iiiiReader Book Reviews

Autumn falls: A beautiful fall colouring book

By: Ebony Rainn

Rating: 5 of 5

I purchased this book of designs and also its twin which is printed with white ink on black paper. It’s amazing how different the designs look based on which color of paper it is printed on. It is a fun book of designs that work great both both autumn and Halloween. While the order of designs are slightly different in each version, they both include the same designs overall.

There are 30 designs in this book. The designs are graceful and fun to color. With lots of pumpkins, acorns, owls, cats, bats, witches and more, there’s a great choice in designs to color. These are my first books by Ebony Rainn; however, I will certainly be looking for more in the future.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing this innovative paper.
30 Autumn and Halloween Designs (plus presentation page)
Printed on one side of the page
Paper is typical of CreateSpace white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated
Glue Bound
Plenty of room to remove designs from book if you choose to do so
Alcohol and water based markers bleed through this paper.
Gel pens and India ink pens left shadows on the back of the page. India ink pens can leak through if used heavily or with multiple coats.
Colored pencils worked well with the paper. I was able to get good color, layer, and blend well with both wax and oil based pencils. Hard lead pencils can leave discernible dents on the back of the page.
I highly suggest a heavyweight blotter page be used at all times. I use card stock or two sheets of heavyweight paper. This will keep ink and marring dents from damaging the pages below.

Johanna’s Christmas: A Festive Coloring Book for Adults

By: Johanna Basford

Rating: 5 of 5

Finally and Hooray! Johanna Basford and her publisher have listened to her fans and printed this beautiful coloring book on one side of the page. Not only that, they have perforated the pages so you can take pages out if you wish to do so. The back of the pages are not neglected either as there is the lightest of gray holiday design patterns.

The designs are beautiful and evocative of the holiday season. With everything from Christmas trees to polar bears, ornaments to prancing deer, the designs are instantly recognizable as Ms. Basford’s charming style. There are 37 designs which celebrate the Christmas season. Christmas is my favorite holiday and having such a beautiful book of designs to color will help brighten up any dreary, cold days. Not to mention they will be a wonderful way to sit and relax when the holiday season starts becoming more and more hectic.
The designs are open and easy to color. This is something that Ms. Basford began in her most recent book (Magical Jungle) and I’m pleased to see it once again. It makes it so much easier to use all forms of coloring medium and with the printing on one side, this time it really should be a choice of any coloring book medium.
While several designs are set up too appear as two page spreads, only one design actually has elements which spread across two pages (a small garland and a baseboard.) Those elements cross the perforations and spread over the binding. Not a problem as it is so small and each of the pages can easily stand along as a single design. A suggestion for future books might be a fold-out page for the design or two of this nature. That would keep the whole design together and make it that much easier to color.
The cover of the book has fold-outs front and back with coloring opportunities on it. I’ll be interested to see if the UK version still retains the dust cover as it did with Magical Jungle. The attached cover has black line drawings as well as very pretty red, green, and gold foil accents on the front. The cover can be colored, however, it is much smoother in texture than the paper inside the coloring book. The title and presentation pages can be colored as well.
I have ordered the UK version of this coloring book. Once it arrives, I will do a comparison of the US versus UK versions. You can look for the comparison in the comments section below.
This book is definitely going on my list of family and friend gifts. I can think of several individuals I would love to give it to along with a small set of markers which we get to use finally with this book.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium. I will list, in the comments section below, the coloring medium I used to test this book and which I generally use for my coloring.
37 Wonderfully Festive Christmas/Winter Designs by Johanna Basford (this counts the potential two page spreads as separate designs)
Printed on one side of the page (did I mention Hooray!!)
Paper is heavyweight, ivory, slightly rough and perforated
Glue Binding
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers and gel pens leave the slightest of shadows on the back of the page.
Gel pens did not bleed through the page but did require a little more drying time.
Colored pencils worked well. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils with good results. I was able to layer the same color for deeper pigment, layer multiple colors and to blend easily with a pencil style blending stick.

Doodle Mania: Zifflin’s Coloring Book (Volume 4)

By: Zifflin

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the newest entry in Zifflin’s Doodle series of books. I own several of the prior books and always have a ton of fun coloring the wild and intricate designs in these books. This book is by illustrator Rocky Villaruel. I really appreciate that each of the Doodle books is by an individual artist. While the subject matter of the books are similar (wild, quirky little creatures and strange bits of elements forming a larger design), seeing each artist interpretation makes each book unique.

There are 50 designs in this book with lots of hours of coloring fun to be had. The designs are extremely detailed and many are quite intricate. I am currently using my sharp colored pencils to get to all the tiny spots to color.
This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
50 Imaginative Doodle Style line drawings
Printed one side of the page
Paper is thin, white, slightly rough, and non-perforated. It is standard for any books published by CreateSpace.
Glue Bound
Some designs do merge into the binding area
Book opens fairly flat for coloring if you break or crease the spine.
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper rapidly.
Water-based markers bleed through in spots.
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on the back of the page which show colors easily. India ink pens can seep through in spots if used heavily or in multiple coats.
Colored pencils worked nicely with this thin but slightly rough paper. I tested both oil and wax based pencils and got good color with multiple layers of the same color, good results from layers of different colors and nice blending results using a blending stick. Hard lead pencils easily dent through the page and can damage the page below.
I suggest using a blotter page of card stock or a couple of sheets of heavier weight paper under your working page. It can keep seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.

