Creative Haven Paradise Designs Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)
By: Ted Menten
Rating: 5 of 5
This is my first coloring book by Ted Menten. I can see that he has been heavily involved with previous Dover books, including coloring books and paper dolls. The artwork in this book is new and has not been previously published.
The hand-drawn designs show a tropical paradise. I lived in Southern California for most of my life and many of the lush settings and plants are very familiar to me. One of the things I miss most since moving away is the beautifully colored flowers that one can see year round. I also visited Hawaii a number of times in my life and many of the designs in this book bring those vacations to mind as well.
The designs are detailed without being overly intricate. Each designs has beautiful flowers and generally has either a bird or butterfly as well. For my first projects, I chose a design with a toucan and two of my favorite tropical flowers a bird of paradise and a hibiscus. I grew both of these flowers in my old garden and it was lovely to be able to color and think of those days. I will include a photo of the project as well as the two colored samples from the book.
This is what I found in going through this coloring book:
31 Hand-drawn Tropical designs
Printed on one side of white page
Page is white, slightly rough, and perforated
Glue Bound
Designs stop before the perforation and have a framing line or finished elements at the outside edges.
Alcohol and water based markers seep through this paper. The water-based more or less spot through heavily but the alcohol based flow through immediately. I use a piece of card stock under my working page to keep ink from leaking through. You can also remove each page at the perforation before coloring.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with this standard Creative Haven paper. Soft lead lays down good color, layers and blends well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.