iiiiReader Book Reviews

This is my first coloring book by artist Wendy Piersall though this is her fourth publication. I am so impressed by her artistic design that I will certainly look at her past books, too. All four of her books are based on mandalas. She incorporates a variety of themes into the mandala form. In this book, the theme is the ocean fact and fiction.

The designs in the book are a wide assortment of subjects. From a sailing ship to a mermaid, from whales to Neptune with his trident, and with a wide assortment of fish and other sea creatures and flora, this book has a nice variety of ocean subjects to color and to enjoy. Most of the designs have intricate details that will require that I use a ultra-fine point pen, marker, or pencil.

The mandala format makes this book different from my other ocean coloring book (which is mostly just fish.) While the designs are intricate, they are on the smaller side (as compared to average format coloring books) and will be projects to color when I feel like finishing in fewer days than some of the larger designs take. I like large challenges but some days, I really prefer a smaller design that is pretty and fun to color.

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This is a lovely coloring book by Molly Harrison which includes 25 hand-drawn designs of a variety of subjects. The line drawings are generally complex and somewhat intricate to color. Some of my other designs by Ms. Harrison include both elegant and younger, cute style designs. This book focuses on the elegant and beautiful adult fairy. I have several coloring books by this designer and am enjoying all of them. I look forward to more of her books in the future.

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This is my second coloring book by Cher Kaufmann and I will certainly be back for future books. The smaller format book has many, many designs. While a lot of coloring books are created from computer generated artwork (and I enjoy those, too), this book has 100 hand-drawn designs from the beginning to the end. The designs include many Celtic knots, mandalas, and other sacred symbols based on ancient cultures and traditions.

In addition to the designs, the artist has included information about the history of some symbols. She has also provided an Ancient Alchemy Symbols guide to explain a number of the symbols that she uses in the coloring book. Reading this information has certainly enhanced my appreciation of the artwork and what the artist is trying to convey with each drawing.

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This is a lovely set of 30 fun and different Christmas tree designs which span the gamut from traditional to rather avant garde. Some of the designs are intricate and others are open and easy to color. What is really nice is that all 30 designs have been hand-drawn. These are not the standard computer generated designs that are in such abundance. Personally, I like both styles, so I am always open to trying something new.

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This is a really unusual coloring book as it mimics chalkboard style art. It is printed on a soft black matte background and the words and other drawn elements have the appearance of being written in chalk. While there are no instructions on how the samples were colored, it appears that the white portions of the designs were filled in with color. I am guessing that you will need to use a lighter tone perhaps pastel or neon tones to allow the black underlying part of the chalked areas to show through.

The artist responsible for these designs, CJ Hughes, is a professional chalkboard artist. He works in both chalk artwork and chalk-look art and has had a wide variety of customers, including Microsoft, Wendy’s Hamburgers, ESPN, and Rachel Ray Magazine among many others.

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This book has many city designs which are recognizable as such. There are also a number of motif and architectural designs that I don’t associate with a specific city. This is a large format book at approximately 9.7 x 13.5 inches. The pictures are quite large compared to most coloring books that I own. I enjoy Hannah Davies art style (from other coloring books I have) and really like these too.

While this is being sold as a 3D book (and includes inexpensive cardboard glasses), it is really a coloring book that relies on the way you color the designs to give a 3D impression. I actually have no-depth perception in my vision, which means I cannot see 3D, so I will be treating this as a regular coloring book. There are several pages of directions on the methods by which you can achieve the best 3D feel to your coloring.

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While this is being sold as a 3D book (and includes inexpensive cardboard glasses), it is really a coloring book that relies on the way you color the designs to give a 3D impression. I actually have no-depth perception in my vision, which means I cannot see 3D, so I will be treating this as a regular coloring book. There are several pages of directions on the methods by which you can achieve the best 3D feel to your coloring.

This is a large format book at approximately 9.7 x 13.5 inches. The pictures are quite large compared to most coloring books that I own. I enjoy Hannah Davies art style (from other coloring books I have) and really like these too. There are many animals in the book, from land to sea to sky. Each animals has great patterns drawn into them so it will be a great coloring experience. For me, the artwork more than makes up for the issues that I will discuss below.

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