Daily Archives: July 1, 2017

Edward Gorey: Coloring Book

By: Edward Gorey

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a well made hardback book of 25 pen and ink designs by artist Edward Gorey. The designs range from stand-alone designs to those which were used as illustrations in various books. At the front of the book, there is a full listing of the included designs (1 through 25). For those who are familiar with Mr. Gorey’s work, humorous and sometimes slightly macabre tone is no surprise. He illustrated for many famous authors with his distinctive crosshatched drawings which rely heavily on the use of black.

I was thrilled to find this coloring book. I have been enjoying using The Ghastlies quilting fabric line which is also based on Mr. Gorey’s work and have been wishing for a coloring book as well. Because of his crosshatch style, the designs in this book are quite different from those one usually finds in a coloring book.
Because of the heavy use of black in these designs, I will be treating them, for the most part, as if they were done in grayscale. My preferred method of doing grayscale is to use alcohol-based markers as a basecoat and then to add shading and details with colored pencils. However, I will be careful in using colored pencils as these sometimes give an off-color when placed on top of black.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and using my coloring medium to test the pages:
25 Designs based on the pen and ink, crosshatched artwork of Edward Gorey
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly smooth, and non-perforated
Sewn binding with a thin glossy hard back cover
The book opens flat easily.
There is enough room to remove a page if you wish to do so.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper quite readily
Water-based markers can spot through. The exception was my Tombow brush ends did not spot through even with dark and bright colors.
Gel pens and India ink pens did not bleed through but some gel pens took much longer to dry than usual.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based in several brands. I was able to get light pigment as well as heavy (with multiple layers) and to layer colors and blend well using a pencil style blending stick. My hard lead pencils were good color as well with crisp lines and did not dent through the page.