29 Funny Designs with most featuring cats in historical wigs printed one side of page

Marie Catoinette: Kitty Wigs Presents A Cautionary Tale of Excess: An Historically Imaginative Adult Coloring Book

By: Julie Jackson

Rating: 5 of 5

This is an adorable set of designs featuring cats wearing wigs similar in style and theme to those decadent wigs worn by the aristocrats of the 18th century. Of the 29 designs, a full 22 of them are of cats. The remaining designs are also nice but not what really drove me to purchase and want to color in this book.

The designs have a lot of shading in them. They are almost but not quite what I would consider grayscale coloring. I will be using some grayscale techniques in coloring this book. The illustrations are by Paul Labadie whose self-taught skill in art is quite beautiful and detailed.

The designs are detailed and some contain intricate and small areas to color. They are of just the cat in the wig and don’t have background to color. I think that works best for this subject matter as the wigs are so elaborately styled you would not want to detract from them in any way.

This is what I found while I was coloring in this book and testing it with my coloring medium. In the comments section below, I will list the coloring medium I use to test and color with.

29 Detailed and somewhat Intricate Designs with 22 of them being cats in wigs

Printed one side of the page

Paper is typical for CreateSpace publications: thin, white, slightly rough and non-perforated

Glue bound

Designs stop well before the binding area so it is easy to cut pages out if you choose to do so

Book can be opened fairly flat for coloring but you will need to crease or break the spine to do so

Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper.

Gel pens and India ink pens leave colorful shadows on the back of the page. India ink pens can leak through if you apply heavily or use multiple coats.

Colored pencils work well with this paper. It has enough tooth to grab a good amount of color. I was able to layer the same color, multiple colors, and blend easily using a blending stick with both oil and wax-based pencils. Hard lead pencils dent through the paper.

I use a blotter page of card stock when coloring in any CreateSpace coloring book. I put it under my working page and it keeps ink and dents from marring the pages below.