by Daria Song
Published by Watson-Guptill on September 13th 2016
Style: Contains Extras, double page printing
Pages: 80
Format: Card cover, Dust Jacket, Glue & Stitched
Goodreads
This third adult coloring book in Daria Song's Time series follows the little girl on a new nighttime adventure when the conductor of her toy train comes to life and helps her distribute gifts across the world.
This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the product. If you buy a book using that link, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the price that you pay. Your support is very much appreciated x
The Night Voyage Coloring Book Review
Many readers will already know this, but I’ll tell you anyway… I adore Daria Song. I have a coloring crush on her. I love the “story” atmosphere of her coloring books where you are transported into a fairy like fantasy world of her imagination. The girl in Daria Song’s, The Time Garden and The Time Chamber I always think looks a little like Daria herself. When I found out that she had released a coloring book called The Present near Christmas of 2015, only as an overseas version, I had to track it down.
Of course, I tracked it down (this girl always gets her coloring book!) I managed to pick up the Thai version of The Present to tide me over while I waited for the English edition to be released. Daria Song announced that the English version of The Present would be titled “The Night Voyage” and, in addition ,some extra illustrations would be added!
Comparing the two editions, The Night Voyage is far more plump with illustrations than The Present (but they are both adorably sweet). The story follows a young girl, a consistency in all Daria’s coloring books to date, on a night time voyage, as she distributes presents around the world. It is meant to be the eve of her birthday, according to the marketing blurb, but I still think as I did when I reviewed The Present, that this is a Christmas based story. It does not matter to me whether it is Christmas or her birthday, the book is beautiful and I’m so happy to have it 
Cover & Layout
The dust jacket cover features a gradient of a pale denim blue that graduates to a darker night sky towards the top of the cover. The illustrations feature beautiful origami style birds in printed muted patterns, and the occasional gold foil bird, soaring under the starry sky. The back of a carriage laden with gifts is partially shown. The carriage is predominantly line art with a few printed elements on it. Keen colorists could color the balance of the cover art. The title, a few birds and stars and the wheel of the carriage are printed in gold foil.
The spine of the book is shiny, bright gold with white lettering. The lettering is slightly difficult to read against the background of gold. The back cover features beautiful line art of origami birds and hot air balloons carrying gifts. The background is printed in a gradient of blues. The line art on the back of the cover can all be colored in.
Looking at the book, it took me a few seconds of glancing at my shelf where the others live, to figure out what was different. The Night Voyage has a dust jacket with a fancy gold spine! The other coloring books that I have by Daria Song feature a muted, pastel spine in either mauve (The Present), lilac (the Time Chamber) or sage green (The Time Garden).
On the inside of the dust jacket a fold out flap shows the balance of the carriage including the driver ready for you to color. The inside of the dust jacket also features line art of a rider on a penny farthing bicycle riding through a pre printed starry night.
The card cover of the book within features a blue/grey cover with a toy train underneath a starry night printed in black. The spine of the book is slightly different from the others in the Time series with the title in black and centered. The Time Chamber and The Time garden all feature the title in white and positioned on the far left of the book. The Present features the title in white and centered.
The book measures approximately 25cm x 25cm (approximately 10 in x 9.8 in) and is a few mm larger than my Thai version of The Present.
The illustrations are printed on both sides of the smooth white, medium quality paper in storybook form. All the illustrations are orientated portrait style throughout the book and printed on both sides of the paper.
A simple nameplate page is at the start of the book. It is lightly decorated with a few gift boxes for you to color. A simple copyright page has been printed on the reverse with a few little elements to color. Over page a plain text title page follows (slightly disappointed with the lack of decoration there 🙁 ). A double page scene title page follows featuring the art work on the front and back cover of the book. All of these ancillary pages would be a great spot to test out your mediums and see how they perform with the paper and your coloring style.
