Downton Abbey Coloring Book
By: Gwen Burns
Rating: 5 of 5
I really am enjoying the Downton Abbey coloring book. It was and still is one of my favorite series. The designs look like the characters, so it is easy to see that my favorites are all included.
The designs are spread across all seasons of the series with a good selection of characters. There is a quote from the series on the facing page of design which gives context to the design (though they don’t always match up with the actual character such as the quote from Mrs. Patmore about toasters and mixers with the picture of Daisy using a hand mixer.
The designs are detailed and some contain intricate and small areas to color. For the most part, you won’t need special ultra-fine pens/markers to color these designs.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
47 designs (including title page) based on the Downton Abbey television series
Printed one side of page (with quotes from the show on the back of the page)
Paper is heavy weight, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated
Hybrid Sewn and Glue Binding (lots of little stitches that cannot be snipped to remove pages.)
Designs merge into the binding. Nothing essential will be lost if you carefully cut the pages close to the binding to remove. I prefer to keep the book together to keep the continuity of the quote with the design.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper
Water-based markers, gel pens, and India ink pens did not bleed through the paper. Some gel pens require additional drying time.
Colored pencils worked really well with the paper. The slightly rough texture of the paper provided good tooth which allowed pigment to easily adhere to the page. I test both oil and wax based pencils and both worked well. I could layer the same color for deeper pigment, layer multiple colors and blend easily using a pencil style blender stick.
If I use alcohol-based markers with this style of book (printed one side of page) but I use a blotter page of card stock under my working page to keep ink from seeping through. I would suggest either using a blotter page or removing the coloring page from the book beforehand if you use alcohol-based markers.