Fairy Fantasy: Adult Coloring Book
By: Jason Hamilton
Rating: 5 of 5
I own all of Jason Hamilton’s coloring books and I was happy to pick this one up as well. It is quite different from the others both in subject matter as well as being full body designs. There are 24 standard size designs and as a bonus, Mr. Hamilton includes 14 4 x 6 inch copies of some of the designs as well as 5 full size designs that are zoomed in to highlight certain elements of the original designs. The smaller size are printed two to a page and the design on both small and the zoomed in pages are also featured in the original 24 pages.
Mr. Hamilton has a distinctive style fairy, with beautiful faces, long pointed ears and lush figures. He places his fairies in scenes which provides me with a fun coloring experience. While I haven’t colored it as yet, I absolutely love the fairy being threatened by the bumblebee. It reminds me of the old movie posters of the fair heroine being threatened by whoever or whatever was the villain of the week.
I have been using a mix of alcohol-based markers, colored pencils, and a touch of gel pens in coloring these designs. The designs are detailed with backgrounds. Some parts are somewhat intricate and include smaller details that I used my Verithins to color.
This has been my experience while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
24 full size fairy designs, 14 4 x 6 inch designs, and 5 zoomed in designs for a total of 43 coloring designs (note some are duplicates of other sizes, etc.)
Printed on one side of the page
Typical CreateSpace paper thin, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated
Glue Bound
Designs stop well before the binding area leaving room to cut out pages if you chose to do so
Can open fairly flat for coloring if you break the spine to do so.
Alcohol and water based markers all bleed through the page though alcohol bleed through more fully and quickly while water based spot through.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows at the back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you use repeated layers or try to blend several colors.
Colored pencils work well with this paper. Both oil and wax based could be used with a light or firm hand. I use a light hand and get good pigment color by repeated layers and use of my blending pencils. Layering and blending work well with this paper. My hard lead pencils like Verithins dent or score through to the back of the page.
I use and recommend the use of a blotter page of either heavy weight paper or several sheets of regular white paper.