Red Queen: The Official Coloring Book
By: Victoria Aveyard
Rating: 5 of 5
I was really happy to see a coloring book based on the Red Queen series. I had a little problem figuring out which scenes were which and who each of the characters were. It would have been nice if some sort of info had been printed on the back of the page to make it easier to figure out.
The book is made up of 45 design pages (not including intro page.) The designs are in two separate categories which are character based scenes and sayings/quotes. Most of the designs are of characters. The sayings/quotes make up 16 of the design pages and are done is a lovely banner style in both cursive and block letters. The character designs are beautiful and elegant. They also appear to be hand-drawn which is my favorite style of coloring designs.
The character designs are detailed and some have intricate and small areas to color. The sayings/quotes are open and flowing and will be fairly easy to color. I, personally, like having both in the book. The sayings/quotes pages will give me an easy down-time project in between the more involved character pages.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
45 Designs pages (including character scenes and sayings/quotes) inspired by the Red Queen series
Designs are printed on one side of the page
Paper is white, medium weight, ever so slightly rough (good tooth for colored pencils) and perforated pages
Glue Bound
Designs (character scenes only) cross over perforations and merge into the binding area. The sayings designs stop short of the perforations.
If you break the spine (heavily crease it), you can get the book to lay fairly flat for coloring.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers and India ink pens leave shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens did not bleed through but required additional drying time
Colored pencils work well with the paper. It has just enough tooth to grab pigment well. I was able to layer the same color for deeper color, layer multiple colors well, and to blend easily using a blender stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils.
I use card stock as a blotter page under my working page to keep ink from seeping through to the design below. You can also simply remove pages from the book before coloring to avoid this issue.