Daily Archives: May 6, 2017

The Search for the Lightbulb Burglar: A Steampunk Coloring Book Mystery

By: David Habben

Rating: 5 of 5

I really liked the designs in this coloring book and so did my husband. I purchased a second copy so we would not have to share!

The coloring book is not really so much Steampunk (which puts emphasis on steam powered machines, etc. with steam being the power of choice rather than gas or electricity.) It is something more like Lightbulb Punk perhaps a new genre where electric light bulbs power everything. In any case, the designs are an interesting and new twist and will be fun to color.
The book is kind graphic novel as it tells the story of looking for the Lightbulb Burglar. It might have been nice to have had a little bit of the story written on the back of the page as some of it was a little hard to follow. This is a small nit as the vast majority of my coloring books don’t have a narrative to follow.
The designs are very well drawn and the paper used is excellent. While the designs are detailed, I don’t consider them intricate or difficult to color.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
48 Designs inspired by (but not really part of) Steampunk about the search for a lightbulb burglar
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is heavy weight, white, slightly rough and perforated
Sewn Binding
The designs stop short of the perforations so you can remove pages without loss of the designs themselves.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper. I use a blotter page of card stock or a couple of sheets of heavy weight paper under my working sheet with this book. It will keep ink from seeping through to the next page. You can also simply remove the page at the perforations before coloring.
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 really well with the paper. The slightly rough texture of the paper provided good tooth which allowed pigment to easily adhere to the page. 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 blend easily using a pencil style blender stick.