41 Halloween and Witch Designs (including presentation page and intro page) printed one side of page

Little Witches and Wild Things: A Magical Adult Coloring Book to Celebrate Halloween

By: Kristi Elgaaen

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a beautifully drawn coloring book with Halloween, witch and animals design pages. The book includes 41 designs (including the presentation page and the introduction page.) A number of the main elements of the designs are repeated with different and/or varying amounts of detail in the background. Some of them are cropped and close up details of a larger design. The lines are very light in color compared to most other coloring books so that they recede in the finished, colored project.

The designs are highly detailed and contain many intricate and small details for coloring. Even the designs with less detail are still a good challenge for coloring. The designs of the little girl witches are very sweet. The cover of the book is not indicative of the designs in it.

I’ll confess to being a tad confused as the artist has two other books of the same title available at this point. One is particularly for left-handed colorists, so I understand that one. The other book, which was published ten days earlier than this one, is the book that puzzles me. It appears that this book has more designs in it but that the other one has fewer designs but has two copies of each one. From what I can see, there are designs common in each of the same titled books.

Other than the confusion over the books with the same name, I think this is a fantastic coloring book for someone looking for a bit of a challenge with detail and who likes to color Halloween inspired designs. I’m really pleased with the book and hope to see more from this artist in the future.

This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.

41 Halloween-inspired designs, including both the presentation and introduction pages

2 color test pages as well as blank pages at the back to test your various medium

Designs are printed on one side of the page

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

Glue Binding

Designs do not merge into the binding area and most have a framing line at their outer edges

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page easily

Water-based markers bleed through in spots to the back of the page

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

Colored pencils worked nicely with this thin but slightly rough paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and got good color with multiple layers of the same color, good results from layers of different colors and nice blending results using a blending stick. Hard lead pencils can dent through and damage the page below.

I suggest using a blotter page of card stock or a couple of sheets of heavier weight paper under your working page. It can keep seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.