The Princess Bride – As You Wish
By: Rachel Curtis
Rating: 5 of 5
“The Princess Bride” is a movie that my family and I watch over and over again. We’ve bought it repeatedly as it came out in different formats from VHS to Blu-Ray. The quotes from this movie have become part of the lexicon of our everday speech. “Have fun storming the Castle!” is a way of merely saying have a good trip. Being mostly dead merely means that we’re having a rough day (though this past year, it really meant I was almost dead when I fell quite ill with pneumonia last November.
Where the first book in this series seemed to focus on scenes in the movie, this coloring book looks at the quotes that we, who watch this show incessantly, recognize in a heartbeat.
The characters are also recognizable – even Buttercup fares better this time around than last (not perfect for at least a little more feminine looking than before.)
The coloring book has a detachable dustcover. The outside of the smooth cover is black on white line drawings with gold metallic accents. The inside of it has repeated symbols from the movie in a wild jumble of coloring opportunity. While it is very smooth, I still found that I could color on both sides of it. The inside attached cover is the same design with a black with golden roses and swords in a repeat pattern.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
80 pages of designs from the Princess Bride (including title and intro pages and some framed areas where you can color your own designs (or, as I did, use this area to test coloring medium.)
The designs are all unique and really don’t contain wallpaper style repeats (though two do come a little close but are way more fun to color than usual for this type of design.)
Designs are printed on both sides of the page.
Paper is white, heavyweight, slightly smooth (but still with decent tooth), and non-perforated
The binding is hybrid with glue and many small stitches. This is not the type of book which is easy to take apart. I plan on leaving the pages intact.
There are two page spread designs and designs which have elements which disappear into the binding.
It takes some effort to break the spine to get the book to lay flat. I find that is generally the case with hybrid bindings.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use these markers, you will bleed through and mar the design on the back of the page.
Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through the paper. Gel pens take a considerably longer time than usual to dry.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. While it is slightly smooth, it was still able to grip pigment well. I was able to get deep color with repeated layers of the same color. I was also able to layer multiple colors and blend well with a blender stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils with good results.
Here are some samples of designs from the coloring book:
“The Princess Bride” is a movie that my family and I watch over and over again. We’ve bought it repeatedly as it came out in different formats from VHS to Blu-Ray. The quotes from this movie have become part of the lexicon of our everday speech. “Have fun storming the Castle!” is a way of merely saying have a good trip. Being mostly dead merely means that we’re having a rough day (though this past year, it really meant I was almost dead when I fell quite ill with pneumonia last November.
