Harry Potter Magical Creatures Coloring Book
By: Scholastic
Rating: 5 of 5
Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or movie series except to note that the iconic images seem to be taken primarily from the movie, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.
As with the first book in this series, there is a team of illustrators involved with the designs in this book. Perhaps it is the fantasy aspect of the book or perhaps they are particularly trying to make the designs work better together. Whatever the case, I found the designs in the book to be a more cohesive set over those in the first book. This time around, most of the designs are more on the complex and intricate side rather than simple line drawings. While they are intricate, I don’t find them over-drawn or with such small spaces as to make them next to impossible to color. I have upped my rating on this book to a five from a four on the last book because I like the cohesion of the design much better this time around.
Again, this time around, there are less designs with heavy black space. I consider the change to be a huge improvement and am happy with my design options. Once again, they have included glossy pages at the end of the book. I will use them as I did the first time around, as a reminder of the actual colors of the characters and scenes. I don’t necessarily use those colors but it is nice to have a reminder handy.
The book is printed on both sides of off-white (almost cream) heavyweight and non-perforated paper. A good number of the designs are printed across two pages and merge into the binding (which is glued rather than sewn.) I did a count and this is what I came up with: 42 one page designs, 3 of which are “wallpaper” repeating patterns; 19 designs spread across two pages – 4 of which are wallpaper style designs. Once again, many of the more memorable scenes are spread across two pages and merge into the binding. I was able to slightly break the spine of the book and get it to lay fairly flat. In my copy, the images line up well and no parts of the design were lost in the actual binding.
My first book in this series had a very weird kind of musty odor. I’m happy to say that the second book (while it definitely has a normal coloring book paper and ink smell) does not have the offensive odor I had in the first book. I hope this is true for everyone who buys this coloring book.
All of my alcohol-based markers bled through the paper readily. My water-based markers all left a slight shadow of color through the page – not enough to leak through the book but enough to ruin the design on the back side of the page. My Faber Castell India ink artist pens did not bleed through nor did they leave a discernable shadow. My gel pens all left a slight shadow on the backside of the page. Not enough to see the color but still a shadow of sorts. My coloring pencils were the best option. They worked well and behaved according to their type of lead and use (soft lead and hard lead.) I will use coloring pencils and my India ink pens for this book. If I change my mind, I would do so knowing that other materials will show through. In that case, I would still use a blotter page under my working page to keep the ink from seeping further.
These are the coloring medium that I use for testing for this book:
Markers: 1) alcohol-based – Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based – Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers
India Ink: Faber Castell PITT artist pens (brush tip)
Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, Uni-ball Signo in the following sizes – 0.28/0.38/0.5/1.0 and Tekwriter
Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castel Polychromos