Daily Archives: September 24, 2017

Johanna Basford 2017-2018 16-Month Coloring Weekly Planner Calendar

By: Johanna Basford

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the first weekly coloring engagement calendar I have purchased by Johanna Basford. Compared to other coloring calendars, the paper is equal to or even slightly better. However, the paper is not of the quality of the coloring books. It is more of what I consider medium weight as most mediums either bleed or show through but coloring pencils do not dent through. It is of much better quality than coloring books by CreateSpace, for instance.

The designs in the book are sized appropriately for the book. In some cases, that makes for small and intricate areas to color (especially some of the designs from the already small and intricate Lost Ocean.) Some of the designs are portions of the original designs and thus can be sized up in scale. Most will be easy to color but some will take extra small nib pens and sharp pencils.
The designs are on the left side of the page with the calendar on the right. I like this as I will be coloring each weekly page during the appropriate week. That way if my medium leaks through, it will be marring the week that has just passed. I will still use a piece of card stock (cut to size) under the page so that markers, etc. don’t leak through to the design I colored the prior week.
The page color is slightly ivory and the binding is spiral. The pages are not perforated but you can remove them by cutting them out as the designs do not cross over the spiral area.
I found that both water and alcohol-based markers bled through the page. India ink pens and gel pens left distinctive colorful shadows on the back of the page. My oil and wax based pencils worked well without denting through the page. I was able to layer and blend (using a pencil style blending stick) with ease.