iiiiReader Book Reviews

This is the second in a series of Classic Coloring books featuring the artwork of Charles Santore. The story is Margery Williams Bianco and the illustrations are by Charles Santore. Along with the story and the designs, there are thumbnail color pictures from the storybook on the inside front and back covers. That way, you can use similar colors if you so choose.

The book is a larger than standard format. The designs are mostly done in grayscale with a small amount of line drawings in most of the designs.

It is set up in true storybook style, with the text on the left hand side (back of page) and the illustration to the right. Some mediums will bleed through the page (see below), which will interfere with the text but if that doesn’t bother you, you can treat the book as if the designs were one sided.

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While I own “Secrets of Coloring” by Jennifer Zimmermann, this is the first coloring book that I have by this artist. I’m so impressed by the quality and the subject of the designs in this book, I will certainly be buying more books in the future, starting with
her “Glamorista” book which is also currently available.

The designs are of women and/or animals with a futuristic look. At the same time, there seems to be an Art Nouveau quality to the designs. As that is one of my favorite art periods, I really enjoy this book. The animals are called beasts but they are so cute, I can’t refer to them as such.

An added bonus is that not only do you receive two copies of each design, one copy of each is done with a black background. I appreciate that the artist took the time to customize each of these black background designs – they are not simply printed on black. Instead, she put black in where it made the most sense. Because of that, coloring both copies of a design will be a completely different experience.

The designs have a nice level of detail but are not at all what I consider intricate or hard to color. The artist has left plenty of room for the colorist to add their own touches. A good place to find out how to do so is in her how-to book I mentioned above, “Secrets of Coloring”.

While most of the designs are single page designs, one is spread across two pages. The artist took care to make sure that each page was still blank on the back of the page. That design does merge into the binding but no essentially elements are included at the merge point.

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This is a coloring book of really cute springtime scenes with animals. In some designs, the animals are the focus while in other designs, the springtime setting is what stands out the most. It is a fun book to color in just as winter departs and spring is on the way.

The designs are detailed with full backgrounds. They are still fairly easy to color but take longer to finish due to the backgrounds.

I was glad to see that Fritzen Publishing LLC now states in their books that Jade Summer is an imprint (rather than an individual.) They also state that the designs are created by a team of independent artists. This explains the various styles between books and how rapidly the books are made available. I had figured it out months ago but am glad to see that books now carry the explanation as well.

While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.

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This is a book based on “The Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. It is part of a series of story book coloring books by Fabiana Attanasio. The first seven pages of the book tell the story briefly and also have a couple of coloring elements scattered throughout. The next 69 pages line drawings based on this story. In addition to these great coloring pages, there is a huge removable poster at the end of the book.

The characters are drawn in a very cute style. Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, The Tin-man, The Cowardly Lion, The Wicked Witch are all present. The scenes begin with the tornado which takes Dorothy and Toto to Oz and end with her arriving back home once again.

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This is a revised version of the Nathaniel Wake Mermaid Life coloring book. From what I understand, the first version of this coloring book may have included illustrations which, (unknowing to the publishers of Nathaniel Wake) were copyright infringing.

A really fun set of Mermaid and Merman designs. There are definitely a lot of men in these designs. There are also pirates and ships and fish, oh my! I noticed that a good number of the designs went horizontal instead of vertical to give lots of room for free-flowing mermaids to swim through. The designs are very detailed with most having intricate and smaller areas to color. Some designs have heavier black use than others.

A word about companies like Nathaniel Wake. This is a publishing company and not an artist. They contract artists from outside sources but present it under an umbrella name that infers a single artist. As such, the real artist or artists of any book with content and style may differ wildly from any others under the same Nathaniel Wake name.

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This is a revised version of the Nathaniel Wake Dragon Life coloring book. From what I understand, the original version coloring book may have included illustrations which, unknowing to the publishers of Nathaniel Wake) were copyright infringing.

This is a great book of Dragon illustrations. The dragons are shown in their terrible glory. Sometimes by themselves and sometimes with a friend (especially those ladies who seem to love them some dragons!) The designs are definitely detailed and some have intricate and smaller areas to color. Some designs have heavier black use than others.

A word about companies like Nathaniel Wake. This is a publishing company and not an artist. They contract artists from outside sources but present it under an umbrella name that infers a single artist. As such, the real artist of any book with content and style may differ wildly from any others under the same Nathaniel Wake name.

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This is a revised version of the Nathaniel Wake Men’s coloring book. From what I understand, the original version of this coloring book may have included illustrations which, unknowing to the publishers of Nathaniel Wake) were copyright infringing.

This is a fun book that focuses on things enjoyed by men (“but I like it, too!” – which is a terrible reference to an old bar soap commercial.) The great outdoors is a theme in this book as are the wild west and sexy ladies popping up from time to time. The designs are detailed and many contain small and intricate areas to color. It is a book that both men and women can equally enjoy depending on their tastes.

A word about companies like Nathaniel Wake. This is a publishing company and not an artist. They contract artists from outside sources but present it under an umbrella name that infers a single artist. As such, the real artist or artists of any book with content and style may differ wildly from any others under the same Nathaniel Wake name.

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In the last edition of Nice Little Town, the artist (Tanya Bogema (Stolova), included a few samples of adorable mouse abodes. I, for one, wanted to get a full book of these designs. The artist really listened to the feedback and has provided this latest release in the series with a cute little town made up of 27 designs of different tiny homes suitable for mice. If you can imagine a little town, perhaps in a forest, where mice could live in peace in tranquility, this would be it.

I am a big fan of this series and have purchased every one so far. I believe that this book is my favorite of all. Funny, though, I saw that after each book is released. Perhaps I just really like the whole series!

While some of her coloring books have been released in smaller format, this one is the size of a standard coloring book at 8.5 x 11 inches. I like the bigger book so I can play with shading, blending and such.

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This is a very different style of art from the previous coloring book I have by Ikuka. The Japanese Girls book is in grayscale while Mermaid in Dress is line drawings. The mermaids in the book are young girls rather than adults. They are, as the title infers, mostly in a variety of dresses. It is an unusual concept but fun at the same time. The designs are provided as two copies – one with white on the back of the page; one with black on the back of the page.

In addition to the design pages, there are a couple of pages that seem to be placed for testing medium. Rather than provide a blank page with squares, the artist has included a cute mermaid line drawing. Also, this was done for both the white backed and black backed pages.

The only issue I have with this coloring book has to do with the print quality. While hand-drawn design books, such as this one, will have lines that are thick/thin and light/dark, my copy of the book has spotty lines where some of the line was printed and some was not. This is a small issue and one that I can remedy while coloring but it should not have been necessary to do so.

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