Romantic Country: The Second Tale: A Fantasy Coloring Book
By: Eriy
Rating: 5 of 5
It’s hard to imagine but the artist draws her beautiful artwork using ink and a toothpick! Because of this technique, the lines of the drawings have a varying thickness and the print is lighter in tone than in other coloring books. Of the 65 designs in the book, 20 are two-page spreads.
The designs take us back to the beautiful land of Cocot. There is a map at the front of the book which shows all of the landmarks. There are thumbnails at the end of the book which explain each of the designs and what and where they are in Cocot. There is a fold-out poster at the end of the book as well.
The book is divided into five chapters: The Glow of Beautiful Old Castles, Magnificent Lakeside and Mountain Landscapes, Fairies and Works of Nature, The Witch and the Hidden Secret Forest, and Cheerful Town Scenes. Each of the chapter heading pages includes a lovely two-page spread designs. Additionally, the designs within each chapter relate back to the title of the chapter. There are a couple of designs at the front of the book which sit outside of the chapters. These designs are not included in the thumbnails at the back of the book.
The book has a brown kraft paper style attached cover. This cover has line drawings on front and back covers which you can color if you wish. The detached dustcover is beautifully illustrated with colorful designs of Cocot. The inside of the dustcover is white.
This is what I found when I was coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
65 Beautiful designs set in the fantasy land of Cocot. There are 20 two-page designs spreads.
Designs are printed on both sides of the page
Paper is cream colored, heavyweight, smooth and non-perforated.
Sewn Binding
Designs merge into the binding area and two-page spreads cross over the binding as well.
The book opens fairly flat for coloring but a little effort is needed to color into the binding edge
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper. I don’t suggest this medium as it will ruin the design on the back of the page. If you decide to use this style of markers, I suggest a blotter page of card stock or a couple of pages of heavyweight paper under your working page to keep ink from seeping further in to the book.
Water-based markers and India ink pens left slight shadows on the back of the page. I could see them and it bothered me enough not to want to use these for coloring my designs.
Gel pens did not bleed through but required additional drying time.
Colored pencils worked fairly well with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and had a little trouble blending with both. Due to the smooth texture of the paper, when I used a blending stick, there was a slight amount of smear versus blend. Otherwise, colored pencils worked well. Pigment went on deep and thick and I was able to easily layer multiple colors.