Find Coloring Inspiration

Do you ever find yourself staring blankly at a coloring page and your box of markers or colored pencils?  If you're like me, you're wondering what colors to use. You see endless possibilities. I created a Pinterest board specifically to help you (and me!) get inspired. Click here to go to my inspiration pinboard.

I have a variety of photographs to help inspire you. I like to choose a mood for the illustration I color. This has helped me to set the right mood. The colors and photos on my board really take you to a different place! Give it a try and create your own.

Review - Secret Garden Artist's Edition Coloring Book by Johanna Basford

No secret that illustrator Johanna Basford is one of my favorites, and one of the favorites of many colorists. When I found this book at Marshall's for only $12.99, I immediately grabbed it. This was a wonderful deal.

The book is larger than normal size coloring books. There are 20 illustrations, which were the "best" from Secret Garden. The paper is very thick card stock that you could color on with about anything your heart desires. The pages are a beautiful cream color.

I am in love with this book.

I have a soft spot for high quality paper, and this one is on target. Mix that with Johanna Basford's beautiful illustrations and this book is a clear winner.

You are encouraged to remove the pages and frame. Not sure I'll do that, but I will enjoy coloring them! The pages aren't perforated, but still easy enough to remove, yet the  pages stay in place well.

I am still amazed at the deal I got on this coloring book.

If you are a Johanna Basford fan, pick up a copy of this book. The upside is also that there are no illustrations going into the margins and designs are single sided. The artist's edition is very underrated. This book is one of my favorites! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Review - Fairies in Wonderland: An Interactive Coloring Adventure for All Ages by Marcos Chin

I've loved fairies ever since I was a little girl, so of course I was drawn to this title.

The black-and-white line art is beautiful. You can tell by the cover the quality of illustration.

The paper is a bright white cardstock quality paper. I bought this book with my Stabilo fineliners in mind, and they do not bleed through. Cheap markers would likely bleed.

There is a riddle in the book and you have to find the keys/letters. I haven't solved it and won't. I don't care for those types of hidden gems in books. A story element is more appreciated.

The first half of the book is day and the second half of the book is night (with black pages). This is a nice element and inspires me try out metallic gel pens.

The illustrations are beautiful. No doubt about that. I am amazed at Marcos Chin's talent. There are both girl and boy fairies too. I really like that. The drawings are very intricate and delicate.

My qualm is that while coloring I felt like I was coloring the same thing over and over. One spread had many keys as part of the riddle. I was bored quickly.

The illustrations are unique, but they are heavily repetitive. Does that make sense? I want to stress how lovely the art work is, but I wished the riddle was gone and there was more variety in scenes.

This book is two-sided, and not made to tear pages out. Some of the designs do go into the binding in the middle and are hard to reach to color.

The binding isn't very sturdy and already looks worn after the few pages I've colored. I am hoping it doesn't fall apart, so be careful with your copy.

Review - Mommy and Me: A Mother's Heart Coloring Book: Inspiring Illustrations to Color With Your Child

The idea behind this book is nice. It's a book to color with your little one.

The illustrations are on one side of the page, and Bible verses are on the other side. The first half and second half of the book have the same content, except for one half has more intricate designs on the pages. For example, there are two lions. One lion is filled with intricate designs and the other is blank inside of the outline. I guess the child is supposed to color the simple one? The easy/hard illustrations are randomly mixed through the book. It's puzzling to me. Maybe have the designs facing each other in the book, so you can actually color together? I don't know how this is supposed to work.

There are quite a few pages that are just different squiggly lines and swirls to color. Not exactly exciting for me or my kiddo.

My favorite pages are the lions and the lady holding a baby. More of those images would have been welcomed!

I only tried coloring with colored pencils, but the paper quality seems decent enough that nice quality markers should be fine. Definitely wouldn't try your kid's crayola markers though, if you want to keep the book nice.

I really think this concept could be better executed. I hope they either make another version of the book or make a similar book with better images and a more cohesive flow.

The book is by Passio.

Review - Island Escape, My Caribbean Coloring Book by Jade Gedeon

Oh. my. goodness. I saw this beauty on the shelf at Walmart and rushed over to grab it. I could tell by the cover that the paper quality would be out of this world. This book uses watercolor paper! I don't plan to use watercolors, but I highly appreciate good quality paper.

This book has some fold out pages, but everything is perforated and one-sided. Awesome.

The designs really do take you to another place.

I like that some designs are very simple. I like to be able to finish a coloring page in one session; it makes me feel more accomplished.

There are buildings, water scenes, and plenty of local flair that you'd see in the Caribbean islands. It's a diverse book.

