25 Hand-drawn Detailed Carnival/Circus inspired designs printed one side of the page

The Curious Carnival: Coloring Book for Grown-ups

By: M.R. Umlas

Rating: 5 of 5

We have recently started taking our grandchildren to the circus when it comes to town. We have all been thrilled by the spectacle of the acts under the big top. This coloring book captures that feeling and gives me the opportunity to both color the designs and to discuss the circus with my grandson.

There are trapeze artists, clowns, animals, fortune-tellers, magicians, jugglers and more. The designs have a lovely hand-drawn quality and represent the images with an old-time vintage (almost steampunk) feel. I’m really pleased with the quality of artwork in this book. The paper is the same thin quality I have come to expect from CreateSpace printed books. While I wish it were better, it is the only choice for self-published artists, so I accept it to get the wide choice of designs.
The designs are quite detailed and include intricate elements with lots of tiny spots to color. I would not recommend this coloring book to anyone with fine motor or vision issues. I would also suggest that, for the intricate areas, use of ultra-fine point markers/pens or really sharp pencils would be best.
This is what I discovered while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
25 Hand-drawn Designs inspired by Carnivals and Circus images
Printed one side of the page
Paper is typical inexpensive quality by CreateSpace printing: white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.
The designs do not merge into the binding and have a framing line around the outer edges.
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats.
Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils. I also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.
I like to use a blotter when working in the book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.