Kaleidoscope Wonders | Color Art for Everyone – Leisure Arts (6707)
By: Leisure Arts
Rating: 5 of 5
This adult color book lives up to its name, “Kaleidoscope Wonders – Color Art for Everyone.” The images are very reminiscent of that which I would see through a kaleidoscope when I was a child. I remember that magical feeling of shifting and changing the patterns and the colors and now I can have a similar feeling as I color the various designs in this book. The designs are all supplied by GMC Designs/Shutterstock, Inc. I don’t know if that means there are various designers within those companies or not, but there isn’t a specific artist mentioned.
There are 24 designs, which each of them having a kind of repetitious look – some with centered designs and others with the patterns at a slightly off-angle. Most of the designs are either flowing patterns or flowers but there are also designs that incorporate butterflies, tea cups, sea shells, and hearts. The paper weight is nice and heavy – very much a feeling of premium grade paper. The designs are printed on one side of the page (with the back side blank.) The pages are all micro-perforated so removing them from the book will be easy. The print quality of the design is excellent. I will keep my magnifying lamp handy as some elements of a few of the designs are small and intricate but for the most part, I will not need to use my lamp.
I have had some bleed through of color with my markers and gel pens. Not as much as with some other brands but certainly enough that I would either remove the page from the book or put some freezer paper or heavy card stock between the pages while I am working.
At the front of the book there is a section on understanding colors. There is a color wheel that explains primary, secondary, and tertiary colors and how they are made. It also explains Warm and Cool colors and gives examples of how they can be used within their family or with a mix (Warm Colors, Cool Colors, Warm Colors with Cool Accent, Cool Colors with Warm Accents, Tints and Shades of Red, Tings and Shades of Blue, Analogous Colors, Complementary Colors, and Split Complementary Colors.) This is a wonderful addition to a coloring book as it gives a lot of information for beginners and gives examples in actual color.
At the back of the book, there is an explanation and illustrations of coloring tips and shading. The examples show Colored Pencil, Marker, and Colored Pencil blended with Marker. The written explanation goes into more detail with suggestions as to other types of drawing tools to use. The shading information shows examples of how you can bring out the various elements of your work by what type of pen/pencil you use and how you use them.
Both the information on the inside front and inside back page seem to be consistent within the various Leisure Arts books that I have seen so far.
I have found that coloring helps me empty my mind of my worries and concerns at the end of the day. Having a single point of focus really seems to relieve my mind and help me relax. I’ve found this to be true with a few types of crafts, such as knitting, crocheting, and cross stitch. I can become so relaxed while I am coloring, I tend to do my coloring at the very end of the day so I can fall asleep almost immediately.