iiiiReader Book Reviews

Cats in Venice: Coloring book for adults

By: Happy Coloring

Rating: 5 of 5

This is another lovely coloring book by Stefania Miro and the group at Happy Coloring. In this book, there are 24 designs (plus the title page) of realistic cats set in the city of Venice. There are gondolas, masquerade, canal scenes and more.

I find the designs to be both elegant and challenging to color. The designs are detailed but do not include tiny spaces. The challenge is the the detail of the background. Quite often with coloring books of animals, the backgrounds are quite skimpy. In this case, it is the opposite. The backgrounds are every bit as detailed as the cats themselves.

For my first project, I choose a scene of a cat with a woman in masquerade attire. She sits in front of an older building with a water fountain. I really enjoyed coloring this picture. I used alcohol-based markers (Copics) and then overlaid them with soft oil-based pencils. I like the translucent quality that this gives to the project. I created the fur on the cat by using harder oil-based Polychromos which hold their point and make decisive lines. I’m new to many of the techniques and while I like the outcome, I know that I have much to learn about them. A lot of the fun in coloring for me is in trying new things whether successful or not!

This is what I discovered in working with this coloring book:

24 Realistic Designs of Cats in Venice
Printed on one side of typical Create Space paper
Paper is white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated
Glue Binding
All Designs stop before the binding.
All Designs have a framing line around the outer edge to give a natural stopping point which saves time and ink
The Coloring book opens to a flat position for coloring with minimal effort.
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through this paper.
Gel pens and India ink can spot through or leave shadows of color depending on how much I put on the page.
Coloring pencils work well: soft lead lay down color (both with a soft and a firm hand), layer, and blend well; hard lead (like Verithins) dent the back of the page but lay down good color

Faith in Color: An Adult Coloring Book, Premium Edition

By: Paige Tate Select

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the premium edition of Faith in Color. I don’t have this in the original version but I have another book by this publishing company which utilizes their standard paper. There is a huge difference in the type of paper, how it works, the color and the fact that the pages are perforate. Another great thing about the premium version is the addition of the smaller designs.

This book contains 31 larger designs and 10 smaller ones. The small ones are printed two to a page and you have to cut them on the provided cutting line to separate them from each other. The larger design will fit an 8 x 10 inch frame and the smaller design will fit a 5 x 7 inch frame. The smaller designs are smaller versions of some of the large format designs.

The designs are all Scripture-based with verse citations; however, I cannot provide the specific translation information as it is not included in the book. As with my other books by this publisher, the Bible verse is what is the stand-out from the page thought the hand-drawn illustrations are lovely and are fun and easy to color as well.

It appears that all but one of the designs from the first book are included in the premium edition (though they may be ordered slightly differently.) There seems to have been a verse that was duplicated in the first book (with a different picture) and one of those two is not included in this version.

I have had a lot of fun coloring my first three designs in this book. I used a combination of alcohol-based markers, Tombow water-based brush end markers and Sakura gel pens (for the glittery stars.) I found that I could easily use all of these coloring mediums though the one that I used Tombow on primarily has a tendency to curl but can be flattened out.

As with all of my Christian inspired coloring books, coloring in this book was both enjoyable and a chance to think on the Words and to apply them to my life. I find that whatever I choose to color is an answer to something whether I knew it or not when I choose the design. As with all things in life, I find that I am spiritually led to what I need to know.

This is the overview of what I found in this coloring book:

31 Large Format and 10 Small Format Scripture Based Designs in for a total of 41 coloring opportunities
Printed on one side of perforated, white, slightly rough medium weight paper
Designs do not merge into the binding area
Glue Binding
Book can open to fairly flat position though I removed my pages from the book for coloring
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper
Water-based markers left shadows of color on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens left indistinct shadows on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with the paper with the soft lead going on well both with a light hand and a firm hand. I was able to blend and layer well with a wide variety of brands of coloring pencils. My hard lead pencils provided good color and did not dent the back of the page.

Designs to Color Book 1: The Original Coloring Books for Adults

By: Betty Schaffner

Rating: 5 of 5

It is hard to believe that this is a coloring book reprinted from the 1960s. The style of the designs and the subject matter is so contemporary that it fits in with many of the more abstract coloring books that are being released today.

The designs are printed in a horizontal format book (wider than it is long) with come of the designs turned on end. There are abstracts as well as designs that have the doodle style that is so popular today.

The designs are printed on one side of the page. The paper is white, medium weight, fairly smooth and is non-perforated. The designs all stop before the binding area. The book is bound by two staples, so if you want to remove the pages from the book, it should take little effort and you will not lose any portion of the designs.

My first project is a still life of fruit with doodles in the apple and pear. I used my Tombows water based markers with the brush end to color the design.

