Harry Potter Magical Places & Characters Coloring Book
By: Scholastic
Rating: 4 of 5
Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or movie series except to note that, once again, most of 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 two books in this series, there is a team of illustrators involved with the designs in this book. I thought the second book in the series was fairly cohesive but I think this new book takes a step back again. It is easy to see the differences in design styles. There are some designs that are just a tad more detailed than simple line drawings while there are also many which involve extremely small and intricate elements. These will probably take sharp pointed pencils or ultra-fine nibs to color.
I am pleased that, as with the second coloring book, there are less designs with heavy black space. I consider this change from the first book to be a huge improvement and am happy with my design options apart from printing issues (see below.) 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.
I will provide details on the physical coloring book below but here is a quick overview of what I found:
78 Pages of Harry Potter Designs
Designs are printed on both sides of off white/cream page
Pages are not perforated
Designs merge into binding
Designs spread across two pages
Glue Binding
Alcohol based markers bleed through page
Water-based markers leave slight shadows of color on back of page
India Ink pens do not bleed through
Gel pens leave a slight shadow on back of page
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper
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: 34 one page designs, 3 of which are “wallpaper” repeating patterns; 22 designs spread across two pages – 2 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 both the second and this third books does not have the offensive odor I encountered in the first book. I hope this is true for everyone who buys this coloring book.
I am now running consistent tests of various coloring mediums on all of my coloring books. I will list the mediums at the end of this review for anyone interested. Here are the results of my tests:
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 Tombows fared the best and did not leak through with one swipe of the brush but by the second one, there was a definite shadow showing.
My India ink artist pens did not bleed through nor did they leave a discernible 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.) The soft lead pencils blended and layered well and the hard lead made good precise marks and did not leave dents on the back of the page.
I will use coloring pencils, India ink pens primarily for this book. I’ve already started a project using various markers knowing that I will ruin the wall paper style designs on the reverse side of the page. As I would never color that particular designs, it was not a hard decision to make. While using markers, I am using and I recommend that you use a blotter page under the working page to keep the ink from seeping further.
These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. In my tests, I use the medium in a manner that is perhaps more intense than others. I layer multiple coats of water-based makers for blending purposes, color large elements with gel pens, and with coloring pencils, I use multiple layers, multiple colors, as well as blending and burnishing them to see how the paper reacts and if the color moves properly.
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:
Alcohol-based markers – Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine)
Waater-based markers – Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, and Staedler triplus fineliners
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, Caran D’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromos
