Worlds of Color: Welcome to Oz Adult Coloring Book
By: Eric Shanower
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a really fun coloring book with a new take on the characters of the Land of Oz. There are 30 single page designs and a really long 4 page fold out design (which is a collage of the various characters) which will be a good challenge to color. The designs are new and original by Eric Shanower. Mr. Shanower was the illustrator/artist for the popular recent Marvel version of the stories; however, these characters are not at all like the ones in those books. While most people are most familiar with the characters based on the movie, The Wizard of Oz, there were actually many other novels that expanded the characters and the story. The designs in this coloring book are drawn from a variety of works (both novels and short stories) by L. Frank Baum, including:
The Scarecrow of Oz, The Road to Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse, The Littlest Giant An Oz Story, A Magnetic Personality, Tik-Tok of Oz, The Magic of Oz, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Glinda of Oz, The Wicked Witch of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Woggle-Bug book, The Tin Woodman of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, How Adventurers Lost and Found Themselves, Lucky Bucky in Oz, The Witchcraft of Mary-Marie, Rinkitink in Oz, The Purple Prince of Oz, and The Lost Princess of Oz.
While these are not the traditional characters that most of us are used to, they are fun and interestingly drawn. I plan to color all of these and have them on hand when I read the books to my grandchildren.
Each of the single page designs are printed on one side of the white perforated page. The page opposite gives an explanation of which book and quote from the book is represented by the design. The four page fold-out is also perforated on the side of the page closest to the binding. The binding is glued rather than sewn. All of the designs stop well before the perforations and have various types of framing lines around the edge of the design to give them a more finished and polished appearance. If you remove a page from this book at the perforations, you will not lose any portion of the design.
All of my alcohol-based markers bled through the page immediately. All of my water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens did not leak through but they left a faint shadow of color on the backside of the page. My coloring pencils worked very well. The soft lead went down creamy and could be blended easily. The coloring medium I used for testing this book is listed at the bottom of this review. I plan to use chipboard or card stock as a blotter when I am coloring in this book to keep the rest of the book in pristine condition.
These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. 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:
Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers
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, and Faber-Castel Polychromos