32 Owl Designs (22 Large and 10 Medium size) with lots of intricate doodle elements printed one side of the page

Hello Angel Owls Wild & Whimsical Coloring Collection (Hello Angel Coloring Collection)

By: Angelea Van Dam

Rating: 4 of 5

This is a coloring book of imaginative and intricate owl designs which incorporate doodle style elements which I purchased at a local bookstore. I own a number of books by Angelea Van Dam and each of them contains the same information at the front of the book about the artist and some of her coloring hints. Additionally, there some beautiful colored sample pages (a few of which I will include in the photos) and the back of each design page has a quote, journal lines and a cute design which previously was in black and white but in newer books are now in color.

Something else that is new about the most recent books by this publisher (Design Originals), including this one, is that some of the design pages have medium rather than full page designs. In this book, it is ten different designs. The bottom of each of these pages has a thumbnail of the colored sample, a colorful sample of some of the colors used in it and some hints on coloring. That portion of the page is perforated so you can remove it if you wish to do so.

I’m torn about this new format. I really like the information included but I miss having the designs in full page format. As these are the same designs we get to see in full page colored samples, I wish that they had reduced the size of the colored sample page and put that information on that page. That way I get the information but still retain the full size designs for coloring. While the smaller size is still good, in some cases, the elements have become a little small and a little more difficult to color.

This is especially true with this designer as even her full page designs are very detailed and intricate. By reducing the size of the design, it made a challenging project into a difficult one. Because of this, I think it would be a difficult book for someone with visual or fine motor issues.

This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my various coloring medium on the paper. In the comments section below, I will list the various coloring medium I use for testing as well as for most of my coloring projects.

32 Owl Designs in doodle format with 22 large designs and 10 medium ones

10 Medium Designs include colored thumbnails and coloring advice on the page (info can be removed at provided perforations)

Printed on one side of the page.

Paper is medium weight, slightly rough, white and is perforated for easy removal. The paper is noted as archival-grade and acid free for 200 years.

Designs stop well before the perforations

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page

Gel pens and India ink pens can spot through to the back of the page with heavy application

Colored pencils work well with the paper. Both oil and wax based pencils provide good color, layer, and blend well. Hard lead pencils can dent through the page.

As I use markers and pencils, I use a blotter page to keep seeping ink and dents from marring the pages below. I recommend this in general or that you remove pages before coloring. I use card stock or several sheets of paper as my blotter page.