The Beauty of Horror – A Gorgeous Coloring Book
The Beauty of Horror Coloring Book Video Review
Enjoy the full review of the Beauty of Horror Coloring Book above.
The Beauty of Horror Coloring Book Review
I never expected to like this coloring book when I ordered it. When I seen The Beauty of Horror online, available to pre order, I admired the cover and thought that it was very attractive. When I decided to buy it, I bought it for you, the reader, not me. I like bunnies and kitties. Zombies and severed heads scare me. I have nightmares and jump at the slightest sound. When it arrived, I set it aside. I needed to build my confidence up to open it …for several weeks. I was scared 🙂 I expected to dislike The Beauty of Horror Coloring Book but instead I love it. You cannot help but admire the thought process that has gone into the presentation and layout of the book, but the illustrations are just so beautifully drawn that it can captivate even a hardened whimsical lover like me.
Cover & Layout
The cover of the Beauty of Horror is beautiful. It has a lovely dust jacket with red title, surrounded by line art with pops of red highlights on the flowers, bat and leaves. The cover art is also included in the book for you to color as well. On the back cover another gorgeous illustration from the book appears together with a publisher’s blurb. The fold out flaps of the dust jacket continue the illustration. The dust jacket is a gloss and a very good quality paper. The reverse of the dust jacket has also been printed with line art for you to color in. This is a matte finish and should take all mediums (although test unobtrusively first).
The card cover of the book has been created in a beautiful black gloss with details in bright red. Surrounding the title information is a dark grey filigree design which makes the cover look elegant (as well as gory). The red has been used for the spine with simple black text. On the back cover in a dark grey is an outline of a skull, surrounded by the same filigree. It really is quite stunning.
The book measures 9.8 in x 9.9 in.
Ancillary Pages
An elaborate title page surrounded by elements to color opens the book. The title uses the same intricate lettering as on the cover of the book. Copyright information is found on the reverse and opposite a nameplate page follows. The book is interactive and there are some items to find along your coloring journey. These are beautifully illustrated on a page surrounded by a gorgeous frame of skeletal hands and flowers. Following on, with the same framed art we are introduced to Ghourliana Belie who is the girl at the heart of the book. Even the short blurb in the book chills my spine.
Layout
The illustrations are printed on white, medium to high quality paper and are all orientated portrait style.
Illustrations
The illustrations are absolutely stunning! There are mermaids and kitty cats, but …..not quite so cute and cuddly as I normally show you. You will find beautiful double-page scenes depicting all sorts of gruesome things like hangings, coffins, bats and decomposing bodies. However, as distasteful as the subject matter may be to me, they are beautifully drawn. You will find a level of detail that is extremely high and artistic in each element of the drawing. The artist has used varying line weights, clever page positioning and finer details in hatching, strokes and color saturation to produce works of art on the page.
I love the range of settings that the artist has used. There are lovely fields with flowers, torture chambers and buildings to color, beautiful frames containing ghastly portraits and ocean settings. There is even a fairground scene. I have never liked clowns and seeing how Alan Robert has drawn them has reinforced that within me! Of course, there is a bunny within the book. Not my kind of bunny though 🙂
There are 46 pages within the book that are double page scenes with the balance being single page scenes. Although the illustrations do run to the spine of the book due to the binding of the book it lays down flat for ease of coloring. All of the single page illustrations have been position well on the page for ease of coloring.
The artist has used a dull black pen for the line art. There are varying line weights used throughout the drawings but a medium weight is the most predominant. This makes it easy for most people to see.
Many of the illustrations are very detailed and complex. Some colorists with visual or motor impairment may find these too challenging to color all the tightly packed detail. If that is the case, I would normally just color wash the area that is too fiddly.
The artist tends to use the bulk of the page for the line art, but there are a few images that would benefit from some background pizzazz added to it, if you wished.
Where to buy the Beauty of Horror Coloring Book
Happy coloring x
Lea
P.S. Don’t blame me if you get nightmares!
Hi, Lea
I had problems with view your vid but fortunately you site is so well conceivedI was able to view the pages anyway. Love your reviews. Yes they are scary but Halloween is a magic time and a little fright can jump start a heart. Thanks for your entertaining commentary . You have enriched my coloring enjoyment!
lol that image of the girl on the swing freaks me out …and clowns…my heart is beating back to normal but there were a few close calls 🙂 Happy coloring x