“Curiosity House – The Shrunken Head” is the beginning of a new series by Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester. In the story, four children with unusual talents try to solve an ever increasing number of murders and other crimes. The kids, who live at The Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders, use their abilities in solving the the crimes. There are many red-herrings which add even more to the solution as you, as the reader, are pulled this way and that.
This is a well made and illustrated adult coloring book filled with 31 designs of dragons of all types: mountain dragons, leafy dragons, fire-breathing dragons, Celtic dragons, crystal dragons, forest dragons, and even a “dragon” fly, too. There is a mermaid, a knight, a castle and more in these designs by Jane Sullivan.
Some of the earlier Peter Pauper coloring books were by a variety of artists but this book focuses on only Ms. Sullivan’s work a change in focus that I am really enjoying. My husband and I had a bit of a tug-of-war over this book when it arrived (I won) but he has ordered a copy for himself as he doesn’t want to share. I think is it an excellent gender-neutral book that will appeal to men and women alike.
A few of the designs have intricate components but they don’t look that difficult to color provided you have ultra-fine point pens/markers/pencils and a steady hand. I don’t know that crayons would work that well on those particular designs. Other designs are more open and free-flowing and a colorist should be able to use a variety of coloring tools and points with those designs.
The pages are a heavyweight of bright white paper that is micro perforated. The designs are printed on one side of the page only and stop well before or at the perforated point. The designs do not merge into the binding area. The paper is also acid-free which means that it will not turn colors with age and all the work you put into coloring the designs should be safe. Additionally, the binding can be pushed into lying flat to give you access to make coloring in this book if you prefer that over taking pages out.
The only markers that bleeds through on this paper are my Sharpies and Copics so it is probably safe to assume that all alcohol-based markers will have the same problem. None of my gel pens or water-based ultra fine markers bleed through. If you are using alcohol based markers or just for general safety, you can put an extra page of heavyweight paper under the page you are working on just in case some color leaches through. Be sure to check your particular markers/pens to see if there is any leaking for that brand.
Peter Pauper Press coloring books are very well made for me as a colorist. The paper is a good quality, the designs are great, and the publisher has printed the book one-sided and perforated. These hit all my points and I am really pleased with their books.
“Bittersweet Creek” is a modern take on a mash up of “Romeo and Juliet” and the story of the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. It is a funny story which is told in first person but which alternates points of view between the two main characters. At times, the switching back and forth became a little confusing (because it happened fairly often) but on the whole, it was a good way to tell the story.
A Brothers Grimm Coloring Book and Other Classic Fairy Tales: Escape into a World of Fantasy and Imagination
By: Adam Fisher
Rating: 5 of 5
This coloring book is chock-full of great designs based mostly on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales but also includes some other classic fairy tales, too. The designs range from complex to more open and easy to color, so there is something in this book for whatever mood you are in that day. Some of the designs are a little on the creepy side but so were the original fairy tales. Other designs are quite elegant and beautiful. I’m glad to see that the artist, Adam Fisher, has stayed true to the original stories. At the bottom of each design, the artist has included the title and a quote from the fairy tale.
The designs are printed in grayscale, so there are tonal changes within designs and between designs in the book. I really appreciate that as it helps to emphasize and de-emphasize elements of the design. The book is smaller than the normal at about 8 x 8 inches. It is quite a thick book but it can easily be slipped into a backpack or purse if you want to take it on the go.
The book is printed on a single side of medium weight white perforated paper. The paper has a smooth finish and is suitable for framing. The binding is glued rather than sewn but the perforations will make it easy to remove pages if you wish (which I will as this is a pretty thick book to try to color in.) The designs all have a frame around the edge and the images stop well short of the binding.
All of my markers (water and alcohol-based) bleed through this paper easily. My gel pens either bleed through or leave a shadow on the back of the paper. My colored pencils work well even with the smoother than normal paper. If I were going to leave the pages in the book, I would put a heavier piece of paper behind the page I was working on to keep the ink from leaking through.
