by Yukako Ohde
on 21 October 2016
Style: Contains Extras, double page printing
Pages: 72
Format: Dust Jacket
Fun coloring book filled with cute animals to color in suitable for all ages!
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My Coloring Book – Animal Fantasy Season Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of this cute Japanese coloring book by Yukako Ohde
My Coloring Book – Animal Fantasy Season Coloring Book
Animal Fantasy Season was released on 21 October 2016. I knew as soon as I seen it available for pre-order that I had to have it. The cover with a cute bear, bunny and hedgehog is always enough to entice a cutesy coloring book lover like me.
Cover & Layout
The cover features a gorgeous dust jacket covered with beautifully colored artwork in an ice cream shop of shades. Lovely mushrooms look like they have been colored with markers or inktense pencils as they have a vibrant look, but also a watercolor look. It gives the appearance of something quite dreamy and sweet. Some of the mushrooms colored and decorated on the cover remind me of sweets or ice cream cones …or perhaps I need lunch! You can see from the cover that this is going to be a cute and whimsical book and the rest of the book lives up to the cover promise.
The title of the book is printed against a background of gold foil and there is a dainty spattering of gold foil stars on the cover as well. The front cover is just divine and I would love to know what mediums and methods were used to get that effect! The french flaps are also decorated with small colored illustrations.
The spine is gold and features black and white text.
On the back cover a small illustration colored of two hedgehogs adorns the page. The illustration seems to signify the end of the book as the little hedgehogs have a basket full of mushrooms now, presumably ones that they have collected since the front cover of the book. I love how some of the Japanese and Korean coloring books have these cute little drawings that signify the start and finish of the coloring journey.
The book measures 25cm x 25cm (9.9 in x 9.9 in)
The card cover of the book is simple brown kraft card with some line art in white on the front cover and a few elements on the back cover.
Ancillary Pages
The title page of the book comprises cute little mice dressed up and up to mischief in the kitchen. There are several cute pictures to color in here and test out your mediums.
A double page scene featuring a ski scene, cute bunny, floating bear and various other critters follows. This contains text in Japanese and I presume it is a message from the artist and some instructions on how to use to the book. There also seems to be some “secret characters” so presumably this book has an interactive element to it to find the characters.
Publisher information is at the rear of the book together with a little treat.
The winter season is depicted with several images featuring an array or cute critters.
Layout
The illustrations in Animal Fantasy Season Coloring book are printed on both sides of the white, medium quality paper. The paper is very good quality and has a faint texture to it making it ideal to layer pencils on. Make sure you test out any wet mediums on the ancillary pages though, before diving in, as most coloring book paper is not designed for use with wet mediums.
All of the images have been orientated portrait style within the book.
There are 32 pages in the book t hat comprise double page scenes. The line art does merge into the binding of the book. I have been gently pushing down on the spine, and after a few minutes of this tender loving shoving, it has now relaxed enough to easily access these areas to color in.
The balance of the line art is presented within a single page which, on the whole, has been well positioned and centered for ease of coloring.
Animal Fantasy Season Coloring Book Image Gallery
Please click on the image below for more detail.
[foogallery id=”4140″]Illustrations
The illustrations have been drawn in dull black ink with a medium line weight with some detail in a finer weight. Colorists that have visual impairment or health challenges, that make coloring tight spaces, will be happy with the large spaces in the images.
The art work is super cute with a massive dose of whimsy added for good measure. There are a variety of cute animals like bears, mice, hedgehogs and bunnies, often dressed up or accessorized throughout the book. These little critters have a barrel of fun as they journey through the four seasons of the year from January to December.
We can see cute snow scenes with gorgeous glaciers (so gem like), highly decorative gingerbread houses nestled in a candy woods (I’d love to go hiking there!), cute kitchen scenes and even cupid makes an appearance on Valentine’s Day. The artist has managed to combine these adorable animals into all the common holiday or celebratory days as well as the European seasonal calendar.
At the end of the book, on a double page spread, is a map of the Fantasy Season. In a lot of ways this reminds me of Cocot in Romantic Country and I just wish that I could read the text legend that describes this fantasy world of the artist.
There are one or two pages of patterns in the book. Presumably, these have been added for variety and they do flow with the concept of the book. Generally, I am not a fan of a lot of pattern in “storybook” coloring books but one or two pages can be a welcome relief for a colorist from the scene pages.
Bonus
At the end of the book, printed on heavy car stock are 7 little gift tags/note tags that you can cut out and color in. They are very cute featuring a variety of adorable little animals.
Seven little gift/note cards can be cut out from the back of the book. They are printed on heavy card.
Where to buy Animal Fantasy Season Coloring Book
| Etailer | Amazon Japan | Yes Asia |
Happy coloring x
Lea
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