The Official Trolls Coloring Book (DreamWorks Trolls) (Adult Coloring Book)
By: Random House
Rating: 3.5 of 5
The designs in this book are based on the characters in the new movie, so they aren’t exactly the traditional trolls that I think of. I’m find with that as the characters are so cute. The designs are by artist Jan Gerardi and are nicely detailed and have lots of open area for easy of coloring, shading and blending. While they are detailed, they are not intricate or have tiny areas to color.
The cover is nicely printed with deep fuchsia foil accents. You can also color the rest of cover front and back if you choose to do so. The inside of both the front and back cover are cute floral line drawings which can be colored as well.
The one real issue I have with the book is that the pages are already coming apart from the binding. All it took to start the process was literally turning the pages. I don’t know if my book is indicative of all or if mine is a fluke but it is bothersome because a good number of the designs spread across two pages. When I have a book with that type of design, I don’t remove the pages from the book to color. I keep them together and, unfortunately, that is not going to happen with this book.
While I love the designs and would give them a 5 star review, I don’t love the way the book is put together. I actually rate that a 2. The average is 3.5 and I round up as I cannot leave that rating on Amazon, on their platform it shows as a 4.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium. In the comments section below, I will list the coloring medium I use for tests and which I generally use for all of my projects.
96 pages of Trolls Designs (including title and preface pages). Designs are based on the new DreamWorks movie rather than traditional trolls.
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated
Glue bound but pages are already detaching from the binding (issue due to printing on both sides.)
Many Designs are printed across two pages
Designs merge into the binding area
Opening this book to a fairly flat position for coloring hastens the detachment of pages. I am coloring in it with care.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use these, you will ruin the design on the back of the page.
Water-based markers, gel pens and India ink pens do not bleed through the page.
Colored pencils do very well with this paper. It has a nice amount of tooth and both oil and wax-based pencils perform well. I was able to get nice pigment and to layer the same color, multiple colors, and blending easily using a pencil style blending stick.
In summary, I wish the binding were better. I sincerely hope that it is just an issue with my book and not a general issue with the publication. I am coloring with care and putting a tie around the book when not in use to keep the pages intact. I’ve never had this issue with a coloring book before and was really surprised when it started to fall apart.