iiiiReader Book Reviews

30 Great Modern Folk Art Designs dedicated to gardens and other plants printed on one side of white perforated paper

Just Add Color: Arboretum: 30 Original Illustrations to Color, Customize, and Hang – Bonus Plus 4 Full-Color Images by Lisa Congdon Ready to Display!

By: Lisa Congdon

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a really fun to color book for any gardener or some who enjoys the fruits of gardening. There are 30 hand-drawn designs in this well put together book by Lisa Congdon. This line of books is new to me but I will be looking for both older and newer titles now that I have tried the publisher (Rockport Publishers.) The designs are fun and easy to color with the ability to work in big blocks of color with markers or to blend away to your heart’s content with coloring pencils.

The designs range from scenes in a garden outside to collages of gardening tools or trees or plants. I really enjoyed coloring some brilliant plumage birds in the midst of an orange tree on a bright sunny day (or so the design spoke to me.) I’m about ready to head out to my garden to do planting for spring crops so this book of designs really spoke to me. There are four colored samples of pages included in the book each one is placed behind the coloring design it depicts. That actually makes it more difficult to view if you choose to but for me, it was an interesting sample but not one that I plan to copy.

The book is really well put together. The designs are all printed on one side of perforated heavyweight paper. The designs merge into the perforations but nothing essential is lost to that area. If you plan on removing pages, you might want to do so before coloring as it is hard to get into the areas near the binding and you will lose that area when you remove the page in any case. The book is glue bound but as you will remove pages at the perforations, that should not be an issue. I was easily able to get the book to lay flat by breaking the spine.

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50 Beautiful and Unusual Designs with an emphasis on Italian art and culture printed one side of the page

Romantic Italy: 50 Illustrations by a Renowned Italian Artist (Volume 1)

By: Mr. Jack R. Plaxe Sr.

Rating: 5 of 5

Romantic Italy is a beautiful book of 50 designs by artist Augusta Schinchirimini. The hand-drawn designs are divided into several chapters: Carnevale in Venice, Fairy Tale Characters, Forests and Gardens, the Sea, and Classic Ceramic Designs. I love that each of the designs have an entire scene portrayed rather than just a single character or one in which the background appears unfinished. Ms. Schinchirimini’s take on fairy tales is beautiful and unusual. I immediately sat down to color the mermaid (as different from the standrd Little Mermaid image as one can imagine lush and beautiful.) The scenes from Carnevale were what drew me to this book originally and are, again, something out of the ordinary.

The book is printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper. The binding is glued rather than sewn, so you will have to cut out pages if you want to remove them from the book. All of the designs stop short of the binding, so you don’t have to fight that portion of the book to finish the design and you won’t lose any portion of the design if you remove the page carefully from the book. I really appreciate that the artist included a framing line around each of the designs. It gives me a natural place to finish my project and I’m not left trying to free-hand straight lines at the edge. I was not able to break the spine to lay the book flat but since the margins are large enough, I didn’t need to fight the binding to get to the inside portion of the design.

All of my markers, gel pens, and India ink artist pens leaked through this paper. My coloring pencils worked well and went on smoothly according to type; however, my hard lead pencils left indents on the back of the page. Because the book is printed on one side, I can put a blotter page behind the designs I am working on to keep ink from seeping through or dents from marring the next page of the book. I prefer card stock or chipboard but you can use heavy weight paper or file folders. Just be sure the blotter is smooth or the texture may transfer into your design.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

Markers: 1) alcohol-based Copic Sketch, Prismacolor double ended markers (brush and fine point), Sharpies (fine and ultra-fine) Bic Mark-its (fine and ultra-fine) and 2) water-based Tombows dual end markers (brush and fine point), Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners, and Pentel markers

India Ink: Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (brush tip)

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, Uni-ball Signo in the following sizes – 0.28/0.38/0.5/1.0 and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

Gorgeous Grayscale Animal Designs with a fun coloring technique printed on one side of heavyweight perforated paper

Beautiful Creatures Grayscale Coloring Book for Adults: A Boundless Adult Coloring Book Adventure

By: Nicole Stocker

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the first coloring book that I have had that uses grayscale coloring. It reminds me a lot of the old black and white photos that I colorized a few decades ago. Back then, I photographed and printed my own photos in my photo lab and the paper was quite different. Because the images in Beautiful Creatures are printed on heavyweight paper, the techniques used for coloring these are different as well.

