40 doodle creature designs with a vague fairytale theme – printed one side of the page

Finding Wonderland

Illustrated Illustrated by: Trixia Hanna A. Ocampo; published by Julia Rivers

Rating: 4 of 5

I own a quite a few coloring books published by Julia Rivers imprint of Storytroll Studios. This book is by Trixia Hann A. Ocampo, who I believe is a new artist in my collection. I bought this coloring book last year (just before I became quite ill) and haven’t had a chance to review it until now.

What I discovered is that this same book has been re-released this year by the publisher. Nothing different, just a new release, so be careful if you think you may have bought this previously. If you are interested in my take on this practice, you can hear my opinion of the weekly intro to my flip-throughs for this week on my Youtube channel.

The book is filled with doodle creatures, which I really enjoy coloring. I honestly can’t be an overall cohesive theme of wonderland or fairytales that makes sense to me. All I see is a bunch of doodle creatures with a little girl embedded somewhere in the design.

Something feels a bit off to me in the designs as well. There is a use of heavier lines that is a bit off-putting for me. Otherwise, I find the book to be a pretty fun to color doodle creature book. However, it would not be the first one I own that I would pick up to color.

The designs are detailed and some include smaller intricate areas to color.

This is what I found in this coloring book:

40 Doodle creature designs are in the book

Printed one side of the page

Paper is white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated.

The designs do not merge into the binding. Some have finished elements at the sides; however, many are left unfinished.

Glue Binding

KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing – formerly CreateSpace) Paper/Media Quality

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 fairly well with this publisher’s paper provided you don’t press extremely hard while coloring. I find that I can layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and blended easily with a pencil style blending stick. This is true of both oil and wax based pencils. I have also found that hard lead pencils leave dents through the paper.

I like to use a blotter when working in this type of 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.

Here are some sample photos from the book: