63 Vintage and Fun Old-Time Designs with Colored Backgrounds/Frames printed on one side of page

I own a couple of coloring books by Richard Merritt so I was not surprised to see that portions of the backgrounds and/or frames were pre-colored in these 63 designs. The designs have a vintage and/or old-fashioned vibe to them that I really like.

The cover art is not actually in the book but there is a version of a birdcage which I have enjoyed coloring already and which I will post along with my other photos. There is only one designs (the first one of an art-nouveau style woman) which has colors pre-done on the actual design. I generally don’t mind filled in backgrounds but don’t like when the designs are partially worked but as it is just one, I’m okay with it.

I will provide more details about the coloring book below if you are interested but otherwise, here is a brief overview of what I found:

63 designs printed with colorful backgrounds and/or frames
Designs are printed on one side of heavyweight perforated paper
Designs stop before the perforations
Glue Binding with perforations
Alcohol-based markers bleed through
Water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens do not bleed through
Coloring pencils work great with the paper

The main artist attribution is for Richard Merritt. There are additional attributions for the cover (not Mr. Merritt) and what is interesting is that there is an attribution for Additional Illustrations given to Shutterstock.com. This usually means that illustrations are licensed. I don’t know if there are whole designs which are licensed or portions of designs (e.g., frames?) but I wanted to mention it in case that makes a difference for anyone.

I found the designs to be an interesting mix of styles. Some are almost cartoonish in nature (which I found fun to color) while others are detailed botanical studies. There are also a number of pattern style designs which do not necessarily strike me as vintage but which will be fun to color. Most of the designs are open and easy to color but there are a few which are more detailed and have smaller spots which may prove challenging for some.

The designs in the book are printed on one side of perforated heavyweight paper. The background and or framing areas of the designs are already colored. The designs stop well before the perforations. The binding is glued but if you wish to remove a page, I suggest doing so at the perforations rather than cutting a page out. I was easily able to get the book to lay flat while coloring.

I’m really pleased to see this publisher doing single-sided, perforated pages. Most of my other books by Barron’s do not have both of these features and I hope that they will continue this trend in the future.

I test my coloring books with each type of coloring medium I currently use. I will list those I used in testing this book in the comments section of the review if you are interested. Here are the results of my tests:

Alcohol-based markers bleed through immediately. Water-based markers, Pitt India ink artist pens and gel pens do not bleed through or leave shadows. Sakura and Fiskars gel pens took a longer drying time than the other gel pens I tested. Coloring pencils work exceptionally well with this paper. The soft lead go on thick and blend easily. The hard lead worked as expected and did not leave dents on the backside of the page.

For my first two projects, I used two different mediums. For the birdcage, I used brush end of my water-based Tombows and did not need a blotter page below. For the hot air balloon, I used a variety of alcohol-based markers and absolutely needed a blotter page to keep ink from seeping down to the next designs.