31 Fantasy Ocean Illustrations with mermaids and more – printed one side of the page

Ocean Fantasies

By: Aaron Pocock

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a really fun coloring book of Ocean Fantasy Designs. It includes much more than I generally expect in such a book. There are not only mermaids (and a lot of them) but also mythological sea gods, sea monsters, sunken ships with treasure as well as dolphins, shells and other sea creatures. Even Neptune, in several designs, is shown riding around protecting his kingdom.

The artist, Aaron Pocock, is able to bring life to his creatures. The mermaids have a beautiful feminine quality and grace while the avenging Neptune is a definite masculine force with aggressive movement held in check only by the frame of the page. Usually, I expect one or the other in a coloring book. However, with this book, I get both a feminine and a masculine touch in a variety of illustrations.

The drawings in this book are detailed with backgrounds included. Some of the designs (especially those of mermaids tails) have intricate and smaller areas to color. I don’t think I will need special small nibs for drawing but will take care to keep my pencils sharp for the areas of intricate detail.

I’ve noticed that the paper quality over the last few months 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.

This is what I found in this coloring book and how my coloring medium works with Creative Haven books.

31 Fantssy Ocean scenes with mermaids, dolphins, sea monsters and more

The designs are printed on one side of the page

Paper is the usual Creative Haven quality: white, medium weight, slightly rough and has perforated pages

Glue Binding but with perforated pages so removing a page is fairly simple

The designs do not cross over the perforations and have a framing line at their outer edges

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page

Water-based markers bleed through in spots and show colorful shadows on the back of the page

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through when I apply more than one layer of ink.

Coloring pencils work well with Creative Haven paper. I am able to get good pigment (color) lay down, layer the same color and multiple colors and to blend easily using a pencil style blender. IBoth oil and wax-based pencils have similar results. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.

I suggest either removing pages from the book to color or using a blotter page under your working page. I like card stock as it keeps ink from seeping through and damaging the pages below.

Here are some sample designs from the coloring book including fully colored designs: