Monthly Archives: May 2017

Creative Haven Alice in Wonderland Designs Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

I am a fan of both Marty Noble and of Alice in Wonderland coloring books, so I was very happy to find that Ms. Noble had created an Alice in Wonderland coloring book. While many of the Alice coloring books are story books as well, this is a coloring book of simply beautiful and detailed designs.

You can tell the story as you go along as Ms. Noble has included many iconic scenes from the book. She even included a few favorite characters from Through the Looking Glass as well (Humpty Dumpty and Tweedledum and Tweedledee.) The designs are inspired by the classic drawings by John Tenniel but have Ms. Noble’s flair as well.
The designs are quite detailed and some have intricate and small areas to color. As a fan of Alice books, I am extremely happy with this book. I also hope that Ms. Noble continues to bring other classic story tales to coloring books in the future.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
31 designs by Marty Noble inspired by primarily Alice in Wonderland but with a few from Through the Looking Glass
The designs are printed one side of the page
Paper is the usual Creative Haven quality: white, medium weight, slightly rough and has perforated pages. I’ve noticed that some Creative Haven books have slightly rougher paper than others. This is one of the ones that is slightly more rough.
Glue Binding but with perforated pages so removing a page is fairly simple.
The designs stop well before the perforations and each design has a framing line at the outer edge.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper
Water-based markers bleed through in spots and show colorful shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through when I apply more than one layer of ink.
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to get good color, layer the same color and multiple colors and blend easily using a pencil style blender. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils with similar results. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.
I suggest either removing pages from the book to color or using a blotter page under your working page. I like card stock as it keeps ink from seeping through and damaging the pages below.

Mermaids in Wonderland: A Coloring and Puzzle-Solving Adventure for All Ages

By: Marcos Chin

Rating: 5 of 5

Mermaids in Wonderland is the second beautiful coloring book by Marcos Chin. There are many beautiful undersea designs with many mermaids. There is also fish and other sea creatures and plants. The designs are detailed and fun to color. While there are small areas to color, for the most part, I don’t consider the designs to be intricate and difficult to color.

As with Mr. Chin’s earlier coloring book, this one is divided into two parts. The first (and larger) part is white background and the second part is with black background. There are a lot (more than I prefer) puzzle solving opportunities on the pages. I wish that the artists would put the puzzle queries on a single page (with pointers to the pages involved) and leave the wording off the coloring page. That’s my personal preference but others may like the puzzles as-is.
The cover of this book is very pretty. It has copper metallic accents and some of the elements are touched with clue and green tones while others are left as black on white line drawings. The front and back cover fold out with coloring opportunities on the inside (white background at the front cover and black background at the back), however, the paper is slick. There are also four detachable (perforated) postcards printed on a good heavyweight card stock. The postcards are pre-set up for address and stamp areas.
In my coloring book, the alignment of the pages was quite good. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so you can remove several whole pages at a time without loss of design by snipping a few threads. I was able to get the book to lay flat by breaking the spine slightly by push down very hard to fully open the book.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
94 pages of Mermaid Designs with a considerable number of puzzle to solve
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly smooth and non-perforated
Sewn Binding
Many designs spread across two pages
Many designs merge into the binding area (especially two-page spreads)
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers can spot through and leave shadows on the back of the page. As with the prior book in this series, my worst experience was with Staedler triplus fineliners. The brush end of Tombow dual markers did not bleed through or leave shadows.
India Ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through or leave shadows. Gel pens take more time to dry than usual.
Colored pencils worked with with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based with good results. While the paper is lightly smooth, it still had enough tooth for good pigment, layering and blending.

Chibi Girls: A Cute Coloring Book with Adorable Kawaii Characters, Lovable Manga Animals, and Delightful Fantasy Scenes

By: Jade Summer

Rating: 5 of 5

This is my second Chibi Girls coloring book by Jade Summer (note that this is not a duplicate of the first one of the same title). There are 25 different designs (with 2 copies of each design for a total of 50 coloring pages.) The designs are cute fantasy girls are drawn in manga style with full backgrounds. The designs are quite detailed and some contain small areas to color. The designs; however, are not what I consider intricate and difficult to color.

