Once again, rather than discuss how this coloring book is like or different from TV series or to compare any of the Dr. Who actors and casts, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.
As with the first Dr. Who coloring book (or in this case, colouring book), I really like the illustrations. I actually like these designs even a little better than the first ones as their scenes are a little more interesting and fun to color. The designs are by the same team of illustrators who were responsible for the first book, namely: James Newman Gray, Lee Teng Chew, and Jan Smith. There are 45 designs (even more if you count the title and preface pages.)
The episodes included are from 1964 through 2015, so the range of Dr. Who’s represented is good. This time the designs focus on Dr. Who in various time periods – including Vikings, ancient Egypt, the Battle of Hastings, with Winston Churchill and even with Shakespeare among many others. The designs are well drawn with clean black lines though it is easy to see that these designs are hand-drawn for the most part as the lines are not perfectly straight. Some designs are fairly open and easy to color while others are more intricate and will be a little more challenging but still a lot of fun.
The book is well made once again. The designs are printed on one side of cream colored non-perforated paper. On the back of each page is a thumbnail version of the design along with a quote that is applicable to the design, the name of the episode and the year it was filmed and, in some cases, which Dr. Who it pertains to. The cover can be colored as well and has red foil touches which enhance it. The publisher once again missed an opportunity by not providing designs on the inside of the fold-out, attached cover; however, there are two flaps you can color if you wish where the printing is white on red background. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so removing pages is a matter of snipping threads. A good number of designs merge into the binding area so snipping threads may be the way to go if you decide to remove pages.
This is what I found in coloring in and testing medium on this book:
45 Dr. Who Time Travel Designs
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is heavyweight, cream color, fairly smooth, and non-perforated
Sewn Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. I recommend a blotter page be used under your working page to keep the page below free of seeping ink.
Water-based markers and India ink markers left shadows on the back of the page.
Gel pens did not bleed through but needed extra drying time.
My colored pencils all worked well on the surface of the paper with good color. They layered and blended well though I found that my wax-based pencils worked best for blending. Hard lead did not dent the back of the page.
My review is of the British release of the coloring book and the book is published by Puffin which is a branch of Penguin Random House UK. I am also ordering the US version which is being published by Price Stern Sloan and whose release is currently scheduled for July 2016. I will be doing a comparison of the two books once the US version is released.
