Fantastic Wizard of Oz coloring book in Escape series by Good Wives and Warriors printed both sides of the page

Escape to Oz: A Colouring Book Adventure

By: Good Wives and Warriors

Rating: 5 of 5

I own a number of the Escape coloring books by Good Wives and Warriors. Each one has been a fantastic and fun coloring adventure. This one, based on The Wizard of Oz is another great entry. It is the same size as the others (at approximately 7.5 x 7.25 inches) and has fantastic designs that mostly spread across two pages (though there are a few one page designs included as well.)

It is fun to see Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. The magic shoes are silver as described in the book rather than the ruby slippers of the movie. In my first project, I did a nod to the movie with the beginning of the tornado down in grayscale and then I moved to color just as the movie moved to color on the other side of the rainbow.

The designs are very detailed and, in many cases, intricate with small elements to color. I am choosing to use colored pencils with sharp points as it will be easier to color the tiny parts and because the designs are printed on both sides of the page.

The attached cover of the book is well made and is done in shades of green with black lines and also has gold foil. You can color the remainder of the cover (front and back) if you wish. The inside of the cover has fold-outs (front and back) and a white lines on green print which you can also color. The rest of the pages (including title and intro) are designs, so every page in the book can be colored.

The binding is sewn rather than glued, so removing pages will require a few snips of threads every few pages. I prefer to leave my together as it tells a whole story as it is but coloring into the binding takes some manipulation of the book.

96 pages of Fantastic Wizard of Oz designs

Designs are printed on both sides of the page

Paper is heavyweight, cream colored, slightly rough and non-perforated

30 Designs are printed across two pages

Sewn Binding

More than half of the designs merge into the binding area

Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper. If you use these, the ink will mar the design on the back of the page.

Water-based markers left indistinct shadows on the back of the page but did not bleed through. The shadows were enough to be noticeable on the designs on the back of the page.

Gel pens and India ink pens did not bleed through.

Colored pencils work well with this paper both oil based and water based. I was able to layer and blend well using a blender stick and get a nice deep color with both types of pencils.