iiiiReader Book Reviews

This is a beautiful and elegant coloring book by Chinthaka Herath. It is the first book I have by this illustrator, however, I hope it will not be the last. The designs are mostly of beautiful women (a good number with crowns) with a lot of flowers represented as well. There are a few of animals that are equally elegant.

I found the designs detailed with only a few areas of what I consider to be intricate and small elements. In addition to the 24 designs in the book, there are two designs included on the presentation and table of contents pages.

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This is a fun book of adult female fairies to color. The designs range from simple and somewhat childlike to fairies who might be posing as pin-ups. Not risque but definitely on the more adult style of pose than a sweet little fairy design.

The designs are detailed with full backgrounds with a lot of elements to color. They are not what I consider intricate with small or difficult areas to color. Having two of each makes it fun for sharing or simply trying a different color scheme in the future.

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 coloring book of 31 designs of Jewelry which was inspired by the jewelry of the Art Nouveau period. While every once in a while a lovely Art Nouveau lady peeks out of the pages, it is definitely a coloring book of jewelry and other bits and bobs that a lady who lived in the period would have worn or wished to have on her vanity.

There are necklaces, earrings, rings, purses, shoes, brooches, combs, bracelets and more. I love this period of art, both for the posters that are well known, as well as for the craftsmanship of the jewelry and other ladies attire (such as those shown in the coloring book.) I have a couple of reproduction pieces but would love someday to own an actual piece made during the Art Nouveau period.

The designs are detailed and should be fun to finish with lots of colors – both those appropriate to the period and then also the ones that are from my imagination. There are some designs which have intricate and small areas to color but I don’t consider the book to be a difficult one for coloring or one which needs special pens/pencils in order to color in the small areas.

I’ve noticed that the paper quality over the last few months seems to change quite frequently on the Creative Haven line. Because of that, if you buy one of these books, it may be slightly smooth or slightly rough depending on when and where it was printed. I’ve found that coloring medium, including pencils, work similarly with both slightly rough and slightly smooth paper from Creative Haven. In this case, my coloring book pages are slightly smooth.

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This is a coloring book with illustrations by Manja Burton and text written by Arielle Ford. The designs are quite lovely and will be fun to color. The text (which for me, is secondary) gives advice on how to find your soulmate. As I already have mine, I gave a cursory read to the text. I am much more interested in the designs. The designs are detailed and, while a few have smaller and intricate areas to color, I don’t consider it a difficult and intricate book to color overall.

The designs each seem to be inspired by the text on the opposite side of the page. Sometimes the tie between the two is obvious and other times it is less so. For instance, “Feathering your nest” talks about decluttering your home and the picture shows a young woman on s scooter seeing clothes flying out the window of a nearby house. The text is on the facing page, so if you remove the page, the design and text will no longer be together. Additionally, there are small designs on these text pages which tie to the larger design page opposite.

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I have all of the coloring books in this series. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around all these houses in this little town but with this book, the intent becomes clear. Each book is of a new town. In this town, the architecture is much more modern than those of the previous books. It also appears to be near the coast or a large water source based on what are in some of the illustrations.

Once I made the connection, I realized that I really like it! I get a whole new town and can think up ways of coloring that are specific to the vibe of that town. I purchased this book in the full size version but I think it may also be available in a smaller travel size. This 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.

While this is a brand new town, there are still cute cats and lots of fun detail, though with modern architecture, the style is quite different from the earlier towns.

What is amazing to me is that the book contains 39 Town scenes and that the artist also has provided another ten “bonus” designs which almost demand a book of their own. I hope she finishes off a full book of those designs as well. Add to that another eleven sample designs from her other books and you have a full sixty designs in this book.

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Original Review from October 2015:

“The Time Chamber” is the second in a series of coloring books by Daria Song. In the first book (“The Time Garden”), a young girl follows a red-haired fairy through a magical clock into a wonderland type adventure. In this book, the red-haired fairy comes to visit the little girl’s land. As she is so very tiny, everything is huge and beautiful for her to visit and see. The story is told in a few short words on a smattering of pages throughout the book. The words do not distract from the illustrations even though they are incorporated into the story this time (unlike the first book where the story was on separate pages.)

Daria Song, the artist/writer of this book, has received advanced degrees in fine arts in her native South Korea. Early in her life, she also spent time in San Francisco and that translates into the art in this book. Both of her books are a real delight to me. Her illustrations create a truly magical land for me to escape into as color each page.

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The designs in this book are inspired by islands and the ocean. There are many island scenes, fish, waves, palm trees, etc. Each page has a lot of detail by way of lots of wavy lines. The publishing company (Okami Coloring/Julia Rivers) has not provided the artists name(s) for the designs. The designs have the appearance of hand-drawn and seem to be the style of one artist.

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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