Charley Harper: 50 Drawings, Coloring Book
By: Charley Harper
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a wonderful hardback coloring book filled with 50 pages of designs of artwork by Charley Harper. I first saw Mr. Harper’s work re-created in cross stitch a number of years ago. I had such fun with those projects, that I looked into his work generally and discovered a mid-century modernist whose work was both beautiful and whimsical at the same time. Since then, I’ve enjoyed his work in prints, calendars, and more. It’s become tradition in my house for me to have a Charley Harper calendar hung in my pantry each year. I’ve also enjoyed the work of his wife, Edie Harper as well.
The late Mr. Harper’s work in this coloring book revolves around animals which are created with his attention to clean lines. While I have used to seeing his work with individual animals, I was surprised to find detailed and intricate studies of entire ecosystems in these designs. It creates a really nice mix for me to color with some designs being easier to color and others taking considerably more thought and time.
In creating these designs, the artists at the publishing company hand traced the outlines of Mr. Harper’s artwork. The designs in the book are thus is an exact duplication of the original artwork. Included in the book are also numbered color thumbnails of the original art printed on high gloss pages. Also included is a table of contents which provides the names for each of the designs. I may decide to follow Mr. Harper’s lead or I may choose to put my own spin on some of his designs. There are so many to choose from, I can easily do both.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and using my coloring medium to test the pages:
50 Designs based on the exact artwork of Charley Harper plus title page, intro page and Contents page have areas you can color as well.
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly smooth, and non-perforate
Sewn Binding with a thin glossy hard back cover
Includes color thumbnails of the original artwork
The designs include framing lines around the outer edge
There is enough room to remove a page if you wish to do so. I won’t but, instead, will use the book as a coffee table book both while I am coloring it and when it is finished.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper quite readily
Water-based markers can spot through. The exception was my Tombow brush ends did not spot through even with dark and bright colors.
Gel pens and India ink pens did not bleed through but some gel pens took much longer to dry than usual.
Colored pencils worked well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based in several brands. I was able to get light pigment as well as heavy (with multiple layers) and to layer colors and blend well using a pencil style blending stick. My hard lead pencils were good color as well with crisp lines and did not dent through the page.