Creative Haven Rose Windows Coloring Book: Create Illuminated Stained Glass Special Effects (Adult Coloring)
By: Joel S. Avren
Rating: 4 of 5
This is a coloring book that purports to give the colorist the ability to have a stained glass look to their coloring if they use wax crayons. I tried wax crayons as well as wax-based colored pencils, oil-based colored pencils, alcohol-based markers and water-based markers. While I did like the effect that I got with the wax crayons as well as I did the different effect that I got from alcohol-based markers, I can’t say that it looked like a stained glass window.
Using wax crayons gave the finished design a glossy look as well as a translucence. Using alcohol-based markers were translucent but not glossy. The other mediums worked okay as well but while some colors were translucent, others did not. Perhaps that was due to a color having a deeper pigment than others.
Other than not agreeing with the whole stained glass concept of the book, I liked the designs. They appear to be more of a gray scale design than one with special effects. I did note that all of the designs presented a moir pattern when I recorded the video and, to a lesser extent, when I took sample photos. Because of that, I assume that there is some sort of special print method being used to enhance the stained glass effect once the designs are colored.
I found that I liked coloring the designs in the book even though I didn’t feel that the end result looked like an illuminated window. The designs were easy to color if with mostly open areas to fill in. Because of the heavy dark grays, I’m not sure that someone with vision issues would find it as easy as I did.
This is what I found out about the book while coloring in it and testing various coloring medium:
31 Mandala style stained glass window type designs
Printed in heavy gray/black tones on one side of the page
Paper is medium weight, white, lightly rough and perforated as usual for Creative Haven coloring books
Glue bound but pages can be removed easily at perforations
Designs stop before the perforations
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through to some degree
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. Both wax and oil based pencils lay down good color, layer and blend well. Hard lead pencils leave dents on the back of the page.