Lovely Storybook style Designs of all seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia printed both sides of page

The Chronicles of Narnia Official Coloring Book

By: C. S. Lewis

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a really lovely storybook collection based on all seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Those include: The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle. As the coloring book is slightly longer than average size and there are seven books covered, each is only touched on lightly. The coloring book can be used as an fun addition while you are reading the stories but it does not replace them.

The designs are based on the original artwork by Pauline Baynes from the books written and published in the 1950’s. In some cases, the artwork has been turned into what I call wallpaper style designs with repeated patterns.

The designs include considerably more black in shading than usual for coloring books. That is because the original artwork was just that artwork and not coloring designs. I’ve found that utilizing the black as shading is what works best for me with this type of design. I’ve run across it before when original artwork has been presented in this format.

On a personal note, the designs bring back memories from my own life. I was a big fan of these books as a child and I would read them over and over again. Once I had children, I would read books to them before bedtime each night and this was a favorite, especially of my late son. He also would read the books over and over again on his own.

I am now looking forward to reading them to my grandchildren and I will now also have a book of designs that I have colored to go along with them. I will admit that coloring these designs is a bittersweet experience as I spend as much time thinking of my son as I do in coloring.

This is what I found as I colored in this book and tested the paper with my coloring medium. I’ll include a list of my coloring medium, which I use for tests and for coloring, in the comments section below.

96 pages of Designs based on original artwork from The Chronicles of Narnia

Printed on both sides of the page

Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly smooth and non-perforated

Glue Bound

Many Designs merge into the binding area

Some designs spread across two pages with integral parts merging into the binding area

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper

Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens do not bleed through the page.

Colored pencils worked well with the paper. I was able to get good color with multiple layers of the same shade. I was also able to layer multiple colors and blend well using a pencil style blending stick. Both oil and wax based pencils worked well.