iiiiReader Book Reviews

This is a really beautiful coloring book of the tale of Peter Rabbit. The story is that of Beatrix Potter and the illustrations are by Charles Santore. They are a hybrid grayscale/line drawing version of the illustrations in the storybook by the same artist. 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 a bit of a mix of line drawings and grayscale with a heavy use of gray in the details. There is still area for blending and shading if you desire. It is a really nice mix and one that will be fun to color.

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.

My current plan is to use a mix of water-based markers with pencil accents. This is a book that I will enjoy reading to my grandchildren, so each week I hope to have a new design finished so my grandson can see the progress as we read through the book.

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The designs in this coloring book appear to be hand-drawn and include a lot of wavy lines and “doodle” elements. Further, the scenes are inspired by islands and the ocean. All that I expect from an island vacation are included with lots of ocean scenes, shore scenes, etc. There are fish and other ocean creatures, boats and sunsets but only one scene which includes people (tropical dancers.)

This coloring book is very similar in style (though different images) to one published last year by Okami Coloring (“Island Dreams” Adult Coloring Book: Island Dreams: Vacation, Summer and Beach: Dream and Relax with Gorgeous Illustrations). It may be by the same artist as Okami Coloring and Storytroll seem to be either the same company under different names or are somehow associated (see below.) In both instances, the name of the illustrator is not provided.

I really appreciate the quality of their artists though the CreateSpace paper always leaves something to be desired but wish they had included the actual artists name on this specific book as they do on their other coloring books. They seem to be developing a specific name (Julia Rivers) to cover the coloring books they deliver. This is similar to what another publisher has done with the name Jade Summer.

The designs are quite detailed and include intricate elements with lots of tiny spots to color. I would not recommend this coloring book to anyone with fine motor or vision issues. I would also suggest that, for the intricate areas, use of ultra-fine point markers/pens or really sharp pencils would be best.

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I love Hannah Lynn’s designs. I own most of her coloring books and was excited to see this new book with Fairy Tale Princesses and Story Book Heroines. Most of the other books I have by Ms. Lynn focus on the face of the young lady. In this book, the designs are set into full backgrounds which give context to the story/fairy tale the image is derived from.

The book includes a lot of my favorites, from Cinderella to The Wizard of Oz to Alice in Wonderland and even to Hansel and Gretel. The designs are all titled (on the thumbnail pages at the front), so if you are stumped on the subject, you can easily guess based on both the picture and the title.

Trust Ms. Lynn to do something special when providing a duplicate page for coloring. The second copy of each design has shading on the eyes. It gives a very different look to the image overall and will make coloring both designs fun and different.

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This is the third volume of beautiful beautiful hardback book of 25 designs by Tim Jeffs. It adds more animals to the beautiful designs I already own in the prior two volumes in this series. The animals look incredibly life-life. They look even better than photographs but are hand drawn by the artist.

My preferred method of doing grayscale is to use alcohol-based markers as a basecoat and then to add shading and details with colored pencils. However, as I have been ill and cannot use my alcohol-based markers while we try to figure out what caused my severe allergic reaction (pneumonia and continuing need for oxygen supplement 24/7), I am using just pencils. I’m enjoying it so much, I may not go back to my old way of coloring at all.

Included in this book are the following animals (in order): Amazonian Royal Flycatcher, Armadillo, Ball Python, Bighorn Sheep, Blue Heron, Chinese Water Dragon, Clouded Leopard, Cougar, Echidna, Honey Bee, Indian Rhinoceros, Kangaroos, Lady Amherst Pheasant, Leopard Gecko, Lynx, Okapi, Pangolin, Panther Chameleon, Parrot Chameleon, Parrotfish, Peregrine Falcon, Platypus, Resplendent Quetzal, Slow Loris, Snowy Owl, and Whale Shark.

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I enjoy coloring Kawaii designs and this book has emphasis on both Christmas and winter themes. The the designs are detailed with full backgrounds and the young children have lovely big eyes and almost non-existent noses. I really like the the scenes in which the children are placed are ones that I could see in real life. Lots of fun to color.

The designs have detail but are not intricate and difficult to color. They are also good for a wide range of ages – from fairly young children (depending on their coloring level) to older colorists who may have issues with vision or fine motor control.

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I have two coloring books already by Simone Phillips and each of them are related to the others. With this book, there are now three coloring which are horses. This one, in particular, is actually a second edition of her first book (which, by the way, is still available.) In the second edition, the artist added more illustrations (44 altogether) and considerably more detail than in the first book. There is shading added to many of the designs as well.

Ms. Phillips horses always look in motion to me. It is like the illustration is a quick snap shot in time. The manes are flowing, the hoofs are rearing and the horse may just be ready to bolt or to amble gently away. The thought of that motion is what draws me to the design and inspires how I color the design.

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I purchased both of Majorie Sarnat’s prior versions of this book. This is a combination of both of those books and at a fantastic value. In this coloring book, all of the designs from both books are incorporated into one. There are 34 different designs with each one being printed with a white and a black background. That is a total of 68 designs in one book!

The 68 designs in this book are beautiful and detailed. Coloring a design with a white background is a different experience than coloring one with a black background. I, personally, find that the black background designs are easier for me to color. I don’t have to bother with coloring the background myself and I tend towards bright and/or pastel shades with these night (or midnight) styles of books.

That’s really different from what I do with the designs with white backgrounds where I do much more planning and work on the finished project. Ms. Sarnat also took it a step further than other artists have done and reversed some of the detail elements to be mostly black with white lines on their outlines. I’ve found that the differences, though subtle, make for a very different coloring experience and I am completely engaged in both projects without feeling like I am coloring some type of duplicate designs.

As with all of Ms. Sarnat’s coloring books, the designs are very detailed but don’t have tiny, intricate details that are hard to color. There are a number of “doodle” style designs as well as designs which feature other types of details added to the hides of the elephants.

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