The Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy Coloring Book
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
Rating: 4 of 5
Rather than discuss how this coloring book is like or different from movies (or the books), I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book. I will note that this coloring book is based on the movie trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. The characters look like those actors or characters rather than any illustrations in this books.
The designs in this book have two distinct styles. This makes sense as the credits for them are both to an individual (Nicolette Caven) as well as a company. They are different but mesh fairly well together. The designs with the wording are generally fairly simple to color while the more elaborate two-page spreads are quite involved, detailed and have intricate and small spots to color.
This coloring book is printed on both sides of the page with all designs spread across two pages. In some cases, this means that the picture is fully spread across two pages and in other cases, the design is on one side of the page and the words that accompany it are on the other side of the page. In the latter case, there is usually a border that spreads across two pages. It is because of this and the glue binding that doesn’t allow for easy access to all parts of the design and which makes it pretty impossible to remove pages from that I gave this book a 4 star rating rather than a 5.
My first project in this book is of Gollum. Because of the issues with coloring medium and the way the book is published, I choose to use coloring pencils and will continue to use them for the remainder of the book.
This is what I experienced while coloring and testing this book:
38 Lord of the Ring Designs based on the movie trilogy (though there are many more pages than 38)
Designs are printed on both sides of the page
Paper is white, heavyweight, slightly smooth and non-perforated
All Designs spread across two pages to some degree
Glue Bound
Designs all merge into the binding area to some degree. You will lose some portion of designs if you remove them from the book.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page.
Water-based markers leave shadows on the back of the page. Tombow brush end markers did the best but the darker and bright colors still left shadows.
India ink pens left shadows on the back of the page.
Gel pens did not leave shadows.
Coloring pencils worked well with this paper. I was able to get good color from both wax and oil-based pencils. I was able to layer and blend well with both soft and hard lead pencils. Hard lead pencils did not leave dents on the back of the page.