Daily Archives: May 12, 2017

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.