Monthly Archives: November 2018

This is my first coloring book by this artist. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I ordered it. It has an inspirational story about a young girl along with designs about her as she follows her dream journey.

The girl travels through many lands – each one more fantastic than the last. She doesn’t have features on her face, which makes for an interesting coloring conundrum. Do you leave her featureless so she can be anyone one or do you (if you have the skill) provide her with features. This was an easy decision for me as I am lacking the skill – so she is anyone and everyone in my book.

The designs are detailed and have full backgrounds. Something that I liked was that one the few two-page spreads, the artist divided the image into two and place it so that no other design was behind it. You don’t lose anything in the binding area.

The words of the story are printed on the back of each design page, so certain medium will leak through and will mar the words. It’s not important to me, but I wanted to let you know what to expect.

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This is my fourth coloring book by Janelle Dimmett. The two of the other three were published by Pomegranate and were of a higher quality of paper. This book and another that I own are published by Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon’s in-house publishing group.)

The paper is quite different; however, I have come to accept that Amazon will not provide independent artists a good quality coloring paper. If I want the artwork by these artists, I have to accept the questionable paper.

I have been contacted (on my Youtube channel) many times to find a good fall-based coloring book. Not Halloween but a truly seasonal inspired book. Even though we are late in Autumn as I write this, I just found it. It’s not a new book but it is a new to me book and I wanted to review it and bring it to your attention this year.

I really like Ms. Dimmett’s style and it is shown to great advantage in these illustrations. The fall images feel just right to me. There are some Halloween images but they are cute and hot scary for kids to color. One of my favorite images in the book is of trick-or-treaters. I think it is just cute and sweet and reminds me of my own childhood and taking my kids out each year when they were little as well.

As usual with Ms. Dimmett, the designs are detailed and some have intricate and small areas to color. Unlike the last self-published book I reviewed by this artist, this book has framing lines or finished elements. The images are also sized great for the book.

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This is the second Archie comic book theme coloring book that I own. This time, the theme is holidays which really seems to mean Christmas for most of the designs. Archie was one of my favorite comic books as a child. I enjoyed all of the kids in Riverdale and even some of the adults.

The designs, once again, appear just like the comic book series and are well done for coloring. Once again, there is a heavy use of black that may trouble some people but is fine for me.

The coloring book is printed on both sides and some of the designs merge into the binding. The pages are perforated and some of the design elements will get lost if you remove a page from the book. The inside of the front and back covers are printed with line drawings but have a slightly glossy finish which can interfere with coloring.

The designs are all detailed and a few, especially those with smaller comic strip scenes, contain smaller and more intricate areas to color.

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This is a really cute dragon book. My other dragon books are a little too scary to share with my grandchildren. This book; however; is absolutely family friendly. The dragons are really sweet with adorable, big eyes.

The designs have full backgrounds. However, the designs are a little simpler in nature than many books in this imprint. Because of this, I find it an easy to color book that children will be able to color as well (but would still be a challenge for the very young child.)

There are two copies of each design included in the book. There are instructions (once you have purchased the book in paper format to be able to download the .pdf version. I think that’s great but I am reviewing based on the paper and the book as you receive it you order the paper version.

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I own a quite a few coloring books published by Julia Rivers imprint of Storytroll Studios. This book is by Trixia Hann A. Ocampo, who I believe is a new artist in my collection. I bought this coloring book last year (just before I became quite ill) and haven’t had a chance to review it until now.

What I discovered is that this same book has been re-released this year by the publisher. Nothing different, just a new release, so be careful if you think you may have bought this previously. If you are interested in my take on this practice, you can hear my opinion of the weekly intro to my flip-throughs for this week on my Youtube channel.

The book is filled with doodle creatures, which I really enjoy coloring. I honestly can’t be an overall cohesive theme of wonderland or fairytales that makes sense to me. All I see is a bunch of doodle creatures with a little girl embedded somewhere in the design.

Something feels a bit off to me in the designs as well. There is a use of heavier lines that is a bit off-putting for me. Otherwise, I find the book to be a pretty fun to color doodle creature book. However, it would not be the first one I own that I would pick up to color.

The designs are detailed and some include smaller intricate areas to color.

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I own a number of the Classic Edition coloring books by Charles Santore. This book is very similar in format to those I have purchased before. The artwork is original and a slightly modern interpretation by Mr. Santore. The text is derived from the work of Lewis Caroll.

I like the artwork and that it is slightly grayscale and I plan to use my colored pencils in this book. That won’t interfere with the storybook text. That is what I usually use in storybook coloring books. I like the idea of a keepsake story to pass on to my grandchildren.

The designs are detailed and continue intricate and small areas to color. As it is based on original artwork and is not generally a line drawing interpretation, this was unexpected.

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 book is a larger rather 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.

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I own a few coloring books by Forest Diver and have become a real fan of his style. Where his other coloring books are focused on a specific design subject this book is quite different.

His style is the same but his designs reflect his interpretation of a inspirational quote/saying. There isn’t an overall theme to the book in this case.

For a change, I think it is quite interesting and should be fun to color. I generally don’t color quote style books but I have made a couple of purchases in this style. I’m glad I bought this one as it shows a wider range of Mr. Diver’s talent. Also, the quotes are interesting and some, for me, are quite inspiring.

The designs are detailed and some include smaller intricate areas to color.

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This is a lovely Japanese inspired coloring book by Ming-ju Sun. While most of her books are released by Dover/Creative Haven, this is an earlier book that was published by Stemmer House.

An odd issue with finding this book on Amazon is that they have the artist/author incorrect. I tried to get them to fix it but, well, getting Amazon to fix anything has become too big a chore for me to deal with. After repeated message and discussions, it still shows Amie S. Ambrose as the artist. I’ll provide the link so you can more easily find it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0880450134/

The illustrations are beautiful and many are two-page spreads, which is different from the work I have by this artist. The images are based on woodblock prints and the beginning of the book gives information about the process and Japanese artwork.

I deducted a half star because some of my two-page spreads don’t line up well. The designs are detailed and some have intricate areas to color.

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