I also love that the pages are not white. They are a gorgeous light beige. Beautiful.

As you can tell, I love this book. It stands out from the rest. I couldn't wait to use my colored pencils on it, but I know fine liners would also do wonderful, as would watercolors!

I can't wait to buy more of Jade Gedeon's books. This gem has quickly become one of my favorites.

Review - Simple 1-2-3 Color & Frame Coloring Book - 3 in 1 - Animals, Seasons & Inspiration

I found this beauty at T.J. Maxx for a great deal since it's three books in one. It contains Color and Frame books Animals, Seasons and Inspiration. Seasons is my favorite, since it contains weather and different times of year that isn't as common in adult coloring book as animals and flower patterns are!

The paper is not thick, but it's not thin or typical printer paper quality. With Stabilo 88 point .4mm pens I had some bleed through. The pages are one-sided and are perforated for easy tear out. You can add sheets of paper in between the pages to prevent any bleeds or just tear out your drawing before you start. Colored pencils are recommended for this book over markers.

This book is spiral bound so the illustrations are flat and easy to color.

There is a "color palette inspiration" page on the opposite side of the cover page when you open the book. I like to image my own color palette so I didn't find this helpful. I think it's just something colorful to fill up in the inside of the cover. It does preview 4 pages that are available in the book for coloring.

This book offers a mix of semi-intricate designs with simple designs to color. There is a variety of images. I don't like that some pages are primarily black with only a few white parts to color. There are many pages with repeating or tiled designs. I find those boring. There is a page full of just zebra print. I don't like coloring pages like that.

     

While there are quite a few disappointing pages, there are some pages that I adore and can't wait to color. I like that Seasons offers back to school, winter, Christmas, Halloween, etc. pages. A few previews of my favorites are below.

 

 

  

For the price, this book was a good deal for a newbie colorist at $7.99 on discount. You can practice new techniques and find out what you enjoy coloring the best. For someone more advanced at coloring, this book would be boring. I'm split over enjoying half of the pages and hating the rest.

ISBN-13: 978-1-68022-244-9
Published by New Seasons, a division of Publications International, Ltd.
Created and designed in the USA.
Manufactured in the USA.

Review - Simple 1-2-3 Color and Frame Nature

I was thrilled to find Simple 1-2-3 Color and Frame Nature at Marshall's. It has a variety of pages to color. It is preforated, so the pages are easy to tear out. The pages are 8 inches by 10 inches. If you like to frame your creations, this book is a great choice. The pages are one sided. There are no two page spreads. The book is spiral bound.

I don't like how some of the designs spill over past the preforated line, so you lose some of the design. I would have liked it better if they left the perforated area as white space.

The paper quality is not standard printer paper or thin, but it's not high quality paper either.

I love the variety of designs. The coloring book has fruit, owls, abstract designs, flowers, fish, and much more. There is even a cute camping page to color.

Here are some preview pages:

 

  

   

 

  

I especially look forward to coloring these adorable little cacti!

I like that this book offers some simple pages to color that can be finished quickly. Sometimes I'm in the mood just to color a page without starting a big coloring project. This book offers the both of best worlds. There are intricate designs and simplicity.

I used Stabilo 88 .4 mm fineliners. I had a couple of tiny bleed throughs on the back of the page, but nothing bled through to the next sheet. You can always place another sheet of paper behind the page you are working on. If you're using markers, don't use a heavy hand or go back over the same spot more than once or let the link pool. If you used very "wet" markers, you'd probably have more bleed through. You can also tear the pages out ahead of time and not worry about bleed through at all. Colored pencils would work wonderfully on pages in this book. I bought this book specifically to try out my Stabilo fineliners though.

ISBN-13: 978-1-68022-111-4
Published by New Seasons, a division of Publications International, Ltd.
Created and designed in the USA. Manufactured in China.
02/29/2016 publish date

Color and Frame - Nature and Stabilo fineliners

This weekend I picked up a copy of Color and Frame - Nature by Simple 1-2-3. It has one sided pages that are easy to tear out. I thought this coloring book would be perfect to try new techniques on before I start scribbling in some of my more expensive coloring books. I found this book for $4.99 at Marshall's.

I wanted to buy some Staedtler fine liner markers this weekend to see how I liked coloring with those. I had my 40% off coupon ready to go at Michael's, but they were all sold out of Staedtler pens. I did find a 30 pack of Stabilo 88 point markers, so I bought them instead. I am very excited to try those out for a review.

Don't forget you can buy colored pencils and markers/fineliners at Michael's and use their online coupons! You can usually always score at least 30% off. They do not let you use coupons on coloring books though.

>> Click here for my review of Color and Frame Nature.