Monthly Archives: May 2018

I own a couple of coloring books by Amy Brown which feature faeries. In this coloring book, the focus is on dragons. While this is one of her newer books (published 2015) I was really pleased to see that others of her older and out of print books are being re-printed once again.

The dragon designs have a bit of detail to them but on the whole, I find them open and easy to color. As with all of her books, there is a sense of movement, elegance and grace to her creations. The dragons are not menacing in this book and some of them are in cute poses (such as reading a book or having a tiny faery atop their nose.)

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This is a fairly large coloring book with 64 pages of designs. I’m not sure about the “journey” part of the title but there are many designs of castles and fantasy style creatures and even a very detailed knight.

In fact, detailed is a good description of this coloring book. It has zen tangle style doodling to an abundance. For my taste, it is a trifle too much as in certain images it becomes intricate and difficult to color. There are some designs that I will enjoy coloring but the extremely intricate, small and detailed ones are something I have a bit of difficulty in finishing.

At the time that I am writing this review, it is quiet expensive on Amazon at close to $14.00. I’ve found it at less than half the cost at Walmart.com, so I suggest looking around for Cra-Z-Art coloring books to find the best price.

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I’m a huge fan of Jane Austen’s novels, especially Pride and Prejudice. I remember the first time I read it (when I was in elementary school), I kept a flashlight by my bed so I could sneak and read after bedtime. It is a book that I have read many times over the years and I love to watch movies/series based on it and now am happy to find coloring books that are inspired by it.

The designs cover the book pretty much from beginning to end. There are many scenes that are iconic to me from the book from Mr. Darcy rebuffing Elizabeth Bennet as no being “handsome enough” to Elizabeth and Lady Catherine de Bourgh having it out in the garden. It is fun to see another artists interpretation of the characters.

The designs are very detailed with but not what I consider intricate. There are many areas to color but I can use most coloring medium without any issues. I think crayons might be more difficult unless you can sharpen them to a fairly fine point.

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.

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This is my first floral coloring book by Ruth Soffer so these designs are all new to me. It is a coloring book of large tropical blossoms. On most of the designs, a single blossom or two take center stage. On a few, there is more detail. I grew up and spent most of my adult life in Southern California with many tropical flowers and had a lovely garden where I grew them. As I had family living in Hawaii, I also visited the Islands often. A lot of these flowers remind me of those years.

I was especially pleased to see that the artist included the name of each flower and, interestingly, it was printed on the bound side of the perforations. That way, if you want to remove the page, you don’t have printing on it.

What I didn’t like was that the designs were printed without a frame line at the outer edges. It makes it very difficult to color as unfinished elements simply stop with about a half inch of white margin on all sides. It is also strange as Creative Haven generally has framing lines. What’s also strange is that the two sample designs included in the book (I’ll include them in the photos I post), do have framing lines but their line drawing counterparts do not. As this effects almost every designs to some extent, I dropped my rating to a 4.

The flowers included in the book are (by commonly known name): Hawaiian clermontia, Milkweed, Freesia, Velvetleaf, Hawaiian loosestrife, Heliconia, New South Wales waratah, Miltonia Orchid, Bromeliad, Dahlia, Gladiola, African Daisy, African violet, Tropical water lily, Plumeria, Anthurium, Waimea Canyon nehe, Hibiscus, Manuka, Hawaiian hoawa, Flame lily, Tahian gardenia, Camellia, Hawaiian geranium, Rhododendron, Bleeding heart, Rain lily, Treasure flower, Shell ginger, African tulip and bat flower.

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I was surprised at how well this Lang coloring book is constructed; however, I was not surprised at all by how cute the designs were. I have seen Susan Winget’s designs in household goods and needlework for years and was really happy to find a coloring book filled to the brim with her designs.

The book is called Doodle House and it appears to be a glimpse at Ms. Winget’s sketchbook. The designs are hand-drawn and have the charming less than perfect look I expect from hand-drawn. I think that it makes coloring them more interesting and I am enjoying this book quite a bit.

Two things that I really like about the construction of the book are the spiral binding and the hard covers. The binding makes it easy to open the book to a flat position for coloring. It also makes it easy for leftys to color with the same easy as rightys. The hardcover gives a good flat surface for coloring on the go.

There are many designs with sayings as well as birds, animals and flowers. While it is not a book dedicated to the natural world, many of the designs lean that way. The designs are quite detailed but not what I would call intricate with tiny spots to color. As I mentioned previously, the hand-drawn nature of the artwork does show less than perfect. There are disconnected lines, a bit of uneven spacing, and even lines of varying thickness. It is that which gives it the sketchbook quality.

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This is my first floral books by Nathaniel Wake publishing. It is definitely an interesting take on flowers and some fantasy creatures. As with many Nathaniel Wake designs, many of the images seem to be slightly menacing. In some designs, I’m reminded of Audrey II in “Little Shop of Horrors.” It’s not what I generally look for in a floral coloring book but it is fairly fun change of pace.

The designs have detailed areas but do not have full scale backgrounds. Because of this, I don’t find it a difficult book to color in.

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This is the first coloring book I have based on Little Red Riding Hood. It covers the story from beginning to end (though leaving out the most frightening scenes.) I like that the artist used some discretion and substituted in pepper and sneezing for how Grandma gets back out. I also like that the wolf seems so mild at first (very friendly looking) and his wolf demeanor changes when he gets to Grandmas.

It will be a lot of fun to color in this book. I especially like getting two copies of each design in this book (25 different designs but two copies each) as I can share with my grandchildren when they are ready to color something this detailed.

The designs are quite detailed and some of them contain what I consider intricate and small elements to color. I found that my ultra-fine points, brush points and small nib gel pens worked well as did my colored pencils when sharped to fine points. Crayons would be much more difficult to work with unless you can sharpen them to a small point.

While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from CreateSpace. 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.

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