I first found Kerby Rosanes coloring artwork in his book, “Doodle Invasion” and then again, in last year’s “Animorphia”. When I saw that his new book, “Imagimorphia” was available for order on Amazon, I ordered the UK version in a blink of an eye.
I really enjoy his unusual look at design and have a really fun time coloring all the bits and pieces that he includes in his work. What is even more wonderful is that as much as I like the prior book, each new book is even better. That is absolutely true for me with this book. It still has a good number of animals in it but it expands beyond them into other design concepts as well. My first two projects included a compass and a clock. I used various coloring pencils as I usually do with his artwork.
The UK version of this book is once again published by Lomart. It appears that the US version is once again being published by Plume. I mention this because there was a great disparity between the quality of the two publishing companies with the last book. Lomart was the clear winner. On that basis, I ordered not only the UK version for myself but also for family and friends.
I will purchase a single copy of the US (Plume) version to be able to do another comparison but at this point, I will trust Lomart to provide a quality product. It appears to be the same quality both by my tests and by the weight which is exactly the same as the previous book. I will update this review once the US version is available with comparison information.
This is what I found in the UK version of “Imagimorphia”:
43 Different Designs in a variety of subjects
Designs are printed on both sides of heavyweight white somewhat smooth non-perforated paper
Most designs spread across two pages
Most designs merge into the binding area
Sewn Binding which you can cut with a few snips of thread to release several pages at a time
Can break spine to get the book to lay flat
Alcohol-based markers bleed through
Most water-based markers bleed through (exception was the brush end of my Tombows)
India ink pens left shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens did not leak through
Coloring pencils did really well with this paper. Both wax and oil based pencils provided deep color and blended well. Hard lead pencils made clear and crisp marks but did not dent the back of the page.
The book is made pretty much in the same fashion as the UK version of “Animorphia” if you have that book. What I found that had improved this time around is that my two page spreads lined up very well and I didn’t lose too much into the binding area. That is in part to how Mr. Rosanes positioned his designs with less in the middle and more on both of the sides.
There are still a few pages where you can create your own doodle work (e.g., the tiger head shot and the feathers.) There is also a search feature in the designs and the key for those items are in the back of the book.
