Daily Archives: September 11, 2017

Creative Haven Let There Be Love Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Alexandra Cowell

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely coloring book of hand-drawn, rather sketchy looking designs that celebrate Love of all kinds. There are lots of hearts and flowers, words explaining the type of love shown in the design, and even couples (mostly animals). I especially like the baby carriage design as it is so darn cute. There are also pages of multiple designs that are presented in small blocks. I like the look and the unique quality of that presentation. It gives me a small project (i.e., a block) to finish in a short amount of time. I can usually finish one during a small break in work.

I found the designs to be both detailed and intricate. There are many tiny spaces to color in most of the designs. I used primarily ultra-fine point markers and gel pens on my first project and will certainly be continuing to use these mediums as I color my way through the book. I’ll post a photo of my first project as well as samples from the book.

The designs have a lovely sketch look to them. The hand-drawn quality is especially interesting to me. I like many computer generated and computer drawn designs as well but I am drawn to handwork first and foremost.

This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper. I will list, in the comments section below, the coloring medium I use for testing and for most of my coloring projects.

31 Detailed Sketch style designs with Love as the emphasis.

Designs are printed one side of the page

Paper is typical of Creative Haven: white, medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages.

Glue Binding with perforations so you can remove them one at a time.

The designs stop well before the perforations

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper

Water-based markers bleed through with colorful spots and shadows on the back of the page

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through if you apply heavily or with with multiple layers.

Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to use both wax and oil based pencils equally well. I was able to get good color and to get deeper pigment by layering the same color. I found that I could layer multiple colors and blend easily using a blending stick. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.

I generally prefer to use a blotter page under my working page to keep ink from seeping through but you can also remove pages from the book to color. I like card stock for my blotter page but a couple of sheets of heavyweight paper works as well.

Adult Coloring Book: Nice Little Town (Volume 2)

By: Tatiana Bogema (Stolova)

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the second coloring book in a new series of Nice Little Town by Tanya Bogema (Stolova). I love her style and the fun and cute scenes that she portrays in this little town. This is Volume 2 and it picks up where Volume 1 left off. While there are still cute scenes that look from the interior of a house to the town outside, I found that there was more of a focus on outside scenes in this book. From cats frolicking to a lovely lighthouse by the sea, each design is cute and will be fun to color. In the 7 x 10 inch version of this book, the designs are detailed and have a few small and intricate areas to color.

This is the larger of the two versions of this coloring book (at 7 x 10 inches.) It is also slightly more expense but I think it is well worth the additional cost. I purchased the small version of volume 1 and found it made coloring a more difficult because of the tiny spots. It seems like both versions are being sold on this same page, so be sure to order the size you are interested in.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
32 line drawing designs of a scenic little town (including title page) continues from Volume 1. Also included are a couple of sample pages from the artist’s other books.
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical of CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not merge into the binding area.
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats.
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. I also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.
I like to use a blotter when working in the book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.

Picturing Heaven: 40 Hope-Filled Devotions with Coloring Pages

By: Randy Alcorn

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely Scripture-based coloring book with Devotionals by Randy Alcorn and illustrations by Lizzie Preston. The subject of the book is Heaven. What will Heaven look like and be like according to the Scriptures? The Scriptures and devotionals are on the left side of the open pages and the design for coloring is on the right side. The Bible translations used in the book are listed in the front and are fairly extensive.

I found that most of the designs were representations of the study on the facing page. Perhaps all of them are and a few were too subtle for me to grasp. In any case, I enjoy Ms. Preston’s work and will enjoy coloring this book.
The revelation to me are the devotionals by Mr. Alcorn. I had not read his books but will certainly pick them up. He has a wonderful way of keeping right to the heart of the subject both quickly and eloquently. Each study looks at and discusses a single subject regarding Heaven. Some subjects include: Eternal Freedom from Sorrow, At Last, We’ll Have Time for Everything, Will We Reunite with Our Favorite Pets?, Our Greatest Joy Made Greater, No More Pain, Tears, or Death and much more. I plan to make each devotional a Bible Study lesson for myself. As there are 40 in the book, at the rate of one per week, the book will last close to a year.
The only one nit that I have with the book is the pre-printed flat gold tone on each of the designs. No matter what coloring medium I use, I will not be able to match the color or the texture of the printed color. I will probably use whatever medium I choose for the rest of the design and go over the pre-printed color to make it my own. However, it would have been much better to not have it to deal with.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.
40 illustrations by Lizzie Preston based on Picturing Heaven Devotionals by Randy Alcorn.
Designs printed on one side of the page (with Scriptures and Devotionals printed on opposite facing page.)
Paper is heavyweight, white, lightly smooth, and non-perforated. Each design has pre-printed goldtone elements.
Sewn Binding
Designs do run into the binding area.
Book opens fairly flat for coloring if you crease the spine.
Alcohol-based markers bleed rapidly through the page. If you use these, you will mar the wording on the back of the page. I suggest using card stock or several sheets of paper as a blotter to keep ink from seeping through to the next design.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens did not bleed through. Some of the larger nib gel pens required additional drying time.
Colored pencils worked well with the paper. I was able to get good pigment from multiple layers of the same color. I was able to layer multiple colors and to blend with a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils.
While you can remove pages by either cutting them out of snipping binding threads, I will not be removing pages from this book as I want to keep the studies and illustrations together.