Balance – For Crayons And Wide Tipped Markers: Angie’s Gentle Mood Menders – Volume 1
By: Angie Grace
Rating: 5 of 5
This is my second coloring book by Angie Grace. The first one, Breathe is part of the Extreme Stress Menders series. This book, Balance is the first in the Gentle Mood Menders series. It is a re-working of her popular and best-selling original Balance book.
This big difference is that this book has been made easier to color. Rather than the large and somewhat intricate designs of the first book, this one focuses on the central portion of the design but it is in the same space as the original book. That means a more open design that you can use larger coloring medium with. The mandalas are still quite detailed and are certainly fun to color.
In addition to larger tipped medium, I think it is also a book that can be used by individuals who could not color in the original book due to fine motor or visual issues. While I can’t compare it to the original book as I don’t own it, I did compare it to Breathe. I find that coloring in this book is a lot of fun and that the projects went by quickly for me without having to work in small detailed areas with tiny nib pens.
For my first two projects, I did one in spring colors and the other in fall colors. I plan to do a winter and summer one as well. I used a variety of Sharpie and Bic Mark-it Fine point markers (as opposed to the ultra-fine I used in the other book.) As promised by the title (for use with crayons and wide-tipped markers), I had no problems at all with the fine-point (wider tipped) markers. It was fun to be able to use them for mandalas as I generally cannot due to the size of the nib.
This is what I experienced while coloring in and testing my coloring mediums with this book:
50 Mostly Circular style Mandalas with wider lines and more open space than most mandalas
Printed on one side of the page.
Smaller format book to save paper and lessen dead white space above and below the mandala. This also makes it easier to frame if you choose to do so.
Typical CreateSpace paper thin, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated
Designs stop well before the binding area with plenty of room to cut pages out.
Book lays open fairly flat if you break the spine by pressing down hard on it.
Alcohol and water-based markers seep through this paper to varying degrees (water-based are more spotty depending on the brand.)
Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page India ink can spot through if you use more than one layer of ink for coverage.
Colored pencils work well with this paper. I got good color with repeated layers with light pressure. I can layer and blend well with both oil and wax-based pencils. Hard lead pencils can dent through the page.
I recommend the use of a blotter page for under your working page. That way you can keep seeping inks and marring dents from damaging the design below. I like card stock for this but you can use any heavyweight plain paper or multiple sheets of lighter weight paper.