Daily Archives: May 30, 2017

Charles Santore: Illustrations from Classic Tales Coloring Book

By: Charles Santore

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a Charles Santore coloring book published by Pomegranate. It is a mix of various fairy tales and story books, including some designs which are included in his coloring books on a specific title, such as Snow White and Aesop’s Fables. Some of the pictures have darker shading than others and most have elements of grayscale coloring rather than simple line drawings. I treat them as if I were working on a full grayscale design by laying down a foundation of color using alcohol-based markers. Once that I am done with that layer, the gray shading became the shading in my colors. I then add colored pencil details and highlights.

The designs are really elegantly drawn with fine details from the original artwork. Thumbnails of the original watercolors of each design are printed in glossy prints on the inside of the front and back covers. I appreciate this touch as at times I need to look at the pictures to determine which part of the design I was coloring. You can follow the colors in the picture or, as I do, use my own color palette.
This is what I experienced in coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.
22 Fairy Tale and Story book designs based on the original artwork by Charles Santore with lots of gray shading
Designs are printed on one side of the page
Paper is heavyweight, slightly off-white, slightly rough to the touch and non-perforated
The designs are bound by two heavyweight staples which can be removed to release all of the page from the book without any loss of design.
Designs do not merge into the binding area
Pages can be cut out if you wish without losing any design elements.
Book easily opens to a flat position for coloring.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper easily.
Water-based markers leave shadows and slight spots of color bleed through on the back of the page
If I use markers while coloring in this book, I use a blotter of card stock or heavy weight paper below my working page. It keeps seeping ink from marring the design on the page below.
Gel pens and India ink pens do not bleed through the page.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. It has a slight roughness to it that allows good pigment coverage from both oil and wax based pencils. I was able to layer and blend easily with both as well.

Color Your Own Victorian Fairy Paintings (Dover Art Coloring Book)

By: Marty Noble

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely coloring book of Victorian fairies. The designs are based on famous artwork and have been adapted into line drawings by Marty Noble. The designs are all quite elegant and have full backgrounds. They are detailed and some have intricate and small areas to color.

While I wish that the book was printed on only one side of each page, I really like that the original artwork is attributed (though it might have been nice if that was done on a single page rather than at the bottom of each page.) I also like that there are full color thumbnails of each of the original artworks. Those are situated at the inside of the front and back cover.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing it with my coloring medium.
30 Victorian Fairy designs derived by Marty Noble from famous artwork designs
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is medium weight, slightly rough, white and non-perforated
Staple bound with three heavy duty staples
Designs stop well before the binding area and can be removed in whole from the book by removing the three staples at the binding. Each of the designs has a framing line at the outer edges.
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.

Coloring Dragons Coloring Book

By: Amy Brown

Rating: 5 of 5

I own a couple of coloring books by Amy Brown which feature faeries. In this coloring book, the focus is on dragons. While this is one of her newer books (published 2015) I was really pleased to see that others of her older and out of print books are being re-printed once again.

The dragon designs have a bit of detail to them but on the whole, I find them open and easy to color. As with all of her books, there is a sense of movement, elegance and grace to her creations. The dragons are not menacing in this book and some of them are in cute poses (such as reading a book or having a tiny faery atop their nose.)
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.
20 Hand-drawn Dragon Designs by Amy Brown
Designs are printed on one side of thin, slightly rough non-perforated paper typical of CreateSpace.
Glue Binding
Easy to open to flat position for coloring
Designs do not merge into the binding and there is plenty of room to cut pages out if you choose to do so
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page to some degree. Water-based bleed through in spots while alcohol-based bleed through freely
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of page. India ink can bleed through if you use multiple layers or apply heavily.
Colored pencils work well with this paper. Both oil and wax based provide good color when I use multiple layers of the same color. I am easily able to blend (using a pencil style blender stick) and layer multiple colors as well. Hard lead pencils leave dents through the back of the page.
Because of the bleed through and dents, I suggest (and use) a blotter page below my working page no matter what medium I use. I prefer card stock but several sheets of heavyweight paper work as well.