32 Original and Fantastic Animal Designs printed on one side of page

When I first saw the three coloring books by New Zealand artist Angelea Van Dam, I had not seen her artwork. I was able to find her website and was amazed by her beautiful illustrations and her artwork. Add to that, these books are published by Design Originals and I know the quality of their books, so it made the decision to purchase them an easy one.

There are 32 animal designs in this coloring book. I’m always look for new animals designs as so many now seem to be licensed on-line with the same-old look. With this book, the designs are all fresh, imaginative and simply great-looking. For my first project, I did the panda with my ultra-fine Sharpies.

I will provide more detail about what I found in the coloring book below if you are interested but here is an overview of the book:

32 pages of original animal designs in a doodle style
Designs are printed on one side of medium weight perforated paper
Designs stop before the perforations
Back of page has a quote and an area for journaling
Glue Binding
alcohol and water-based markers and India ink pens bleed through page
Gel pens do not bleed through
coloring pencils work well

As with other Design Original books, this book includes many examples of colored artwork. It also includes tips from this artist. I found her tips to be of great use. I especially liked her idea of making a color chart to test colors and keep track of them. I also appreciated her suggestion that you continue on with a project that you aren’t happy with. It has encouraged me to go back and pull some out that I had packed away unfinished.

The designs in this book are printed on one side of the perforated medium weight page. On the backside of each page is an encouraging quote along with several lines on which you can journal or simply note information about your project.

The binding is glued but you will want to remove pages at the perforations. The designs stop before the perforations so you will not lose any portion of the design if you remove it from the book. I was easily able to get the book to lay flat for coloring.

I will list the coloring medium I used to test this book in the comments area of the review. Here are what my various tests discovered:

Alcohol and water-based markers as well as India ink pens bleed through the paper. Gel pens do not but need a little extra drying time. Coloring pencils work well and as expected for brand and type. I was able to easily blend my soft lead pencils. My hard lead pencils left dents on the back of the page.

I recommend using a blotter page below the page you are working on to keep ink or dents from marring the design on the next page. You can also simply remove the page from the book before you color your project.