The word chibi is a Japanese slang term for small person. The cuties in this book are small but have beautiful big eyes and lots of personality. The designs put the girls in many scenarios, including a ballerina, a witch, a steampunk girl, a Roman warrior, an Egyptian princess and much more.
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:
25 x 2 each fun Chibi girl designs for a total of 50 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.

Thailand Escape: My Colorful Trip Through Exotic Lands

By: Jade Gedeon

Rating: 5 of 5

I own three other coloring books by Jade Gedeon with this book, Thailand Escape being the fourth to add to my collection. I like to (and did) buy a second copy of this coloring book as I like to use one for primarily markers and colored pencil accents and another for use with water soluble and Inktense pencils.

The quality of the coloring book is the same as the previous three, with high quality cream tone paper with a distinctly rough touch. The designs show Thailand from what I consider the point of view of a tourist. There are architectural designs, designs which show the food and dress of the country and also some which bring the face of the people to the coloring book.
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 three 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.
Thailand inspired 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.

Yuko Higuchi’s Magical Coloring Museum

By: Yuko Higuchi

Rating: 5 of 5

The designs in this coloring book are unusual and interesting. It shows the story of a girl and her younger brother traveling through a fantasy land. They turn into (in one shape or another) the animals and plants that they come across. The designs are very well done and have an almost sketch like quality to them versus a simple line drawing. The use of cats in the designs is something that I have seen In Yuko Higuchi’s books for artwork so it is lovely to see them in this coloring book.

The designs are detailed in some respects but many have a large amount of blank space around them. There is a heavy use of black for color and shading and the backgrounds of most of the pages have colors. The book has a dustcover which has lovely colors. The actual attached cover is white with aqua printing and could be colored if you wish to do so. The inside pages of the dustcover and the attached cover are blank white.
The exceptions are the pages at the front of the book and the and one at the end. These pages are cream in color and have a completely different texture than the rest of the pages. These pages are almost like vellum as they are fairly translucent. One side of the page is rough and the other side is slick and glossy. The rough side takes color well but the glossy side does not.
Unfortunately, while the designs are printed on only one side of these pages, the texture of the page alternates, first glossy, then rough, then glossy, etc. I’m not sure why this was done but it makes coloring uneven. Also, all medium wet and dry, either bleed through or show through on these pages. If you watch my silent video or look at some of the photos, you will see that you can easily see the designs through the back of the page on these translucent pages.
The use of two types of paper is a real departure for the publisher of this coloring book (Laurence King Publishing), who did the original coloring books for Johanna Basford. I must admit that the change of paper is not something that I like about the book. I wish that all of the pages had been done with opaque paper so that my coloring would be consistent. If I could, I would give the book a 4.5 because of the paper but as I cannot, I round up to a 5.
The rest of the pages have a completely different look and feel. They are opaque, medium weight and have a slightly rough feel.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.
98 pages of designs (including title page and copyright page)
Most of the book is printed both sides of the page with just a few pages at the front printed on one side only
Two types of paper are used in this book: 1) thin, translucent cream with both a glossy and rough side and 2) medium weight, slightly rough white paper most of which had some sort of pre-printed color background
Most designs extend into the binding area with many two-page spread designs.
Glue Binding
My color mediums worked different with the two types of paper:
Translucent Paper:
All mediums either bled through or showed through plainly, including wax and oil based pencils. Pencils did not work as well on the glossy side color was lighter and blending results in some smearing of colors rather than a nice blend. Gel pens took a considerably longer time to dry. Also, using a hard point pencil or pen left dents through the paper.
Opaque Paper:
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers and India ink pens left slight shadows on the back of the page.
If you use markers with these pages, you will likely mar the designs on the back of the page.
Gel pens did not bleed through but took a little extra drying time.
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.

Cinderella: Grayscale Adult Coloring Book (Beautiful Fairy Tales) (Volume 2)

By: Ruth Sanderson

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a really elegant set of grayscale designs. The designs are based on the illustrations in Ruth Sanderson’s storybook version of Cinderella. As this is the second grayscale coloring book based on one of Ms. Sanderson’s illustrated storybooks, I am looking forward to seeing more of the tales brought to coloring books in the future.