The coloring book states and the artist reiterated to me that coloring pencils are the preferred medium for these images. I found that to be absolutely true. However, I love a challenge, so I tested all of my coloring mediums with the book as well. While my soft lead pencils worked very well, I was also intrigued by effect my water-based Tombow brush markers had on the images. It seems to turn the photo into a water-color painting of sorts. I am including photos that show a coloring pencil frog, my test page of medium on a snail (the shell was done by Tombows), and two photos of birds (one half done and the other finished) that show how the Tombows change the image. I don’t usually show my test pages because they are so messy, so please excuse most of the snail image I included it because it shows that all but the soft lead pencils and Tombows didn’t work for me. It might well be that there are techniques I can learn to make them work but for the moment, I can’t recommend them.

Essentially, coloring with soft pencils in this book is simple light colors for light areas, medium for medium, and dark for dark areas. You color the light areas first, then the dark areas. Finally, you come through with the medium colors and blend the picture together. I suggest that you have a blending medium (such as a pencil) at hand when working with this coloring book.

The images are printed on heavyweight perforated paper. The book is glue bound but it is easy to remove the book at the perforation. I was able to get the book to lay flat by breaking the spine.

As noted above, I only recommend soft lead pencils and, for anyone who wants a challenge, water-based Tombow markers. All markers bled through the paper but my gel pens and India ink markers did not. I found that my hard lead pencils were not as effective for this style of coloring as they don’t blend well. I chose not to remove my pages but used a blotter under the page to keep ink from seeping through.

I was provided a sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

45 Original and Hand-Drawn American Folk Art Coloring Designs printed on one side of the page

Fanciful Folk Art Coloring Book

By: Karla Gerard

Rating: 5 of 5

I really enjoy American folk art and have seen self-taught artist Karla Gerard’s original artwork (online) and her rug patterns before, so when I came across a coloring book of her original, hand-drawn designs, I was thrilled to be able to purchase and color in it. Fanciful Folk Art is a wonderful collection of 45 modern American folk art designs. The designs have the almost child-like quality that one expects with folk art and that is what draws me to this style. The pictures are much more sophisticated than what a child would draw but it evokes that response in me. I love to pick up colors and work in big blocks without much consideration (except, perhaps, contrast.) I only have one other coloring book that I consider to be American folk art so getting a book with so many great designs has been wonderful.

The designs in the coloring book are printed on one side of medium weight non-perforated paper. I was able to get the book to lay flat by slightly breaking the spine. The binding is glued rather than sewn so you will have to cut pages out if you wish to remove them. The designs all stop well before the margins so you won’t lose any portion of them if you cut them out. The artist has included a framing line around all of her designs. I really appreciate this as it gives me a natural stopping point and keeps me from wasting ink and time. It is also very frustrating to try to draw at the edge of a design when the elements are not finished the framing line solves this and makes coloring easy and more fun.

Both my alcohol and water based markers seeped through the paper. My gel pens and India ink markers left color shadows on the back of the page. My coloring pencils worked well according to type (soft or hard lead.) My soft lead pencils went on smoothly and my hard lead pencils did not leave an indent on the back of the page. As I certainly plan to use markers in this book, I will put a piece of card stock or chipboard behind the page I am working on to keep ink from seeping through to the following pages. In the comments section below, I will list the coloring mediums I used to test this coloring book.

Really Cute Cats 24 Coloring Designs x2 in different sizes printed on one side of the page

Cute Cats Coloring Book for Adults

By: Juliana Emerson

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a fantastic coloring book for cat fanciers. There are a number of cat breeds included in the coloring book (I will list those at the bottom of the review for anyone who is curious.) There are 24 full page designs and, as a bonus, they have included a smaller format print of each design at the back of the book. You can use that for color selection or to color on their own. I find the smaller designs to be a good size to color and turn into a card (by gluing it onto my precut card stock of the same size.) The cats are in a variety of poses in different scenes.

