Coloring for the Holidays 2

Book Cover

Today's coloring assignment came from the coloring book Merry Christmas by Alexandra Dannenmann. I purchased my copy from Amazon for $5.39. There are 30 different designs that all appear on black backgrounds for ease of coloring. The illustrations are simpler in design and not overly complicated which might be more amenable to younger audiences. The book is an odd size in that the pages are 8.5 inches square.

Back Cover

The paper is of a lower quality in that it is a much thinner paper than most adult coloring books. I used Copic markers and Sharpies for my sample. These pages would best be used with non-wet media, like crayons or colored pencils. The paper is super absorbent so blending with wet media doesn't really happen. Wet on wet blending is non-existent. I don't know if blending solutions (e.g., Gamsol) would blend colored pencils very well. Because of the porous nature of the paper, there is some feathering with the alcohol based markers and the Sharpie marker that I used was somewhat problematic. The page is only printed on one side so bleed through is less an issue but you will definitely need a coloring sheet beneath the page you are using if you plan on using markers.

Another difficulty is that the book has a glued spine, which usually isn't a problem, but there are no perforations so the book is meant to be kept whole. I discussed yesterday how I like to separate the pages of my book. When I tried, I got a deckled edge on the left side (glued side) of the pages.

Deckled left edge

As for coloring the page, the illustrations are pleasant enough. In the design below, you can see how blending can become an issue. Originally, I didn't like the dark green color of the holly leaves. To lighten up the color, I used the blender pen to remove some of the color. Then I would normally fill in the lighter areas with a complementary color. As you can see below, after removing the color, the page wouldn't accept another color and I couldn't blend a color either. The paper is so porous I had to leave it as is. While not a catastrophe, it isn't what I wanted.

Also, on the candle, I decided to highlight the artist's design on the candle with a bronze metallic Sharpie pen. You can see how the pen feathered a bit. Granted, I used a fine tip marker. If I had an extra fine tip I might have had a little more control but I think that the metallic extra fine tip markers only come in oil-based paint pens.

Finished page

The first edition of this book was dated 2016 so the publishers should know the expectations of the market when dealing with these books. There should be no reason why a higher quality paper isn't used. Having perforations is pretty standard in these books.

I do like the simpler designs and I will probably color another page or two with non-wet media. I am a fan of the black background because it can hide a variety of coloring sins (especially sloppy coloring).

Note: In an effort for full disclosure, I have purchased all of these items myself and I am not being compensated for my thoughts/reviews.