46 Ocean inspired designs with lots of sea animals and fish printed on one side of the page

Mead Adult Coloring Book: Pam Varacek Shorelines by Mead Academie (54018)

By: Pam Varacek

Rating: 5 of 5

Shorelines is my first coloring book by Pamela Varacek. It is my second one from Mead Academie. I’m pretty impressed with both the designs in the book and how it was put to together though I wish that they had put a framing line around the designs so that they didn’t just abruptly stop mid-elements.

The 46 pages of designs are related to the shore and to sea animals and fish. The designs are in a doodle style and most include detailed and even intricate elements for coloring. On the more intricate designs, f you want to color each element separately, you might need sharp pencils or small nib markers or ink pens.

I spent most of my life living near the ocean and I now live in a land-locked area of the country. For me, this book is a little like going home again. I get to experience, by coloring, a lot of my childhood and young adult life. It’s a fun book for coloring, especially during the summer months.

This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my various coloring medium on the paper:

46 Designs relating to the shore and to sea animals and fish

Designs are printed on one side of the page (with short quotes on the back of the page)

Paper is medium weight, white, somewhat smooth, and perforated

Glue Binding

Designs do not merge past the perforations

All areas of the design are easy to reach for coloring even while the pages are still in the book.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper.

Water-based markers, except Tombows, leaked through in small spots. Tombows brush ends did not leak through but when I tested the fine point side of the marker, it did bleed through.

India ink pens bleed through to a larger degree than did the water-based markers (streaks more than spots)

Gel pens did not bleed through but brighter and darker colors left colorful shadows at the back of the page.

Colored pencils work very well with this paper. I was able to work with oil and wax based pencils and get good results. Coloring, layering same and multiple colors as well as blending using a pencil style blending stick worked equally well.

If I don’t remove pages from this book, I will use a blotter with it. I like to use markers and the seeping ink can ruin the pages below. I like card stock, chip board, or even several sheets of regular paper as a blotter.