Daily Archives: May 8, 2017

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.

Richard Doyle’s Fairyland (Dover Art Coloring Book)

By: Richard Doyle

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of designs which have been adapted by Marty Noble from the original designs by Richard Doyle. Mr. Doyle’s artwork dates back to 1870 as a series of illustrations. In 1884, Andrew Lang wrote a story based on those illustrations. The artwork and the blurbs in this book are based on that storybook.

The designs are detailed, some more so than others. However, I would not categorize the illustrations are intricate and difficult to color. Some designs have a heavier use of black as both a color and a shading technique (especially with multiple lines drawn for shading.)
This is a series of illustrations with fairies who are impish and having fun rather than the elegant fairies I usually see in coloring books. It makes for a cute change and is quite fun to color. The designs are mostly horizontal in format and the book includes one design which spreads across two pages.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing it with my coloring medium.
29 Fairyland designs adapted by Marty Noble based on Richard Doyle original illustrations
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is medium weight, slightly rough, white and non-perforated
Staple bound with three heavy duty staples and easily opens to a flat position for coloring.
Designs stop well before the binding area (except for the one that spreads across two pages) and can be removed in whole from the book by removing the three staples at the binding. The designs have a framing line at the outer edges and a short explanatory sentence at the bottom of the design.
Only one design spreads across two pages and it is the center design meaning it is made up of a single page with staples in the middle
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper
Water-based markers spot through and/or leave colorful shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through in spots if you apply heavily or use multiple coats.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. Both oil and wax-based pencils provided good pigment, layered well with the same or multiple colors and blended well using a blending stick. Hard lead pencils did not dent through the page.
If you choose to use any medium other than colored pencils on the pages of this book, you will probably find bleed through or colorful shadows on the design at the back of your working page.