The beautiful designs are extremely detailed and have small and intricate spots to color.
There are 24 designs in this book and, what is very interesting, is that there are 12 bonus pages that are duplicates of half of the original designs in the coloring book. This is fun to try different techniques or colors on (or to give away to friends if you are so inclined.)
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
24 Grayscale designs plus 12 bonus designs based on the fairy tale Cinderella for a total of 36 coloring pages
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 a framing line 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 areas of the designs had a tendency to smear using this type of blender. I found that liquid forms (Gamsol or mineral spirits) did a better job. This doesn’t bother me as I generally do not use a blender on grayscale designs. 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.

I Don’t Know What They Are. I Just Draw These Things!: An Adult Coloring Book of Otherworldly Creations

By: Fred Von Tobel

Rating: 5 of 5

I like to color unique and different styles of fantasy. This is a coloring book that fits that description to a T. The designs are imaginative and include many fantasy creatures, a few scantily clad (or less) females and more. Some of the creatures border on the grotesque but never cross the line to downright ugly. Some of them are even cute in their strangeness. That the artist has a great sense of humor is evident not only in his designs but also in both his dedication statements and the after statement about the artist.

The designs (which appear to be hand-drawn) are detailed but not what I consider intricate and small to color. There is a heavy use of black in some of the designs both for shading and as a pre-filled in color. The lines are a thicker black than many other coloring books.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
31 line drawing fantasy designs by Fred Von Tobel
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 a dark black framing line 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 black areas of the 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.

Vera Bradley Coloring Collection

By: Vera Bradley

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a stunning collection of 80 postcard size designs inspired by fabric designs by Vera Bradley. There are four separate small format books (which are currently also sold separately for about the same amount as all four in this set.) The books are Color Bold, Color Beautiful, Color Bright, and Color Strong. The size is approximately 6 x 4 inches and the designs are printed on a fairly heavy card stock.

The designs are printed on one side of the note with an inspiring saying and journal lines printed on the back. Also on the back is the name of the fabric which inspired the design and the date it was released. At the front and the back of the book are full color thumbprints of the original fabric so you can be inspired by the original or decide to go your own way.
The books are well put together. They each have a glossy, full color cover, a white ribbon attached bookmark and are glue bound similar to notepads. They are extremely easy to remove (just turning the pages started to tear the page away from the binding. The four books arrive in a heavy cardboard sleeve that is perfect for storing them.
The paper has a slight roughness to the touch which makes them wonderful for use with colored pencils (both wax and oil based.) While alcohol-based markers bled through the note slightly, water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens did not. If I want to use alcohol-based markers, I’ll put a couple of pieces of paper below my working page to keep ink from seeping through or simply remove the card from the book before I start to color.
I love Vera Bradley items and am thrilled with these cards to color. I intend to color them and mount them on home made presentation cards to make into gift cards. I will transfer the information from the back of the note to the inside of my note card. I will also pick up another set to keep for myself. I am also picking up at least two more of these sets to give as gifts to friends who color. I think they are fantastic and a wonderful value as well.

The Neil Gaiman Coloring Book

By: Neil Gaiman

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of designs based on stories by Neil Gaimans stories for children. The illustrator in this book is Jill Thompson. The stories include: The Graveyard Book, Coraline, Fortunately, the Milk, Instructions and Crazy Hair. Some of the designs are slightly macabre but are quite fun and represent the stories really well. While the designs are detailed in nature, they are not what I consider intricate and difficult to color.

There is a heavy use of black for shading (including cross hatching) and as a pre-printed color throughout the coloring book. As colored pencils (my medium of choice for this book), shows up on black, I will have to be careful when coloring near the bigger patches in the designs.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
96 pages of designs based on Neil Gaiman stories(includes title and copyright pages as all pages have coloring elements on them.)
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is medium/heavy weight, white, slightly smooth and non-perforated
Many designs (including the two page spreads) merge into the binding area.
Hybrid glue and sewn binding with lots of little stitches. If you wish to remove pages, you will have to cut them out. I don’t plan to do so as many of the designs spread across two pages.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper. If you use this coloring medium, it will mar the designs on the back of the page.
Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens did not bleed through the paper but did leave slight shadows on the back of the page.
Colored pencils worked fairly well with the paper. The paper still has enough tooth to get good pigment. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and both worked well. I could layer the same color for deeper pigment, layer multiple colors and blended okay using a pencil style blender stick.