Ivy and the Inky Butterfly: A Magical Tale to Color
By: Johanna Basford
Rating: 5 of 5
Once again, Johanna Basford is blazing a new path in the coloring genre. With Ivy and the Inky Butterfly, she has published a beautiful storybook about a young girl and her adventures in Enchantia. Along with the lovely story, there are great coloring elements on all pages. Whether the design is merely framing around the words of the tale or if it is a full page (or even a two-page spread) of illustration, Ms. Basford’s signature style is immediately evident. There are beautiful flowers and animals as usual. There are also scenes with a high amount of detail. Some of my favorites are those which feature Ivy, who is a cute little girl. The illustrations are highly detailed and only a very few have smaller and intricate areas to color.
As with her most recent coloring books, there appears to have been a concentrated effort to reduce the elements which span across the binding if the page is a two-page spread designs. In my book, some pages line up fantastic and some are a little off. The only real problem I have with the book is that due to the intense glue binding, it is very difficult to get into the seam unless you, as I did, break the spine. The inherent problem with that is that you risk having pages come loose over time. It seems like the book is glued together much more heavily than previous books by Ms. Basford.
I want this book to be a keepsake I read to my grandchildren and which I plan hand down to my granddaughter once I have finished coloring it, so loose pages can be a problem. I solved that problem by, in addition, buying the UK version of the book which has a sewn binding. I’m waiting for delivery and will include comments about the differences (in the comments below) once it arrives. You can find the UK version of the coloring book here:Ivy and the Inky Butterfly
The paper is ivory as just it has been for the last couple of books. It is not the same color of cream as used in Secret Garden or Enchanted Forest. Nor is it the white color that was used in the first four printings of Lost Ocean. It seems to me that the paper has a smooth side and a slightly rough side and that it alternates in my book.
The cover is attached and has green and gold foil highlights. The inside of the front and back covers have French folds (partial fold-outs.) There is a color palette test page at the back for testing your medium to see what seeps through or not.
This is what I found as I colored in this book and tested the paper with my coloring medium.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers (except for Tombow’s) leave shadows and even spots of color on the back of the page. The brush end of Tombows did not bleed through.
Gel pens and India ink did not bleed through the page.
Colored pencils worked well; however, they worked better on the slightly rougher side of the page. On the smoother side, my oil-based pencils did not grip the page as well but were still acceptable. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils. I was able to layer the same color for deeper pigment, layer multiple colors and to blend with a pencil style blending stick (again, better on the rougher side than on the smooth side.) Pencils did not leave indentations on the back of the page.