ESCAPES Joyful Gardens Coloring Book

By: Dr. Angela Porter

Rating: 5 of 5

A Christmas Carol: A Coloring Classic

By: Author: Charles Dickens; Illustrators: Kate Ware and Vladimir Aleksic

Rating: 5 of 5

Creative Haven Mermaids Coloring Book (Adult Coloring)

By: Barbara Lanza

Rating: 5 of 5

I have several coloring books by Barbara Lanza (one of which is by Creative Haven as well.) Those books all focus on fairy designs so I was really pleased to see that her newest book is a departure from what I have seen in the past. This coloring book has 31 different mermaid designs.

The designs have Ms. Lanza’s usual graceful look. There are designs of mermaids singly or in groups. There are ocean scenes above and below. There are plants and sea life as well. The drawings are detailed without being overly intricate and are a pleasure to color.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium.
31 Mermaid Designs the majority of which have beautiful backgrounds as well
Printed one side of the page
Paper is white, medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages.
Glue Binding but you can remove pages at the perforation easily
Most Designs extend past the perforations
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper
Water-based markers bleed through in spots and leave colorful shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through if you apply heavily or with with multiple layers.
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to use both wax and oil based pencils equally well. They lay down good color, layer the same color and multiple colors and blend easily using a pencil style blender. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.
I either use a blotter page under my working page or I remove pages from the book to color. I like card stock for my blotter page but a couple of sheets of heavyweight paper works as well.

Creative Haven Bizarro Land Coloring Book: by Bizarro cartoonist Dan Piraro (Adult Coloring)

By: Dan Piraro

Rating: 5 of 5

Bizarro Land is one of the most interesting and imaginative coloring books that I have come across. The subject matter of the designs is so different that I fully understand the title. The designs are bizzare and thought-provoking with so many nuances, it is hard to grasp the full concept of the drawing just by looking at it.

The designs are by cartoonist Dan Piraro, who brings to paper his concept of another land or planet. It is one where a woman’s head is that of a pug. Where a man can have a animal cage (complete with animal) instead of a torso. The rules of our world are completely displaced and are limited only by Mr. Piraro’s imagination. What is cool is that I get to bring my concept of color to these drawings and give them my own spin.
The designs are very detailed and in many places are intricate with small spots to color. I am using a wide variety of coloring medium as I feel that anything goes with this coloring book.
This is what I saw while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium. I will list, in the comments section below, the coloring medium I use for testing and for coloring.
31 Wildly imaginative and more than slightly bizarre designs from cartoonist Dan Piraro
The designs are printed one side of the page
Paper is the usual Creative Haven quality: white, medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages.
Glue Binding but with perforated pages so removing a page is fairly simple.
The designs stop well before the perforations
Alcohol-based markers bleed through this paper
Water-based markers bleed through in spots and show colorful shadows on the back of the page
Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through when I apply more than one layer of ink.
Coloring pencils work well with this paper. I was able to get good color, layer the same color and multiple colors and blend easily using a pencil style blender. I tested both oil and wax-based pencils with similar results. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.
I suggest either removing pages from the book to color or using a blotter page under your working page. I like card stock as it keeps ink from seeping through and damaging the pages below.

My Wondrous World: Enchanted Winter Adult Coloring Book

By: Masja Van Den Berg

Rating: 4 of 5

This is a hand-drawn coloring book which is inspired by winter. There are a number of animal designs as well as mandalas, paisleys, and other abstract swirl designs. Many of the designs have a doodle style of detail. There are also several designs which bring snowflakes to mind.

A number of the designs are printed across two pages and those designs lose a bit of their continuity as the designs disappear into the binding. Even when I break the spine to lay the book flat, a tiny portion is missing. And due to the type of binding the book has, when I forced the book into a flat position, there were a number of little tears at the bound edge as there are multiple stitches as well as glue in the binding. I’ll try to post a picture of the issue.
The rest of the book has designs that stop short of the binding and those are much easier to color. The designs are detailed and some have intricate parts to color. Apart from the binding issue (above) and blending issues with colored pencils (below), I really enjoyed coloring in this book.
33 Winter Inspired designs by Masja van den Berg
Designs printed on both sides of the page
Paper is soft white, fairly smooth, heavyweight (or light weight card stock) and non-perforated
Binding is hybrid of sewn (many stitches) and glued
Designs disappear into the binding area and some part of two page spread designs are missing because of it
My copy was slightly off in lining up on two page designs
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers, India ink and gel pens did not bleed through or leave shadows on the back of the page. Gel pens took a considerable amount of time to dry.
Colored pencils were mixed. I could put down a pigment well and could layer as well. However, when trying to blend with a blending stick, the colors smeared lightly rather than blend.