Beauty and the Beast Coloring Book Review

Beauty and the Beast is such a classic tale. It’s one of those stories that can make you feel good and see good in the world and it has such a beautiful message to it that it is hard to resist it. Around the world, the new Beauty and the Beast movie is being released which has seen a resurgence in this popular fairy tale as it transports to the adult coloring world. You will find a number of Beauty and the Beast coloring books on the market and there is sure to be something that suits the style of art work that you like to color. Personally, I love Fabiana’s sweetly whimsical artistic style so it was an easy decision to add her latest coloring book to my collection.

Cover & Layout

White Star publishers are now printing Fabiana’s coloring books (rather than Sterling who previously published Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Wizard of Oz). If you have collected Fabiana’s coloring books, you can immediately tell when you look at the cover that there is something “different” about the latest coloring book releases. It may take a moment to realize what it is.

Although the books are the same size, and carry the same features as previous books, White Star publishers have decided to use a cursive style font for the title of the book and a small, plain, green text for the information prior to the title. Sadly, the new font, for me, is a fail. It tends to cheapen the look of the cover. I do hope that with the release of Fabiana’s coloring books, later in the year, they return to the previous text styling.

The other difference is that Fabiana’s coloring books always had a subtitle of being “An Enchanting Coloring Book” this has now been changed to “An Amazing Coloring Book”. Other than those changes, there is not a lot of difference between the new publishers product and the previous coloring books.

The Beauty and the Beast Coloring Book features a partially colored image with gold foil highlights on the front and back cover. The spine is red to complement the color of the cover art title. The partially colored design wraps around to both front and back fold out flaps.

On the inner semi gloss covers, line art of roses, gems and candelabra, could be colored by you.

The Beauty and the Beast Coloring Book measures 26cm x 21.7 cm approximately (10.5 in x 8.5 in)

Ancillary Pages

A plain text title page commences the coloring book. Over page, a double page spread contains an extended, decorated title page and copyright information. These pages would be ideal to test out your coloring mediums and see how they react with the paper and your coloring style.

This is followed, as always, by a five page abridged version of the story of Beauty and the Beast. Having this lovely decorated fairy tale in the coloring book makes it an ideal book to share with a child or have as a keepsake coloring book.

Layout

The Beauty and the Beast layout is consistent with the previous coloring books illustrated by Fabiana Attansio.

Illustrations are printed on both sides of the white, medium quality paper. The paper feels slightly (very slightly) thinner than previous books. When weighed though, the books weigh approximately the same amount as the previous books published.

Unlike the previous books, the binding on The Jungle Book and Beauty and The Beast is a lot more rigid than previous books. These books are both glued and stitched. If they are too tight for you to work comfortably with, you could snip the large stitches to loosen the book further.

You can see my paper quality test of the coloring book here. My testing was carried out on The Jungle Book but please note both The Jungle Book and The Beauty and the Beast have the same paper, are by the same publisher and were released on the same day.

Beauty and the Beast Coloring Book Images and Illustrations

There are 40 pages that contain double page scenes within the book, excluding the ancillary pages. The art work does run into the spine and due to the binding on this book it could be difficult to color this area. If it proves too hard for me, and my muscle man cannot push the book flat for me, I will snip the stitches on the binding to help relax the book.

Fabiana Attansio, has again managed to capture not only the sweetness of Beauty and the Beast but also the emotion and sadness attached to this poignant story. All of the drawings reflect Fabiana’s usual style of sweetly drawn and whimsical style art. I was concerned that Fabiana’s sweet cartoonish characters would not be depicted in a sad and sorry state for the relevant parts of the story. I should not have been concerned. Fabiana has managed to draw the characters with the appropriate emotions to translate this romantic fairy tale accurately.

You will find beautiful illustrations of Belle and her family, the Beast as well as animals including horses, castle imagery and an abundance of roses. As is Fabiana’s style there are many images that are outlines with patterns inside and some images that have solid black for characters oor backgrounds.

The line art is black, crisp and a medium weight for most of the book. However, there are are a couple of images that have a finer line with a duller black for the art work.

Colorists that have a minor visual impairment will find that half of the book has large open spaces making it easier to color, whilst the balance has a lot of images that are more detailed and fill the page with imagery.

Please click on an image to view more detail.

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Bonus

As always, Beauty and the Beast Coloring Book, comes with a massive fold out poster for you to color and frame. As the poster is larger than my normal ruler, the measurements are not entirely accurate. It roughly measures 97cm x 66cm.

When coloring the poster, you may need to iron the reverse side with a warm iron. Cover with baking paper first to avoid any scorch marks on the poster. This will iron out the creases and make it easier to color in

Detail Level

LowHigh

Where to buy Beauty and the Beast

[easyazon_link identifier=”8854411663″ locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”mygamingweb-20″ popups=”n”]Amazon[/easyazon_link]

Book Depository

Happy coloring x
Lea

About Fabiana Attanasio

Fabiana Attanasio was born in Rome in 1985. After graduating from the International School of Comics, she began her artistic career in the field of comics, before dedicating herself completely to illustration. She is currently working with publishers all over the world. Fabiana lives in Italy.