This is a lovely set of designs which are intricately hand drawn – one might even say minutely drawn in some instances. This is a book I suggest for individuals with good eyesight and a steady hand. If you have vision issues or issues with fine motor skills, this may not be the book for you. You will need some extra fine point coloring medium to complete some of the pictures but they are really beautiful and well worth the effort. There are land animals, birds, and fish. I really love the bee designs and will enjoy coloring those even though when I see a bee in real life, I make for the hills.
The book is printed on heavy weight white perforated paper. The binding is glued rather than sewn. The designs stop well before the perforations. Because of this, you will not lose any portion of the design when removing a page from the book. My only issue with the printing of this book is that almost all of the designs stop without a framing line around them. The elements at the edge are all left unfinished. That causes a bit of grief when coloring and makes for a less finished looking project. I hope that the publisher (Harlequin) includes framing lines on their future coloring books. It makes a world of difference. Otherwise, I’m really pleased with how this book has been put together.
All alcohol-based markers bleed through and all water-based markers leave a shadow on the back of the page. My India ink pens did not bleed through at all. My gel pens did not bleed through and did not require extra drying time. My coloring pencils worked well with good blending noted for my soft lead pencils. I noted that there are intricate details in this book. I suggest either a well-sharpened hard lead (like Prismacolor Verithins) or small nib gel pens such as Uni-ball Signo 0.28 and 0.38 for these areas. I simply could not get the points of my softer lead pencils into these areas. My ultra-fine markers fit in but seeped across the lines pretty quickly.
These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:
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
This is a lovely set of designs which are intricately hand drawn – one might even say minutely drawn in some instances. This is a book I suggest for individuals with good eyesight and a steady hand. If you have vision issues or issues with fine motor skills, this may not be the book for you. You will need some extra fine point coloring medium to complete some of the pictures but they are really beautiful and well worth the effort. There are land animals, birds, and fish. I really love the bee designs and will enjoy coloring those even though when I see a bee in real life, I make for the hills.