I adore the commencement of this book with an illustration of Phoebe, the cat playing with a gift ribbon on a double page scene. It appears to be saying “undo this ribbon and you will see all the beauty within this lovely book”
If you have ever wanted to slip back to the joy of being a child again then this is the book to do that for you. The magic of the double page scenes in the book filled with toys, beautiful gift boxes and the wonder of a girl that wants to distribute those gifts to others. The text in this book, although only a few paragraphs over a few pages, says so much about modern life. Mom and Dad are away for the little girl’s birthday on business and they leave her an abundance of gifts instead. Even though she is surrounded by these beautiful gifts, and her cat Phoebe she still feels alone. Her plan to make friends and ease the loneliness is to distribute these gifts around the world. The illustrations that follow show her journey around the world and the adventure of giving others these gifts. I still think that this is a modern day Santa Claus but who am I to argue with Daria Song 🙂
Illustrations
Daria Song produces illustrations that tell a story on their own and because of the way that they are drawn it is easy to imagine that these could well be a traditional story book for children one day. They do not need to be colored in to be beautiful. There are drawings that feature penny farthings, Phoebe the cat, clock towers, elaborate views of rooftops from the sky, paper cranes and so much more. There is truly something for every colorist here to enjoy.
The majority of the illustrations are printed filling the whole of the page. There are a handful of images where there is enough white space for colorists that love background effects to really jazz up the image. There is a double page scene that has a gradient black background but the majority of images are on a white page.
The bulk of the book has been printed with double page scenes. There are approximately 11 pages where the illustration is contained within a single page. The illustrations do run to the spine of the book and you will need to be forceful to get into the tricky spine space to color.
The line art is black and crisp. Daria Song has a delicate hand and her line work ranges from a fine to medium weight.
A range of different levels of complexity has been included in the illustrations. A lot of illustrations have larger areas of space for colorists that do not like fiddly bits. Many of the pages are filled with detail, but even within these pages are areas of big open spaces.
At the rear of the book you will also find a visual thumbnail index of the illustrations within the book.
The Night Voyage Coloring Book Video Review
Bonus
At the end of The Night Voyage there is a lovely card that you can cut out and color featuring the carriage laden with gifts. The card is printed on the same paper as the balance of the book. In The Present there were a number of colored cards at the back of the book that you could remove and give to others.
Differences between The Present & The Night Voyage by Daria Song
- The Night Voyage has a dust jacket that you can color in whereas The Present does not have a dust jacket
- The card cover on the Night Voyage has line art printed on it that can be colored in whereas The Present does not
- The cover art on both books differs
- The Night Voyage contains a number of additional pages including a double page spread of the cover art as a title page
- The illustrations in both books have been positioned and laid out generally in the same order. The canal scene has been collated earlier in the Night Voyage than in The present.
- The Night Voyage contains a double page spread featuring the carriage over roof tops, hot air balloons over rooftops with Phoebe stuffing presents down the chimney, clocktower scene, running through a field of flowers, single page girl in front of a stained glass type window, Phoebe in the clock face, Phoebe in a heart shape, girl asleep in a heart shape, a single page comprising an elaborate decorative frame and Phoebe at a tea party
- The Night Voyage text is in English!
- The paper in the Night Voyage is a brighter white than that used in The Present
- Some of the illustrations in the Thai version have text written which has not been included in the English version, eg text on pipes, Phoebe on the rocket, double page spread of stars, the heart with stationery items. In the Night Voyage this illustration has been included but Phoebe has been positioned on the left page rather than the right as in The Present.
- The Present has some colored pages at the back of the book.
- The final full page image in the back of the Present is of Phoebe and in The Present it is the girl writing letters. In the Present the illustration of the girl writing letters has also been included as the last picture and on the reverse is the illustration of a Christmas tree stacked with gifts (the colored inspirational image for this has been included in the book). The illustration of the tree and gifts has not been included in the Night Voyage.
- The Night Voyage does not contain any colored inspirational images.
- The Night Voyage has one card of the carriage that you can color and cut out. The Present has 3 colored cards that you can cut out and use.
Where to buy The Night Voyage
| Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Canada | Book Depository |
Night Voyage/The Present Inspiration
Be sure and check out my Pinterest board for completed colored pages from The Present/The Night Voyage by Daria Song.
Daria Song often posts on Facebook pictures of her colored illustrations made into 3d shadow box art. They are truly beautiful and I really recommend that you have a look at them when you have a chance
Other coloring books by Daria Song:
  |
  |
  |
  |
|
  |
Happy coloring x
Lea
Save
Leave a Comment