Alcohol-based markers do bleed through the page. However, water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through. Coloring pencils work fairly well with the exception of blending. Soft lead pencils all have good color and layer well; however, when attempting to blend colors, the original color stays heavy in the original spot and only blends slight at the edge. This true of both wax and oil based pencils. Hard lead pencils do not dent the back of the page.

I was provided an initial digital sample of four pages via Netgalley. The publisher then provided me with a free copy of the finalized book for test and review purposes.

Legendary Landscapes: Coloring Book Journey

By: Witek Radomski

Rating: 5 of 5

Legendary Landscapes is the first coloring book in a series of collaborative coloring books. The format of the books in the series is larger than most standard coloring books. It still fits easily on my bookshelf and the larger size means less tiny spots to color. The designs themselves are quite detailed but, because of the size of the book, I don’t require special tiny nib pens in order to color them.

The designs are from seven different Canadian artists, including: Witek Radomski, Carrie Wong, Kamala Melzack, Al Sayers, Anonymous, Adrienne Drozdowski, and Ratbath. Five of the seven are now familiar to me as I have seen there work in the second book in this series Legendary Worlds but Ms. Drozdowski and Ratbath are new to me in this book. There is a brief bio for each artist, including Anonymous, at the back of the book as well as thumbnails of each design and attribution to which artist created it.

The coloring book is filled with all sorts of landscapes (including seascapes, cityscapes and even views of the planet from space. Some of the designs are very realistic in their concept while others are pure fantasy. I choose, as my first project, to do one of the more realistic designs of birds in amongst a bevy of birdhouses. The garden scene appealed to the gardener in me. There are so many other projects that I find tremendously appealing that I am sure to be coloring in this book for a long time.

This is what I found when I tested and colored in the book:

86 Pages of both Realistic and Fantasy Landscapes
Designs printed on both sides of heavyweight, white, fairly smooth non-perforated paper.
Designs merge into the binding area
A few designs spread across two pages
Sewn Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers did not bleed through but some (Stabilio 88 and Staedler triplus fineliners and the fine point end of Tombows) left the lightest of shadows on the back of the page. Using the brush end of the Tombows worked well for me and did not show through.
Gel pens did not bleed through but required additional drying time.
India ink pens did not bleed through the page.
Coloring pencils were mixed. I had good results with waxed-based soft lead pencils and hard lead pencils in general. Oil-based soft lead pencils laid down good color but did not blend well. Both wax and oil based pencils layered well on this paper.

This coloring book was provided to me as a free sample for test and review purposes.

Enchanted Forest Artist’s Edition: 20 Drawings to Color and Frame

By: Johanna Basford

Rating: 5 of 5

These are some of the beautiful designs that originally appeared in Joanna Basford’s besting selling Enchanted Forest coloring book. Of her three books thus far, I must admit this is my favorite though I like and enjoy all of them.

I recently purchased and reviewed the UK version of this book and promised to include a list of the differences between the UK and the US version. I’m pleased to say that apart from slight wording changes on the cover, there is no difference at all. They are published by the same company with the same materials. The exact same color, size, weight, and they work identically with various coloring mediums.

I’m really pleased that Ms. Basford has begun publishing artist’s editions (starting last year with Secret Garden.) The Artist’s Edition of Enchanted Forest (compared to the original book) is larger, the paper is considerably heavier and, of course, these are printed on only one side of the page which allows you to color the design with any medium you choose.

There are 20 designs in the larger format book which is a small subset of the designs in the original book. Some of my favorites are included but then again, there are some that did not make the cut. Perhaps they will show up in the calendar scheduled for later this year or who knows if there may someday be a volume 2 of the Artists Edition (hint, hint).

In some cases, the designs in this version are slightly enlarged compared to the original (for example, the hot hair balloon and the fox) but in most cases the designs are slightly to more than slightly smaller in size. It seems as if the width of the design caused some to be decreased. Anything that came close to the edge of the original book was made smaller as the width dimension of the artist’s edition is more narrow.

The few designs that were taken from two-page spreads in the original are treated two separate ways: 1) the entire two-page designs is put on a single page and is much smaller in size compared to the original, and 2) in a couple of instances, only a portion of the design is reproduced and in that case, the portion of the design is slightly larger than the original.

The cover of the book is hinged with a secondary cover beneath it. The actual pages are glue bound but with the type of binding that allows you to remove pages easily and in whole (think of a notepad type of binding.) The pages are a light cream tone. It is much quite different from my original US book which looks almost slightly green in tone when the two books are sitting side by side. The paper is such a nice quality, it will be easy to remove and frame these if you wish.