My only suggestion for improving the printing of this book would be to use a thicker paper to lessen bleed-through. That really doesn’t bother me too much as the pages are perforated and the designs are printed one side.
Let It Go! Coloring and Activities to Awaken Your Mind and Relieve Stress Adult Coloring Book
By: Sherise Seven
Rating: 5 of 5
I received a free sample of this book for test and review purposes.
While I received my first copy free, I will be buying more copies of this book for a couple of family members who will really appreciate the great artwork.
Let it Go is simply unlike other coloring books that I have. It has 40 beautiful hand-drawn designs as well as various coloring and drawing exercises that the artist has included to expand the colorists skills. By design, the subject matter of the book covers a wide variety of subjects to avoid repetition fatigue for the colorist. From the mermaid on the first page to the square elephant to the hipster dog and beyond, there are so many fun and elegant designs to choose from. I really appreciate the exercises included, too, and plan to use the book as the artist suggests.
The artist has included her thoughts about each design on the opposite (and backside of the previous) page. Sometimes the thoughts are humorous and sometimes they are deeply touching. I must admit the one that made me laugh is about the hipster dog, which I will quote but leave the rest for you to discover on your own: Hipster Dog. The Hipsters I’ve seen always seem calm. They must be doing something right! I guess plaid, laptops and lattes really work! I have a few hipster in the family and I about choked laughing when I read this.
Another unique and great thing about this coloring book is the inclusion of a color protector page at the back of the book. It is perforated for easy removal. It’s really nice to have one included and not have to scramble around looking for one that will work.
The book is well made. The designs are printed on a single side of bright white perforated (yay!) medium weight paper. The quotes I mentioned earlier are printed on the backside of each page. The binding is glued rather than sewn but it won’t matter as the pages are easily removed due to the micro-perforations. The designs stop well before the binding and are either complete with no hanging elements or have a frame around the design to designate where it ends.
While the paperweight and texture of the book is nice and is certainly frame-able quality , I still had problems with all types of markers leaking through the page. My gel pens either leaked a bit or left shadows on the backside of the page. My coloring pencils all worked well and went on creamy. None of ink leakage bothers me with this book as they have included a protector page if I want to keep the book together and it has perforated pages if I want to take it apart.
When it comes to suggestions for improving the physical book, other than thicker paper that doesn’t bleed through, I can’t think of any. It is one of the better constructed coloring books I have come across. This is the first book I have by this publisher and I hope that the artist comes out with more books in the future and that the publisher publishes hers and other artists books with such great care.
The Art of Mindfulness: Happy and Energized Coloring
By: Michael O’Mara Books
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a book filled with more than 90 fantastic and lovely designs to color. While it certainly made me happy to see the large assortment to choose from, I’m not sure how energized it will make me feel. There are a number of designs with animals and insects in motion, so perhaps that is the idea. The designs cover a wide range from plants and animals to birdcages and teacups. There are a number of artist involved with this book and it shows in the wide variety of styles. This is one of a series of books and I will be picking up the others based on how much I like this one.
The cover of this book is gorgeous it is a matte metallic purple with paisleys, some of which have glossy highlighting. The book is printed on a nice quality heavyweight white paper. The paper is non-perforated and the pages are printed on both sides of the page. The binding is sewn, so removing the pages should be a matter of snipping various threads every few pages to completely remove the pages from the book. The book has rounded edges on the unbound side and is slightly smaller than a regular sheet of paper. The designs stop well before the binding; however, many of them leave elements unfinished without a frame of sorts to finish off the design. This makes it more difficult for me to color the design and have a nice finished quality to it.
Inky Ocean is a great underwater adventure coloring book with more than 50 pages of coloring designs. The designs, by artist Helen Elliston, are a wide range from skulls to mermaids and dolphins to to bubbles. The designs show a wide variety and showcase the deep for a fun coloring experience with some really intricate (though not necessarily small) elements to them. There are a lot of suggestions for activities on the back side of pages. I am probably less interested in that part of the book but it is there for those who really enjoy activities (plus there is a hunt in the book with a key to the answer in the back.)
