Daily Archives: September 18, 2017

Creative Haven Merry Christmas Designs Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Suzanne Anoushian

Rating: 5 of 5

The Christmas season is my favorite of the year. I like to do all sorts of crafts and coloring Christmas designs is something I really enjoy. Merry Christmas Designs is by artist Suzanne Anoushian who is new to me. The designs range from Santas to Christmas trees to elves, wreathes, stockings and all sorts of things I think of for the season. Each of the designs also provide information, songs, or even stories that relate to Christmas as well.

I chose to do a design based on glass ornaments as I like to collect a wide variety of ornaments, including vintage glass ones. I had a lot of fun using both markers and gel pens (especially ones with glitter and metallic looks.) I’ll post a photo of my first project as well as samples from the book.

The designs have a sketch-style look to them. Even the words look hand written in very neat penmanship. The designs are detailed though not what I would call intricate to color.

This is what I experienced 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 hand-drawn Christmas inspired designs with lots of Christmas information

Designs are printed one side of the page

Paper is 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 when I use more than one layer of color.

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 pencil style 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.

The Night Before Christmas Coloring Book (The Classic Edition)

By: Charles Santore

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a wonderful entry in the series of Classic Coloring books featuring the artwork of Charles Santore. The poem is by Clement C. Moore and the illustrations are by Charles Santore. Along with the poem and the designs, there are small color pictures from the illustrated version of this book on the inside front and back covers. That way, you can use similar colors if you so choose.

The coloring book is a larger than standard format. The designs are mostly done in line drawing form with some designs having considerable shading included. Those few images border on the edge of being grayscale designs.
The poem and illustrations are set up in true storybook style, with the text on the left hand side (back of page) and the illustration to the right. The illustrations match well with the text on the facing page with a lot of emphasis on images of Santa.
Some mediums will bleed through the page (see below), which will interfere with the text but if that doesn’t bother you, you can treat the book as if the designs were one sided.
This is what I found while coloring in the book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
23 Designs inspired by the famous poem The Night Before Christmas. Illustrations are by Charles Santore.
Designs printed on one side of the page with storybook text on the back.
Paper is white, every so slightly rough to touch, medium weight and non-perforated
Hybrid glue and sewn binding (lots of small stitches.) You cannot snip threads to remove pages from the book.
Designs stop short of the binding and have a framing line at the outer edges
Book opens easily to flat position for ease of coloring.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers and India ink markers leave a slight colorful shadow on the back of the page.
Gel pens do not bleed through an left an indistinct shadow on the back of the page.
Colored pencils did well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I was easily able to get good pigment with multiple layers of the same color. I also was able to layer multiple colors and blend well using a blender stick.

Chibi Girls 2: A Cute Coloring Book with Adorable Girls, Playful Scenes, and Fun Adventures

By: Jade Summer

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the second coloring book of Chibi Girls designs by Jade Summer. There are 30 different designs (with 2 copies of each design for a total of 60 coloring pages.) The designs show a lot of fun little Chibi girls in a variety of places and occupations. The designs include a Samurai girl, a fairy princess, an elf, a surfer, a birthday girl and many more. Each design is cuter than the last. There are no repeats from the last book.

The word chibi is a Japanese slang term for small person. The cute little girls in this book are small but have beautiful big eyes and even bigger personalities. The designs are detailed with full backgrounds; however, they are not intricate and hard to color.
While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
30 unique designs x 2 each cute Chibi girl designs for a total of 60 coloring pages
Designs are printed on one side of the page
Paper is typical of CreateSpace: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated. The back of the page is printed black.
The designs do not merge into the binding. There is a heavy framing line at the outer edges of the design to give the project a more finished look, especially for framing.
Glue Binding (there is room to cut the pages out if you choose to do so.)
Though you cannot see the bleed-through easily due to the back of the page being printed in black, I recommend the use of a blotter page when working in this 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.
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.