Creative Haven CityScapes: A Coloring Book with a Hidden Picture Twist (Adult Coloring)
By: Alexandra Cowell
Rating: 5 of 5
The cities represented ( in order) in this book are: Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Delhi, Edinburgh, Firenze, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Lisbon, London, Hollywood, Marrakesch, South Beach (Miami), New York City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Vancouver, Venezia/Venice. I’ve visited a number of these cities during my lifetime and the ones that I haven’t would be ones that I wish I can visit at some time. Until then, coloring them will be a great first step.
The designs all show a scene depicting something that is generally thought of when considering that specific city. For instance, San Francisco shows Lombard Street with its twisting and turning downhill plunge. Las Vegas shows a bunch of slot machines with a wild sky-scape in the background. London shows the Palace and shopping fun along with umbrellas for the good chance of rain.
At the front of the book, there is a listing of which hidden design features are included and how many of them are spread throughout the book. At the back of the book, there is a key which shows which elements are in each design and where they are located. I would list the hidden elements but I think that would take away the fun of looking for them while you are coloring.
Some of the designs have tiny details that I think I will have to use my magnifying lamp with. This is mostly for my vision. There is nothing that can’t be dealt with with a very sharp pointed pencil or ultra fine nib/point on a pen.
I’m not sure if I will try to emphasize the hidden elements or try to blend them in so that others can have fun looking for them, too. I think I may pick up a second copy of the book and do each design with the element emphasized and then again, with the elements hidden. The designs are really lovely, so it will be fun to color them more than once. I will use a variety of colors and pencils and pens. It will mostly be on a case-by-case basis as to what I feel is right for each design.
There are 28 designs in this coloring book. As with all of the Creative Haven books that I have used in the past, these are on a bright white page that is a fairly heavy stock. The designs are printed on one side of the page only and the edges of each page have good perforations which make it easy to remove from the book.
All of my gel pens and markers bleed through on Creative Haven books and this book is no different. I use freezer paper in between the sheets (if I am keeping it in the book) or under the page if I remove it from the book. I find that it works well for me. You can also put multiple sheets of heavy stock paper in between if you don’t have freezer paper handy (it is sold at most grocery stores and is fairly inexpensive and can be reused.)
I recently have started coloring adult color books as a way to relieve the stress of the day. I find that the effect of this is similar to meditation which is not surprising as it uses the same part of the brain in both instances. These are a great set of designs that should be fun to color. I plan to look up facts about each city as I color. Finding the hidden elements just adds another dimension the coloring enjoyment for me.