For the most part, I consider the book to be printed on one side of the page only. The back side of most pages are a tiny design or words suggesting activities. There are a few slightly larger designs on the back page and there are three designs that spread across two pages. For those three, I will ignore the small portion of the design on the opposite page and treat it as if it was a single page design. While I would prefer not to do this, I won’t want to was the page on the front side of any of the three designs.
Most of the designs stop before the bind; however, a number of them do merge into it and as the paper is not perforated, you will lose some of the design if you remove it from the book but not the central theme of the design. The paper is typical CreateSpace (thin) and the binding is glued.
All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper. 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.
I’m starting to add a note to publishers/artists about how the book could be improved in publishing. We should keep in mind that improvements probably will add to the cost of the book, so it is one of those be careful what you wish for scenarios. In this particular case, the publisher is CreateSpace, which is actually owned by Amazon. As so many independent artists use this publisher, I’m hoping that some improvements can be made without too much additional cost.
In this case, the publishing of the book could be improved in two ways: 1) make the pages perforated. Making it easier to remove the page to color makes life easier for many colorists especially lefties who have to color over the hump of the binding (I am a righty but someone pointed this out to me recently and it was a light bulb moment for me); and 2) improve the paper quality so that ink doesn’t leak through.
Be Merry: An Inkcredible Christmas Scavenger Hunt and Coloring Book
By: H.R. Wallace Publishing
Rating: 5 of 5
This book has many great coloring designs for the holidays. Where it falls down a bit is on the scavenger hunt. In many cases, it the hidden item is the major point of the design and is, necessarily, in plain view. For instance, five bells and the design is five bells. While I do enjoy finding hidden items, it was not the reason that I picked up this book.
I love Christmas and Christmas related items and I naturally gravitate towards Christmas themed coloring books, too. This book of designs has all sorts of Christmas items. There are Christmas trees, Santa, stockings, candles, bells, deer, snowflakes, snowmen, ornaments, stockings, deer, birds, pine cones and much more. There are a variety of design styles which says to me that many artists work is represented in the book. For this type of book, that makes it even more fun for me. I get to pick and choose based on my mood. Some of the designs are complex and have small intricate areas to color and some are open and flowing and should be easy to color.
The book is glue bound non-perforated white paper. The paper is on the thin side and the designs are printed on only one side of the page. On the back side is a small listing of the scavenger hunt items in mirror backward type. The designs either have a frame around the outside or have all of the elements finished fully. I really appreciate this as design that leave open edges are a bit of a nit for me. I hate having to try to draw my own finish on the edge of bits and piece of items in the design that just suddenly stop. All of the designs in this book stop well before the binding, so cutting pages out should not be too difficult.
Ann’s Doodles: A Kaleidoscopia Coloring Book: The Magical World of
By: Ann Marie Irvine
Rating: 5 of 5
This is a wildly interesting group of designs from artist Ann Marie Irvine. They range from fairly simple and easy to color to very intricate with tiny little spaces really almost pen and ink studies rather than straightforward coloring designs. I’ve recently invested in some Tombow dual brush pens and these elaborate designs are the perfect place to use these. I simply watercolor with the brush end over wide swathes of the design. Almost like a decade or so back when colorizing black and white photos was popular.
There is a wide range and that works well because it gives me an opportunity to try different coloring tools with some really fun and imaginative designs. A lot of the designs are heavy on black lines and other elements. Due to the tiny and intricate details, if you have problems with vision or fine motor skills, you might want to take this into consideration as to whether or not to purchase this book.
The coloring book is typical of CreateSpace books. It is printed one-sided of thin white paper though there is an advertisement for the designers website printed on the back of the page. The binding is glued and the pages are not perforated. The designs stop well before the bound edge and the artist has finished the elements of the designs so you are not left hanging with weird edges.
All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper. 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.
