Fanciful and Fantastic Animals and Plants brought by Zifflin and artist Irina Vinnik printed on one side of page

When I first saw this coloring book on-line, I thought perhaps it was a new book in the Doodle series. I was happy to find out that it is an additional book by a publisher I really enjoy. There is also another Doodle book just published, so getting both books were high on my priority list.

Irina Vinnik has created over fifty wildly imaginative designs which feature at least two of each animal she has hand-drawn into each design. The animals are surrounded by plants and are in natural habitats. In some instances, the animals appear to be the male and the female of the species while in others, they appear to be an adult and a young animal together. That these designs are hand-drawn is simply amazing. I love this look and look forward to the challenge of coloring these designs. The designs feature intricate and small areas to color. I think this is a good book for someone with a steady hand and good eyesight. Some of the animals included are: frogs, rabbits, deer, snails, jellyfish, many types of birds and reptiles and much more.

The designs are printed on one side of thin non-perforated white paper. The binding glued rather than sewn but there is plenty of room between the design and the binding for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so. None of the designs merge into the binding. I truly appreciate that the artist has finished all elements at the edges of these designs and/or put a framing line around the outside. It makes it much easier to finish and have a good looking project as well as saving time, ink, and frustration. I wish more artists would do as Ms. Vinnik has done.

All of my markers, whether water based or alcohol based, fine, ultra-fine, or brush tip bled through the paper. My gel pens and my India ink artist pens left shadows of color on the backside of the page. My coloring pencils worked well for their type (hard or soft lead) with the soft blending well and the hard leaving slight indents on the back side of the page. As the book is printed one side only, it is easy to put a blotter page below the page you are working on. Because of the indents, I strongly recommend using a more sturdy blotter for this book (chipboard, card stock, or a folder) rather than just another sheet of paper.

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