed through the page (you can see what my test results were with various medium below.)
I’ve also found that it is a tad difficult to color into the binding area on designs which either cross over (two-page designs) or have elements that merge into the binding. Eighteen of the designs spread across two pages and a couple of the single page designs merge into the border so I don’t have issues with the majority of the designs in the book.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing it with my coloring medium.
90+ pages of lovely garden designs by Maria Trolle
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is heavyweight, cream color, somewhat smooth, and non-perforated. A few of the designs have black backgrounds printed on cream paper.
Sewn binding which can easily be snipped to remove a number of pages at a time. The binding is the stay-flat style which allows you to open the book somewhat flat without breaking the outer spine. It is still rather difficult to get the book to open flat and takes some effort.
Some designs merge into the binding area, especially those which spread across two pages.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use these, you will have ink seep through and mar the design on the back of the page.
Water-based markers, gel pens and India ink pens do not bleed through the page.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. I was able to blend, layer the same and multiple colors using both oil and wax-based pencils with ease.

Carnival Escape: Go Wild in this Colorful Parade

By: Jade Gedeon

Rating: 5 of 5

I own two other coloring books by Jade Gedeon with the Carnival Escape being the third to add to my collection. The quality of the coloring book is the same as the previous two, with high quality cream tone paper with a distinctly rough touch. The carnival that this book celebrates is from Trinidad, which is a northern island off the coast of South America. It is held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and is a fun and wild celebration before Lent begins. The designs contain detailed and very intricate areas for coloring.

In this new book Ms. Gedeon brings Carnival to a coloring book. The majority of the designs are of individuals in wild costumes. Other pages show elements of costumes such as masks and headdresses. It would have been nice to include some landscape scenes which is something I missed since they were so predominate in her first two books.
The paper is a cream tone and is heavyweight watercolor paper. There are five double page fold-out designs. All of the pages are perforated for easy removal from the book. As with the first two books, I found once again that all of my coloring medium worked well with this paper. I did find that if my alcohol-based Copic markers that were extremely full and wet, there was a slight tendency for feathering.
This is what I experienced in coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper. As I don’t use watercolors as a medium, I don’t test them. My understanding is that the paper in Ms. Gedeon’s books work well with various watercolor mediums.
Fun Carnival Celebration designs
Printed on one side of the page with five double page fold-out designs
Paper is thick watercolor paper in cream, rough texture and all pages are perforated for easy removal.
Sewn Binding
Designs stop short of perforations
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page and can feather side-to-side if the marker is juicy
Water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens do not bleed through the paper.
Colored pencils work well with the page though, due to the texture, it takes several layers to get a deep pigment. Both oil and wax based pencils worked equally well. I was able to get good color, layer different colors easily and blend extremely easily using a pencil style blender stick.