I’m starting to add a note to publishers/artists about how the book could be improved in publishing. We should keep in mind that improvements probably will add to the cost of the book, so it is one of those be careful what you wish for scenarios. In this particular case, the publisher is CreateSpace, which is actually owned by Amazon. As so many independent artists use this publisher, I’m hoping that some improvements can be made without too much additional cost.
In this case, the publishing of the book could be improved in two ways: 1) make the pages perforated. Making it easier to remove the page to color makes life easier for many colorists especially lefties who have to color over the hump of the binding (I am a righty but someone pointed this out to me recently and it was a light bulb moment); and 2) improve the paper quality so that ink doesn’t leak through.
This is a really beautiful adult coloring book of 38 birds designs (including the title page.) I will list the types of birds included at the bottom of this review for anyone interested in reviewing the whole list. The bird designs are really beautifully drawn. I have never seen artist Georgie Woolridge’s work before but I am very impressed. She provides some background information in the first few pages of the book which were very interesting to read. The designs include a great level of detail some of it intricate but not so much so that it will be difficult to color. I love that the artist has woven flower elements into some of the birds to make it more fun for me to color. I did some exploring and discovered she has artwork for other animals, so I am hopeful that we will see some future coloring books with more of these lovely designs.
The book is beautifully made. The cover is gorgeous with a deep blue and purple aurora borealis type foil accented bird on the front and with two colored birds on the interior front and back flaps. While the cover folds out, the publisher lost an opportunity to provide extra coloring as they used a simple orange tone on the interior rather than designs to color. I believe that this is the first adult coloring book that I have which was published by St. Martin’s Griffin. I hope that they publish more in the future with the same quality as this one.
The designs are printed on a good heavyweight white paper that is not perforated. The actual larger design for coloring is printed on the front side of each page. On the opposite side (behind the prior page) is a listing of information about the bird you are coloring which might background, size, coloring, etc. along with a small line drawing of the birds which you can also color if you wish. The binding is sewn rather than glued, which is a sign of a quality book. You can remove all the pages from the book if you wish by snipping those threads every few pages as they appear.
The only marker that did not bleed through to some extent were my Tombow dual brush. I used the brush side (rather than the marker point) and I think that the lack of a hard tip is what made the difference for these. Otherwise, all my water and alcohol-based markers did bleed through (even Staedler fineliner triplus.) None of my gel pens had problems and my coloring pencils went on thick and creamy. If I want to use all of my markers, I will only be sacrificing parts of the information page (as mentioned above) so that is not an issue for me. The information will still be visible and I can always color those small info pictures with coloring pencils should I choose to do so. I would suggest putting a heavy piece of paper or chipboard under the page you are working on so marker ink does not seep further into the book.
This book is physically perfect for me as a colorist. The only real improvement I could suggest would be perforated paper. I hate to suggest a better grade of paper for markers because this paper is so nice as it is. I am happy to put the page under my work if the tradeoff is such luscious paper for my pencils.
While there is a listing at the back of the book (with cross reference to the page the bird is printed on), here is a listing of the birds included: American Goldfinch, Bar-headed Goose, Barn Owl, Black Kite, Blue-Footed Booby, Blue Jay, Blue Tit, Bobolink, California Quail, Common Tailorbird, Domesticated Turkey, Eurasian Teal, European Robin, Flamingo, Golden Eagle, Greater Roadrunner, Gyrfalcon, Hoopoe, Hummingbird, Indian Roller, Kingfisher, Kookaburra, Laughing Dove, Little Cormorant, Little Ringed Plover, Magpie, Mandarin Duck, Ostrich, Peacock, Pink-Backed Pelican, Purple Heron, Rainbow Bee-Eater, Red-Breasted Goose, Rhode Island Red, Rockhopper Penguin, Rose-Ringed Parakeet and Tawny Owl.
“Curiosity House – The Shrunken Head” is the beginning of a new series by Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester. In the story, four children with unusual talents try to solve an ever increasing number of murders and other crimes. The kids, who live at The Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders, use their abilities in solving the the crimes. There are many red-herrings which add even more to the solution as you, as the reader, are pulled this way and that.