My various coloring medium all worked well with this edition. For my first design in the US version, I used a variety of Copic, Bic Mark-it and Sharpie alcohol-based markers. I will also include photos of the first designs I did in the UK version where I used a variety of alcohol and water-based markers without serious bleed-through. The paper works fantastic with these markers as the only colors that have yet to have the slightest hint of a stain on the back of the page are my deep red and blue tones.

When I tested the rest of my coloring mediums, India ink did not bleed through. Gel pens did not bleed through but required more drying time than usual. Soft lead coloring pencils worked with the card stock and blended and layered well. Hard lead pencils went on with a nice color and did not dent through the page.

The Present – Thai Version

By: Daria Song

Rating: 5 of 5

Color Laughter Coloring Book (Perfectly Portable Pages) (On-The-Go Coloring Book)

By: Suzy Toronto

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the third coloring book I have purchased by Sue Toronto in this size format. It is one of four that are being published in the smaller size (I believe that the large format will be made available soon, too.) The size of the book is 8.25 x 5.25 inches which is perfect for me to fit in my handbag or tote for use on the go. I generally keep a small set of coloring pencils and gel pens in my bag as well so I can while the time away with some cute coloring as I recently did while waiting forever at the doctor’s office.

I did notice that there are a few design duplication between all the three books that I have (Friendship, Inspiration and Laughter.) I have a number of duplicates but that just gives me a few to share around. If you are buying just one book, no problems. If you plan on buying more, just be aware of this so you aren’t surprised.

For my first project in this coloring book, I choose one about drama queens. It is dedicated to the drama queen in my life a wildly enthusiastic and dramatic young woman who lives her life to the fullest who has been a drama princess and now queen her whole life! I enjoyed using my Tombows for this project.

I will provide more detail about the physical book below but here is an overview of what I found:

28 Cute and Funny Designs with Humorous Sayings
Printed on one side of medium weight perforated paper
Designs stop before the perforations
Glue Bound
Alcohol and water-based markers bleed through the page
India Ink pens bleed through the page
Gel pens do not bleed through
Coloring pencils work well with the paper

This is a coloring book published by Design Original books. As usual with their books, this book includes examples of colored artwork. It also includes tips from this artist about color wheels. She also discusses how she starts with yellow as a base coat on all of her artwork. I’ve included a photo of my colored design as well as a couple of their sample designs.

I recommend using a cut down piece of heavyweight paper as a blotter page to use under the project you are working on to keep the rest of the book from being damaged. You can also simply remove the page from the book before you color your project.

Beauty in the Bible: An Adult Coloring Book, Premium Edition

By: Paige Tate

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the premium edition of Beauty in the Bible. I have the second volume in this series in the regular paper but had not purchased the first book. I was surprised (in a good way) to see that the publishing company had decided to step up the paper grade, add perforations and provide the designs in two sizes (both suitable for framing.) You get two of each design. The larger design will fit an 8 x 10 inch frame and the smaller design will fit a 5 x 7 inch frame.

The 24 designs are all Scripture-based with verse citations; however, I cannot provide the specific translation information as it is not included in the book. The images in the book are licensed from Shutterstock but for me, the importance of the book is in the words. As with my other book by this publisher, the Bible verse is the focus of the design though they are very nicely integrated with well-chosen licensed artwork. Most of the designs have many flowers which is fun for adding lots of color.

It appears that all of the designs from the first book are included in the premium edition (though they may be ordered slightly differently.) The big addition are the smaller versions of the designs, better paper quality and the perforated pages. I can compare these to the book I do own by this publisher and I am impressed by the changes. It appears that the publisher really listened to their customers and wanted to present the book in an upgraded format.

There were so many wonderful and inspiring designs to choose from and I have already completed four of them. For the first, I decided to use alcohol-based markers to complete the design and Verithin pencils to do the words. For the other three, I used three different types of coloring pencils and had great results from soft lead and hard lead alike. I noted that the paper absorbs markers quite well and you have to use a light hand to avoid feathering outside of the lines.

It was a real joy to color these designs. As I colored, I really thought about the verse and what it meant to me. It was a real comfort to me and exactly what I needed to meditate on.

This is the overview of what I found in this coloring book:

24 Scripture Based Designs in two sizes for 48 coloring opportunities
Printed on one side of perforated, white, slightly rough medium weight paper
Designs do not merge into the binding area
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper
Water-based markers either bled through or left shadows of color on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens left indistinct shadows on the back of the page
Coloring pencils work well with the paper with the soft lead going on well both with a light hand and a firm hand. I was able to blend and layer well with a wide variety of brands of coloring pencils. My hard lead pencils provided good color and did not dent the back of the page.

You should note that the smaller format designs are on a perforated page; however, you will need to cut the two apart for separate use (cutting line is included.) I was able to get the book to lay flat for coloring but I chose to remove my page from the book to use on a clipboard.