Chalk-Style Holiday Coloring Book: Color with All Types of Markers, Gel Pens & Colored Pencils
By: Valerie McKeehan
Rating: 5 of 5
The designs are primarily Christmas in nature but some are a little more generic. I finished one of cups of hot cocoa to be generic while the sample showed it in Christmas colors.
The designs are in chalk-style and the backgrounds of these designs are not a pure black as others have been. They have a kind of used chalky look to them which makes them a little more gray in tone than black. It gives it a very realistic look.
In my recent coloring books from this publisher, they have altered their format and the designs which are shown as colored samples in the book are no longer provided in full page format. They are included as medium designs with a thumbnail of the color sample, a few samples of the colors used and a quick sentence or two about the how the colors work with the design.
At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this change but now that I have worked with a couple of these books, I must say I really do not like the change. I want the pages in full size for both ease of coloring and for consistency with the other pages in the book. The shrinking of the designs has made some of the details small and intricate and difficult to color.
Simply put, I wish they would go back to the old format and perhaps include the information on the sample color pages. While I didn’t detract stars in my rating because of the format as I do color in books that have intricate details, the new format makes me less inclined to want to purchase their coloring books in the future.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my various coloring medium on the paper:
32 Holiday (primarily Christmas)Designs in Chalk-board style (white images on dark gray to black backgrounds) with 24 large designs and 8 medium ones
The 8 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, dark gray/black printed on white paper 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
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.
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.