by Toc de Groc
Published by Promopress on November 24th 2015
Style: double page printing
Pages: 90
Format: Dust Jacket, Glue Binding
Goodreads
Throughout 100 pages full of imaginative illustrations and lavish patterns inspired by natural motives, Hidden Nature will open the door to exploring our artistic side and re-awaken that child inside us.
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Hidden Nature Coloring Book Review
It is no secret that I adore whimsical drawings and that is what is inside Hidden Nature. In my opinion, this gorgeous coloring book has not been well named to reflect the content of the book. Although the book does feature elements of nature, florals, trees and the like – the real star of the book is a cute little kitty cat.
I bought this book when I was on holidays at the beginning of this year. I had hopes of sitting on the beach, lazing away coloring some of the gorgeous coloring books that I had found on that trip. Of course, the best laid plans do not happen and the oodles of coloring supplies I bought on the trip lay lonesome in their boxes. Sadly, Hidden Nature has been sitting on the shelf for 6 months. This is a book that should not sit on the shelf 🙂
Cover & Layout
Like so many coloring books, this book has been issued with two different covers (that I have found so far). The ISBN is the same so it appears the artist/publisher has just changed the cover to reflect a different audience/market or print run.
A paper dust jacket protects the book. This has been pre-printed in green, pink and dark grey. There are still elements that you could color in on the dust jacket if you wished. Sadly, the underside of the dust jacket does not have line work on it. I always think that leaving the underside of a dust jacket blank is a shame. The inner side, had it been printed on, would have made a fantastic fold out poster.
The dust jacket is protecting a glossy white cover that has been pre printed in green and pink. You could color this but I think you would need alcohol markers due to the glossiness.
Inside you will find a gorgeous nameplate page filled with lovely elements from nature and, of course, the kitty cat.
Illustrations
The illustrations have been printed on both sides of the paper in this book. The book has a variety of images that you can color in but on virtually every page you will find the cute little cat either in full view or hiding in one of the pictures.
In a lot of ways this gorgeous book reminds me of another favorite book – Beautiful Day sans the cat. In Hidden Nature you will see the cute cat amongst a lot of items that are not “nature” inspired. These include images with the cat and vintage cameras and typewriters, set to play the piano, hiding beside the gramophone, supervising on a sewing machine, peeking out of a tea cup and avoiding the tea from the spout, peeking out from a cupcake or layered cake, or hiding in a gumball machine, traveling via hot air balloon or plane, moped, vw or boat. You might also find the cat hanging out with a mermaid, on the phone or peeking out at you in a fruit bowl, tiara, hat or shoe box. Be alert for the kitty cat ..he could be anywhere!
You may be wondering if there are any pictures of nature within the book and let me assure you that there is. There is an abundance of florals. These may be in a natural scene or forming part of another element like an umbrella, hat, shoe box, handbag, mandala or quilt. In addition you will also find whimsical birds and cutesy owls, an elephant, a lion, butterflies and a peacock. If you are a fan of whimsical you are sure to love this book. It is cute, quirky with beautifully drawn naive style art throughout.
the images are printed on white paper that is of a medium quality. There are approximately 20 pages that are double page scenes and the art work does go into the spine for this imagery. However, the book lays down flat extremely well making it easy to color in this area.
The images have been outlined in crisp, black and I have no difficulty seeing the illustrations even without my glasses on. The line art is a fine to medium weight throughout and has a feeling of delicacy about it.
The illustrations are quirky and imaginative but maintain consistency in style and with the cat cameo. There are illustrations that have different levels of complexity throughout. Some images have a number of patterns on them which may be too much detail for some colorists. There are other images that have larger areas to color that may suit colorists of all skill levels.
Some of the illustrations likes flowers, butterflies and the like throughout the book have been left blank to encourage the colorist to add their own pattern, or not, to the outline.
There are so many beautiful things to color in this book I think I’ll have to take it on my next holiday!
Hidden Nature Coloring Book Video Review
Enjoy the video flip through review of Hidden Nature coloring book below:
Where to buy Hidden Nature Coloring Book
| Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Book Depository |
Happy coloring x
Lea
I just enjoy your reviews, though Barnes and Nobel has very few of them. So now I will try amazon and keep my fingers crossed, as they seen not to have a few I love to get. Where did you get whspy? Thanks for all the reviews and I found your blogs. Belle
Thanks Belle! I’m slowly going through and adding all the buy links to older reviews. All new reviews usually have the purchase links top and bottom. I’ll update the Wyspy post with the buy links – it is a little hard to get though (but well worth it – it is super cute!) Happy coloring x