Second Intricate and Beautiful book of Fairy Tales by Tomoko Tashiro UK version of the book – printed both sides of page

Princesses and Fairies Colouring Book (Colouring Books)

By: Tomoko Tashiro

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the second coloring book of mostly fairy tales by Tomoko Tashiro. Some of the tales were unfamiliar to me but I loved the artwork regardless of the story. While there is duplication of some of the tales between the first and second book, the artwork is different no duplication of designs. There are 80 pages of designs (including intro pages) with most of them spanning across two pages. The designs are intricately and exquisitely drawn and will require a small point coloring medium, a steady hand, good eyesight to color.

The tales included are: Thumbelina, The Frog Prince, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Real Princess (Princess and the Pea), Cinderella, Princess Minon-minette, The Fairies, The Little Mermaid, The Flying Trunk, The Moon Princess, and Tanabata, The words in the UK version are only in English where the Japanese version had words in English with the majority in Japanese
The UK version has an attached cover (where the Japanese version had a dustcover.) The book is printed on both sides of smooth, white non-perforated paper. Many of the designs span across two pages and the designs merge into the binding. The binding is sewn so you can remove several pages at a time by snipping threads if you wish. I could get the book to open fairly flat. The Japanese version was glued and it was next to impossible to get the book to open flat.
My alcohol-based markers bled through this paper. My water-based markers and India ink artist pen left slight shadows on the back of the page. My gel pens were mixed some bright colors left shadows but most did not. I especially liked the smaller nib Uni-ball Signo (0.28 and 0.38) for the fine detail on this book.
My colored pencils worked were mixed. I could get good pigment with single and multiple coats. I had problems blending colors as the colors smeared more than blended (using a blender stick.) I had the same results with both oil and wax-based pencils. The Japanese version worked better with colored pencils but wet medium bled through a bit more.
There are things that I like and dislike about both versions. I prefer the binding on the UK version but I much prefer the paper (for use with colored pencils) and the dustcover on the Japanese version