Designs to Color Book 1: The Original Coloring Books for Adults
By: Betty Schaffner
Rating: 5 of 5
It is hard to believe that this is a coloring book reprinted from the 1960s. The style of the designs and the subject matter is so contemporary that it fits in with many of the more abstract coloring books that are being released today.
The designs are printed in a horizontal format book (wider than it is long) with come of the designs turned on end. There are abstracts as well as designs that have the doodle style that is so popular today.
The designs are printed on one side of the page. The paper is white, medium weight, fairly smooth and is non-perforated. The designs all stop before the binding area. The book is bound by two staples, so if you want to remove the pages from the book, it should take little effort and you will not lose any portion of the designs.
My first project is a still life of fruit with doodles in the apple and pear. I used my Tombows water based markers with the brush end to color the design.
Alcohol-based markers do bleed through the page. However, water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through. Coloring pencils work fairly well with the exception of blending. Soft lead pencils all have good color and layer well; however, when attempting to blend colors, the original color stays heavy in the original spot and only blends slight at the edge. This true of both wax and oil based pencils. Hard lead pencils do not dent the back of the page.
I was provided an initial digital sample of four pages via Netgalley. The publisher then provided me with a free copy of the finalized book for test and review purposes.