Another fun book in the Color Me series 78 Designs printed on one side of paper

Color Me Fearless is my first full-size coloring book in this series. I have a couple of the books in the portable size and have enjoyed them, so I thought it time to pick up the larger format book. The book has many different styles of designs. Of the 78 designs in the book, 33 are mandalas or mandala style designs. The designs have many intricate and small details and may take using sharp pointed coloring pencils or small nib pens to color.

The book has seven chapters: Courage, Strength, Resilience, Confidence, Power, Adventure, and Freedom. The designs in each chapter is supposed to be symbolic of the title. I get it with some of the designs but others are a bit less obvious and I don’t relate them to the title of the chapter. That doesn’t bother me as I want to enjoy the book for the coloring opportunities first and foremost. While the subtitle of the book states there are nearly 100 designs, I only count 78. There are additional partially colored designs and some blank pages (as well as the patterns on the back of the designs) but I think that there was a bit of stretch in rounding the number up to 100.

The designs are printed on one side of non-perforated paper that is a nice weight. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so you can remove a few pages at a time by snipping a few threads. That may be a choice (especially for those who are left-handed) as this is a fairly thick book. I can get to the book to lay flat enough for my purposes as the designs all stop well before the binding edge. All of the designs have either finished elements at the sides or have a framing line around the entire design. This provides a natural stopping point, saving me time, ink, and frustration. I always appreciate it when an artist adds this to their designs.

All of my alcohol-based markers bled through this paper easily. All of my water-based markers, gel pens and India ink artist pens left a color shadow to varying degrees on the back of the page. My gel pens did not require more than the usual drying time. My coloring pencils worked very well with the paper and according to their brand and type. My soft lead pencils were easily blended and went on fairly thick without too much pressure. My hard lead pencils did not leave indents on the back of the page. If I choose to use anything other than pencils with this coloring book, I will use a blotter page of card stock to keep the ink from seeping through my working page and ruining the designs below.

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