Japanese Designs Coloring Book
By: Marty Noble
Rating: 5 of 5
Marty Noble has been one of my go-to coloring book artists since I first became entranced by putting colored pencil to paper as an adult. Her designs are beautiful and inspiring. In the past, for the most part, the designs had detail but were not what I consider intricate.
It’s interesting for me to see that Ms. Noble’s art has been evolving lately. I have seen more and more intricate elements beginning to dominate her scenes. It’s is almost as if she has taken a few steps back (in her mind) from the scene she is creating and is providing a more lush background and definitely more detail in the overall subject of her design.
With “Japanese Designs”, the intricate and detailed part of this new style is evident. If I didn’t see her name on the book, I might not have known it was her artwork. The designs are beautiful and should be fun to color though perhaps more time intense than others of her earlier books.
The artwork is based on patterns, fabrics, home goods and artwork from various Japanese periods of art.
I’ve noticed that the paper quality over seems to change quite frequently on the Creative Haven line. Because of that, if you buy one of these books, it may be slightly smooth or slightly rough depending on when and where it was printed. I’ve found that coloring medium, including pencils, work similarly with both slightly rough and slightly smooth paper from Creative Haven. In this case, my coloring book pages are slightly rough.