Blooms, Birds, and Butterflies Adult Coloring Book (31 stress-relieving designs) (Studio Series Artist’s Coloring Book)
By: Peter Pauper Press
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a well made and illustrated adult coloring book filled with 31 really lovely and whimsical designs which concentrate on exactly what the title of the book says: Blooms, Birds, and Butterflies. I am enjoying the artwork by Andie Hanna. It has a modern take on type of stylized design that I equate with the Arts and Crafts movement. Where it is different is that the artist uses flowing lines within the design rather than the very straight lines I generally associate with the earlier art movement. The designs are all quite intricate but not to the point of having areas that are too small to color. There are many details to color and that makes it all the more fun.
Some of the earlier Peter Pauper coloring books were by a variety of artists but this book focuses on only Ms. Hanna’s work a change in focus that I am really enjoying. It appears that the publisher is moving into the area of having books focused on a single designer, so I will be looking for more of their books in general and by Ms. Hanna in particular.
The pages are a heavyweight bright white paper that is micro perforated. The designs are printed on one side of the page only. A good portion of the designs do merge into the binding but the parts that will be lost are not essential to the design. On each of these, the designs extend to all sides of the paper and leave elements unfinished at the edge (something that is a pet peeve of mine. I wish that the artist would instead make the picture slightly smaller and put a framing line around it so I am not trying to color unfinished elements on the edge of the paper.) The paper is also acid-free which means that it will not turn colors with age and all the work you put into coloring the designs should be safe. Additionally, the binding can be pushed into lying flat to give you access to make coloring in this book if you prefer that over taking pages out.
The only markers that I own that bleed through this paper are my Sharpies and Copics so it is probably safe to assume that all alcohol-based markers will have the same problem. None of my gel pens or water-based ultra fine markers bleed through. If you are using alcohol based markers or just for general safety, you can put an extra page of heavyweight paper under the page you are working on just in case some color leaches through. Be sure to check your particular markers/pens to see if there is any leaking for that brand.