While my cats have always been indoor cats, these cats are shown both indoors and outdoors to give the colorist a great variety to choose from. My first choice is in honor of my late son’s cat Pickles. She was a beautiful gray tabby with brilliant green eyes. She became my cat after my son passed and she was with us for an additional four years (to the day) afterward.

All of the designs stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so. All of the designs have a framing line around the outside. I really like this as it gives me a natural stopping point, saves ink/pencil, and also gives me a more finished looking project when I color. I was able to get the book to lay flat by press down hard on the open spine.

All of my markers (alcohol and water based) bleed through and my gel pens and India Ink artist pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper and behave as expected for their type of lead. The hard lead leaves indents on the back of the page. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink.

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24 American Muscle Cars x2 in different size formats printed on one side of the page

American Muscle Cars Coloring Book

By: Happy Coloring

Rating: 5 of 5

My husband and I both enjoy muscle cars. In our youth, we both had and enjoyed some of these cars (his was a Chevrolet Impala and I had both a Plymouth Barracuda and a Ford Torino at different times.) These went by the wayside when the kids were born and gas prices nipped at the budget but now that we are empty-nesters we are considering purchasing and restoring one. Those dreams may only be fulfilled by watching Counting Cars but in the meantime, we will both enjoy coloring in this book.

There are actually 24 different designs in this coloring book (I think that the 44 in the products description as I write this review is a typo.) The designs are in full page size and then, again, in smaller format at the back of the book. That gives you the opportunity to color them twice in both sizes or to use the smaller page as a test for color samples.

Our grandson is both cars and Cars crazy at the moment, so we are coloring these designs for him. In the sample I show (if my photos show up!), I left the windshield uncolored as I will be attempting to color in eyes ala Lightning McQueen style for his enjoyment.

All of the designs stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper. I could easily get the page to lay flat by slightly breaking the spine. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so as there is a framing line around each of the designs. This saves me a lot of time and ink in finishing the design, so I always try to mention it when the artist includes a frame.

As with all CreateSpace coloring books, all of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. In India ink artist pens leave a color shadow as well. My coloring pencils work well with paper. My soft lead goes on nice and thick; however, while my hard lead work well they also leave an indent at the back of the page. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink or marring indents.

While I could wish for thicker, perforated paper, it appears that this is the quality that comes from CreateSpace (which is an Amazon company.) What I really like about the CreateSpace is it is a way that independent artists can get their work self-published. That way, I get a huge choice of design styles albeit with not the best paper.

36 Great Mandala and Mandala inspired designs printed on one side of paper

Adult Coloring Books: Mindfulness Mandalas: A mandala coloring book for adult relaxation featuring stress relieving coloring pages for adults including henna flowers geometric & animal designs

By: Inky Balm Designs

Rating: 5 of 5

This coloring book has a good selection of both mandala and mandala inspired coloring designs. The designs are curated by Inky Balm and are licensed through shutterstock.com. This provides a colorist with the opportunity of buying a single book with a number of artists work included. Otherwise, you might have to buy a number of books to get such a diverse offering. I like that there are both mandalas and other designs in this book. Usually mandala books are mandalas only but by including both, it makes it a great way to get started with coloring at a good price and with a good selection of styles and types of designs. I especially liked coloring the cute little frog with his mandala tummy. Some of the designs include intricate details but for the most part the designs are fairly open and should be easy to color without resorting to especially sharp pencils or tiny nib pens and markers.

All of the designs stop well before the binding, are centered well on the page, and the print quality is very good. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so. I was able to get the book to lay fairly flat in the open position by breaking the spine slightly.

All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens and India ink artist pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper though the hard lead pencils do leave an indent at the back of the page. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don’t ruin the following page with leaking ink.

