UK Version 20 Favorite Designs from Enchanted Forest printed on one side of heavyweight card stock

This is the UK version of the Artist’s Edition of Enchanted Forest. All the video and photos I show in this review will be of this version and the comparison to the original coloring book is also to the UK version. Additionally, I will review the US version of Artist’s Edition when it is published and I’ll note any differences between the two versions at that time.

These are some of the beautiful designs that originally appeared in Joanna Basford’s besting selling Enchanted Forest coloring book. Of her three books thus far, I must admit this is my favorite though I like and enjoy all of them. She has begun publishing artist’s editions (starting last year with Secret Garden.) The Artist’s Edition (compared to the original book) is larger, the paper is considerably heavier and, of course, these are printed on only one side of the page which allows you to color the design with any medium you choose.

There are 20 designs in the larger format book. In some cases, the designs are slightly enlarged (for example, the hot hair balloon and the fox) but in most cases the designs are slightly to more than slightly smaller in size. It seems as if the width of the design caused some to be decreased. Anything that came close to the edge of the original book was made smaller as the width dimension of the artist’s edition is more narrow. The few designs that were taken from two-page spreads in the original are treated to ways: 1) the entire two-page designs is put on a single page and is much smaller in size compared to the original, and 2) in a couple of instances, only a portion of the design is reproduced and in that case, the portion of the design is slightly larger than the original.

The cover of the book is hinged with a secondary cover beneath it. The actual pages are glue bound but with the type of binding that allows you to remove pages easily and in whole (think of a notepad type of binding.) The pages are a light cream tone. It is much lighter in color than than the original book. The paper is such a nice quality, it will be easy to remove and frame these if you wish.

My various coloring medium all worked well with this edition. I worked my first designs in a variety of alcohol and water-based markers without serious bleed-through.. The only colors that have yet to have the slightest hint of a stain on the back of the page are my deep red and blue tones. When I tested the rest of my coloring mediums, India ink did not bleed through. Gel pens did not bleed through but required more drying time than usual. Soft lead coloring pencils worked with the card stock and blended and layered well. Hard lead pencils went on with a nice color and did not dent through the page.