Adult Coloring Book Vintage Series: The Masters of Fashion Illustration
By: Wendy Piersall
Rating: 5 of 5
This is an absolutely beautiful fashion coloring book. The artist pays homage to five artists from the Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods: Helen Dryden, Erte, George Wolfe Plank, Frank Leyendecker, and George Barbier. The designs in the book are hand-drawn from the original works and have been beautifully rendered for coloring.
I own a number of fashion coloring books and I must say that this one is one of my favorites both for style of the design as well as for the care with which they have been drawn. The designs all have a framing line around the edge to give you a definite end to the design. I always find that gives me a more finished and polished look to my project.
This is my second coloring book by Wendy Piersall. While the subject matter is wildly different, what is not different is the extremely high caliber of the artwork. I just can’t say enough about how much I enjoy this artist’s work. What I can say is that my sincere hope is that Ms. Piersall will make this merely a volume 1 in her fashion design coloring books. I hope to see more in fashion from her in the future.
I was so pleased that the artist included test pages at the front of the book as I usually end up with a discard page when I test my various mediums on designs themselves. I love each of the designs in this book and didn’t want to lose even one of them. The designs are detailed and in some cases have intricate and small areas to color.
This is what I found what I found while coloring in and testing this book:
30 Beautifully hand-drawn fashion designs from the Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is medium weight, white, slightly rough (tooth), and non-perforated
Designs do not merge into the binding area
Glue bound
Plenty of room to cut pages out if you wish to remove them
Book easily opens to fairly flat position for coloring
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. I recommend using a blotter page below your working page with this medium to keep ink from seeping through and ruining the page below.
Water-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens leave shadows of color on the back side of the page
Coloring pencils work extremely well with this paper. I was able to lay down color lightly as well as firmly. I was able to layer and to blend very easily with both wax and oil based pencils. Hard lead pencils did not dent the back of the page.