These are the coloring medium that I use for testing. If there is something else you feel I should be testing, please let me know and I will see if I can add it to my growing pile:

India Ink: Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (brush tip)

Gel Pens: Sakura, Fiskars, Uni-ball Signo in the following sizes – 0.28/0.38/0.5/1.0 and Tekwriter

Coloring Pencils: Prismacolor Premier Soft Core, Derwent Colorsoft, Prismacolor Verithins, and Faber-Castell Polychromos

I was provided a free sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

Lovely Coloring Book of 36 Flowing Flower Designs printed on one side of paper

Adult Coloring Books: Fascinating Flowers

By: Inky Balm Designs

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a lovely coloring book of 36 flower and floral inspired designs. Many of the designs are of bouquets of flowers both real and imagined. The designs are curated by Inky Balm and are licensed through shutterstock.com. This provides a colorist with the opportunity of buying a single book with a number of artists work included. Otherwise, you might have to buy a number of books to get such a diverse offering. The designs include a number with intricate and small details. The designs have a very flowing feel to them with many swirling elements throughout.

All of the designs stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so. The designs are well centered on the page and the print quality is very good. By breaking the spine slightly, I was able to get the book to lay fairly flat in the open position.

I was provided a free sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

50 Beautiful and Meticulous Mandala and Geometric Pattern Designs printed on one side of page

Rang – Adult Coloring Book: Abstract Mandalas and Geometric Patterns

By: Ankit Chaudhari

Rating: 5 of 5

“Rang” by Ankit Chaudhan is a coloring book of 50 designs which include both mandalas and abstract geometric patterns. Both styles of design have precise lines and repeating patterns within the design. When I see this type of beautiful precision, my first thought is to mix up my colors and bring a type of colorful chaos to the pristine nature of the design.

I’ve have fun coloring the my first four choices in the book and for two of them, I went wild with color and for the other two, I tried for a more orderly fashion. The designs are versatile enough to do either and to come out with a result that I like. Many of the designs have intricate and small details. A few of them have fairly heavy black lines. I was able to utilize the heavy lines in one design as part of my shading techniques using Tombow water-based brush pens.

All of the designs stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so. All of the designs have a framing line around the outside. I really like this, especially if I decide to color in the background of a mandala, as it gives me a natural stopping point, saves ink/pencil, and also gives me a more finished looking project when I color.

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36 Fun Animal Coloring Designs printed on one side of page

Adult Coloring Books: Enchanting Animals

By: Inky Balm Designs

Rating: 5 of 5

“Enchanting Animals” is a fun and cute coloring book of 36 different animal designs. There are animals of the land, sea and air included as well as a few insects. The designs are curated by Inky Balm and are licensed through shutterstock.com. This provides a colorist with the opportunity of buying a single book with a number of artists work included. Otherwise, you might have to buy a number of books to get such a diverse offering. Because of my large collection of coloring books, I have seen a few of these designs in other curated books. I think that the print quality of this particular book is the best I own in this type of animal collection. The lines are even and dark and the designs are centered well on the page. The animals are drawn as line drawings with doodle style elements added to make coloring more fun. Some of the designs include a number with intricate and small details.

I was provided a free sample of this coloring book for test and review purposes.

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Just Add Color: Arboretum: 30 Original Illustrations to Color, Customize, and Hang – Bonus Plus 4 Full-Color Images by Lisa Congdon Ready to Display!

By: Lisa Congdon

Rating: 5 of 5

Romantic Italy: 50 Illustrations by a Renowned Italian Artist (Volume 1)

By: Mr. Jack R. Plaxe Sr.

Rating: 5 of 5

Beautiful Creatures Grayscale Coloring Book for Adults: A Boundless Adult Coloring Book Adventure

By: Nicole Stocker

Rating: 5 of 5

Fanciful Folk Art Coloring Book

By: Karla Gerard

Rating: 5 of 5

Cute Cats Coloring Book for Adults

By: Juliana Emerson

Rating: 5 of 5

American Muscle Cars Coloring Book

By: Happy Coloring

Rating: 5 of 5

Adult Coloring Books: Mindfulness Mandalas: A mandala coloring book for adult relaxation featuring stress relieving coloring pages for adults including henna flowers geometric & animal designs

By: Inky Balm Designs

Rating: 5 of 5

Adult Coloring Books: Fascinating Flowers

By: Inky Balm Designs

Rating: 5 of 5

Rang – Adult Coloring Book: Abstract Mandalas and Geometric Patterns

By: Ankit Chaudhari

Rating: 5 of 5

Adult Coloring Books: Enchanting Animals

By: Inky Balm Designs

Rating: 5 of 5

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