Legendary Landscapes: Pocket Coloring Book
By: Witek Radomski
Rating: 5 of 5
I own both of the larger format books by this talented group of artists. The original of Legendary Landscapes is large format with great paper but it was printed on both sides of the page. In this new pocket size version, 45 of the original designs are reduced in size and are printed on one side of the page. The tradeoff is that the paper quality is much lighter weight as well.
I don’t mind the difference in paper quality because I can always use a blotter page under my project as I am working on it. Because the artwork is printed on one side of the page, I can finally use my water and alcohol-based markers to color the designs. Having said that, the funny thing is that I used colored pencils to do my first project in this book go figure!
The designs show a world of imaginary landscapes, with some being somewhat more realistic than others. The designs are by a group of artists the names of which are included in the larger format book but as I an unsure of who designed what, I won’t list those names here.
Here is what I found when I colored in this book and tested my coloring mediums with it:
45 Imaginative Landscape Designs (including fantasy)
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is thin, white, and non-perforated. I found it very similar to that used by CreateSpace publishing but I didn’t see that they were the publishers of this book.
Designs merge into the binding area
Glue Bound you will lose portions of the designs if you cut pages out of the book.
Opens fairly flat for coloring once you break the spine
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page. The Ink ink pens can spot through if you use more than one layer of ink.
Colored pencils worked well. Both oil based and wax based laid down good color. I use a light hand in coloring and use multiple layers to add more pigment and deeper tones. I was able to layer and blend easily with my various pencils. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, can leave dents through to the back of the page.
I used, and recommend the use of, a blotter page under my working page. I do this for pencils as well as pens to keep dents and ink from damaging the design below.