Daily Archives: October 16, 2017

Fairy Tales Doodle Adventure: A Beautiful Coloring Book for Adults, Boys and Girls (Alice in Wonderland, Grimms, Chibi)

By: Julia Rivers

Rating: 5 of 5

Storytroll Designs has a great new coloring book line under their catalog Julia Rivers. The latest coloring book in this series is Fairy Tales Doodle Adventure by Ronie C. Pios. In this coloring book, the illustrations are a mix-up of fairy tales with lots of doodle creatures. The fairy tales are all familiar and some of the characters look a bit like parodies of some famous versions of the tales. However, the really fun part of the designs are the addition of the doodle creatures. These little guys are all over the place! Some are related to the fairy tale but many are random but integrate well into the overall design.

The designs are detailed and some have intricate and small areas to color. That is not surprising as most doodle creature books have intricate areas, which is part of the charm of the characters.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
40 designs which are a mash-up of fairy tale characters with doodle creatures
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical inexpensive quality by CreateSpace printing: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not merge into the binding. While the designs do not have a framing line at the outer edges of the designs, they do have finished elements at the edges for ease of coloring.
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.

Tenderful Enchantments

By: Klara Markova

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the second coloring book I have by artist Klara Markova. She has a lovely and distinctive style which is instantly recognizable. Her designs are both charming and fun to color with fairly detailed illustrations. While some of the designs have intricate areas to color, most do not.

In addition to her fun illustrations, the book is very well made, It has a great hard cover and a lay-flat style binding which means you do not have to break the spine to color. As with her first book, I received a cute bookmark which can be colored as well.
Part of Ms. Markova’s style is the prominent use of shading in many of the designs. The book is not grayscale but it has more shading than most other books I own. The designs include animals, elves/fairies, imaginative forest houses and lots of other fun surprises.
While most of the designs are printed on one side of the page (with several cute little sketches that repeat throughout the book on the reverse side of the page), there are three designs which span across two pages. The artist made sure to have the backside of each of these pages contain the little sketches, so using a bleed through medium will not ruin another design. The items which cross over the binding are minimal and, in my copy, the pages line up excellently.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
Adorable and original hand-drawn artwork. There is also an extra page of cut out elements
Printed on one side of the page with a small, repeated designs on the back of the page
Paper is heavy weight, light ivory, smooth, and non-perforated
Sewn, lay-flat binding with a hard cover
Most designs merge into the binding but are not as difficult to color due to the type of binding utilized
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use this medium, I suggest using a blotter page to keep ink from seeping through. I use card stock but a couple of pages of paper should work as well.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through the page. Some do leave light, colorful shadows on the back of the page.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. While the paper is smooth to the touch, it still had enough tooth to get good pigment. I could layer the same color for deeper color, layer multiple colors and blend using a blending stick. I’ve found that using a liquid blending medium works very well, too.