Daily Archives: September 25, 2017

Creative Haven Lovable Cats and Dogs Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Ruth Soffer

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a very cute coloring book for cat and dog lovers. The designs are of cats and dogs together or separately. It makes for a nice variety of designs. The drawings have a nice level of detail with good backgrounds as well. A number of animal books I own are of just the animal without any form of background. In these designs, the backgrounds are both inside and outside.

The animals have a nice level of detail as well but leave plenty of room for adding your own finishing touches. You can choose make them a single color or to change it up a bit and make them multiple colors. I like the freedom this provides while I am coloring the designs.

What I did miss was the framing line that most Creative Haven coloring books have on the outer edges of the designs. It made it more difficult to have a nicely finished project. Otherwise, I really liked the designs in the book.

I decided to do a design of a kitten and a puppy snuggling in sleep as my first project. I had fun using my oil-based pencils and adding fur to the animals. I’ll post a photo of my first project as well as samples from the book.

This is what I saw while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium. I will list, in the comments section below, the coloring medium I use for testing and for coloring.

31 Cat and Dog designs some with cats and dogs together and some where they are shown separately.

The designs are printed one side of the page

Paper is the usual Creative Haven quality: white, medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages.

Glue Binding but with perforated pages so removing a page is fairly simple.

The designs stop well before the perforations

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper

Water-based markers bleed through in spots and show colorful 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 apply more than one layer of ink.

Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to get good color, layer the same color and multiple colors and blend easily using a pencil style blender. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils with similar results. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.

I suggest either removing pages from the book to color or using a blotter page under your working page. I like card stock as it keeps ink from seeping through and damaging the pages below.

Adult Coloring Book: Nice Little Town Christmas

By: Tatiana Bogema (Stolova)

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the third coloring book in a new series of Nice Little Town by Tanya Bogema (Stolova). In this book, it is Christmas time in the Nice Little Town. There are scenes from both inside and outside of the house. Christmas trees, snowmen, children frolicking in the snow, cats (including one attacking the tree just like at my house), elves and even Santa are among the designs included.

This coloring book (unlike the two prior volumes) is presented in standard format size at 8.5 x 11 inches. It makes it much easier to color as the details are not quite as small. The designs are detailed and some contain a few small elements but for the most part, I don’t consider it intricate or difficult to color. I hope the designer starts using this larger format for all of her new books.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
34 line drawing designs of Christmas in a scenic little town (including title and presentation page.) 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.