by Clara Yang
Published by Clara Yang on 2016
Style: Contains Extras, double page printing
Pages: 80
Format: Card cover
I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the product or the content of my review.
Love in 30 Languages is a coloring book for adults that will take your mind on a magical getaway!
You will find the word LOVE written in 30 different languages with a variety of original illustrations of cute little playful animals, interesting flowers and plants, culture, traditions and dancers of the places that speak each of the languages.
Love in 30 Languages – A Travel Adventure Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of Love in 30 Languages Coloring Book illustrated by Clara Yang.
Love in 30 Languages – A Travel Adventure Coloring Book Review
When Clara Yang offered to send me her beautiful coloring book, Love in 30 Languages, I was delighted.   I had already seen her coloring book and admired it, popping it on to my “wish list’.     It was just the sort of coloring book that I like.  Luxury with an artisan feel, full of special touches and with a lovely theme running through the book.
With Valentines Day approaching and love in the air I was very excited to receive this coloring book.   There was one thing that worried me a little though.    Often books about love are so over the top with hearts and flowers that it can become a little tiresome after a few pages, for a tomboy like me.
When Love in 30 Languages arrived I was eager to see how Clara had illustrated the concept of love in the form of language.     As she packs the coloring book really well, wrapped in tissue paper, ribbon and card it took me a little longer to get inside and find out ……… Thankfully, there’s not one heart in the main illustrations of this book.     All of the illustrations embody a concept of love for a particular language and/or country.
Serbian
Cover & Layout
The cover features silver foil extensively wrapped around the book on it with black and white line art surrounding the title.   The outer part of the heart outline has been colored in white.  As the cover is very reflective you may not get an accurate image of how attractive it is from the photographs.     The cover has a laminate covering over it to ensure that it is easy to keep clean.  If you wish to color the cover you may need to use gel pens.
The back cover features the most adorable panda bears playing and doodling “love” on the tree.   From the text blurb contained in a heart on the back of the book “you will find the word Love in 30 languages with illustrations of nature, culture, traditions, creations and tourists attractions of the countries of each language.
Love in 30 Languages Coloring Book measures 26cm x 26cm (approximately 10.25 in x 10,25 in)
Ancillary Pages
Love in 30 Languages commences with the front cover art reproduced as a title page. You will see beautiful lanterns, Japanese gardens, hot air balloons, a hula dancer and that panda bear, that I am totally smitten with.
The nameplate page follows.  Little panda bears climbing ladders, chewing bamboo and doodling cupids bow and hearts are just adorable.   Regular readers will have guessed that I have completely fallen in love with the cuddly panda bears.
A two page note from the artist follows detailing an expression of love from her late father.  This is surrounded by a bird perched on a flower on each page with filigree work spanning both pages at the top.
You will find gorgeous, cuddly pandas throughout the book and there is a reason for that.    Towards the rear of the book, you will find a note from Clara Yang about raising awareness to help save the panda bears from extinction.  What better way to raise awareness than to decorate your coloring book with these adorable animals!
There is a 5 page visual thumbnail index of the images from the book towards the rear of the book, together with a note on each image setting out which country/language the illustration represents.
A plain blank page is the last page in the coloring book.  This would be the best place for you to test out your mediums and color palettes.
Dutch (Netherlands)
Bonus
At the end of the book you will find 3 (three) single page illustrations that you can cut out and color.    Choose whether to color the cuddly panda with a floral headdress, the seahorses and fish surrounded by porpoises or the birds on a branch.    The pages are not perforated but there is a dotted cutting line for guidance.
Something that adds to the charm of these posters, and the book generally, is that on the reverse of each of these images is a cute little panda with a different pose for each image.
Panda bear with a floral head dress poster to cut out and color in! Isn’t she the cutest!
Used with consent from @cherrycolours – follow her on Instagram to see gorgeous colored pictures!
Layout
Love in 30 Languages has been printed on both sides of the white medium quality paper.     The paper according to the book specifications is “100 lbs (148gsm)”.  All of the images have been orientated portrait style.
There are 16 double page scenes in the book where the line art crosses both pages.  The art work does run to the spine of the book which is often tricky to color. However, the book lays down reasonably flat and will, no doubt, relax more with use.  Colorists should not have too much difficulty coloring in this area.  The balance of illustrations are contained on the one page.
Icelandic
Love in 30 Languages – A Travel Adventure Coloring Book Images & Illustrations
I really love the concept of this coloring book and the way that Clara Yang has elected to illustrate the book choosing things that signify a language rather than main stream things that signify love.  For me, this type of imagery often embodies what people love about the place they are living, memories of places where they have visited or places they are dreaming of going.   The Festival of Lights image in this book immediately shifted my memory back years ago to when I visited Thailand.   I had not thought of that trip for years, but that one picture clicked the memory into place and the good times that were had there..
The languages that are included in Love in 30 Languages are: – Hindi, Serbian, German, Italian, Icelandic, Korean, Finnish, Turkish, Russian, Sinhalese (Sri Lanka), Hawaiian, Hebrew (Israel), Khmer (Cambodia), Thai, Maltese, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Vietnamese, American Sign Language, Egyptian Hieroglyph, Burmese, Portuguese and Spanish, French, Malagasy (Madagascar), Polish, Malay, Arabic, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese (simplified)
I have to confess that I played a little game with myself to see if I could guess which language belonged to each illustration and failed miserably.   Thankfully, the legend at the back of the book assisted me.  What that also tells me is that it has been a long time since I have been overseas and I really need to go and visit Malta and Israel 🙂
French
Something that impresses me is that Clara has chosen languages that are not the first that would spring to mind, especially selecting hieroglyphs and sign language, which is sure to set this book apart.
The line art is all drawn in a clear, black medium weight generally.    Illustrations are well positioned in the book to provide a balanced image.
The bulk of the art work tends to fill the whole of the page with detail.  In some drawings you will find there is also some text commentary about the image.
Colorists that love to do background effects will find several images with enough white space to create stunning looks.
If you have a minor visual impairment or motor skill challenges you may find that there are a lot of details in some of the images.   In these cases, you could either use your magnifying lamp, color small amounts over a period of time or my favorite thing, just do a color wash rather than coloring the individual detail.
Please click on an image to view more detail:
[foogallery id=”5623″]Colored Pages by Morena Vajak
Morena Vajak is an incredibly talented colorist who has kindly given permission for her colored pages from the Italian and Japanese sections of Love in 30 Languages Coloring Book to be published with this article.      You can see more of Morena’s beautiful art work at her Facebook group here or her Instagram account here.
Where to buy Love in 30 Languages – A Travel Adventure Coloring Book by Clara Yang
You can purchase Love in 30 Languages from Clara’s website here or from her store here (free shipping within the US) and now from Amazon US.
Happy coloring x
Lea
Leave a Comment