by Virginia Falkinburg, NOT A BOOK
Published by Colorit on 1 July 2015
Style: cardstock, Contains Extras, Instructions - Tips, Perforated pages, single page illustrations
Pages: 54
Format: Card cover, Spiral Bound
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.
Goodreads
There are 50 pages of doodles to color in and relax with in this well presented and made coloring book for adults.
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Colorit Calming Doodles – Coloring Book Review
Last week I reviewed the first coloring book for adults, Colorful Flowers, that the nice people at Colorit sent me for review. I had a lot of fun coloring in the Colorful Flowers book and was surprised at how totally relaxing it was, just to color in with my markers ,while watching lots of crime on tv! Today, I have got the Calming Doodles coloring book to show you. I’ve been busting to get the video done for this book because I want to color it in! I want to make sure that you see the clean copy first though, before I start adding my markers to it!
Cover & Layout
The impressive thing about the Colorit books are that they are all spiral bound. This means that if you are left or right handed you don’t need to worry about how the book displays. Spiral binding also means that it is easy to remove pages from the book to color on your work space or clipboard like me. You do not need to use the spiral binding for page removal in the Colorit books because the pages are also perforated!
Top spiral binding makes these coloring books super easy to use
The cover of all the Colorit colouring books that I have seen is also a thick, sturdy card which makes a solid backing if you are coloring in your lap for instance. The thick card cover is at the front and back of the book. As I lack storage in my home, my shelves are a disaster, it makes it easy to store the book without the edges getting roughed up. When I store these books I lay them flat with the spiral binding pointing outwards. I have found from other books, that spiral binding, rubbing against a thin dust jacket can damage it, hence my storage method.
The line art is black and a heavy weight throughout. There are some images that contain solid black outlines and elements
The front and back covers of the Calming Doodles coloring book feature a colored doodle that is indicative of the type of art work found inside the book.
The front title page features the cover image in a selection of greyscale type tones. This is always a welcome spot to test out your markers and mediums that you might like to use in the book. Over page a simple copyright statement follows. A few doodle elements on this page would liven it up and give colorists a great spot to practice techniques. A highly decorated name plate page follows which fills the entire page. Some tips to enjoy your coloring book follows as well as an additional page that you can use as a blotter in your book. The blotter also contains details on a special bonus for purchasers of the Colorit Calming Doodles Coloring Book.
There are some floral style doodles in the book
The book measures in at approximately 28cm x 21.5 cm (11 in x 8.5 in) (excluding the spiral binding). The doodles are all printed on single sided white printed card stock quality paper, which is acid free, according to Colorit. The paper is bright white and very high quality and is also perforated.
The doodles in the coloring book have been orientated in a portrait fashion throughout the book. The actual image, to the perforation, measures approximately 27 cm x 21.5 cm.
Illustrations
The doodles in the book all feature a large outline of a swirl, flower or a leaf type design which is then filled with pattern consisting of tear drop type elements, swirls, circles and scale type imagery. It is similar to the zentangle patterns that you may see in other coloring books. All of the doodle designs are hand drawn by the illustrator, Virginia Falkinburg.
The doodle coloring book offers the colorist a wide variety of imagery to color as it is not based on one particular theme.
I adore that the art work is heavily weighted in bold black ranging from a medium to heavy weight with an abundance of solid black. Some colorists may prefer less solid black as it may impact on the colors that they would like to use. I still struggle to believe each day that the perfect eyesight I had for the whole of my life seemed to disappear virtually overnight, leaving me struggling to see some fine details in coloring books, without my glasses or handy magnifying lamp. This book is perfect for those that have minor visual impairment as the outlines are so easy to see! No glasses required for me 🙂
markers look great in these books
The art work in the book uses the whole of the page with every inch to the perforation guide covered in doodles to color. There are some similarities in the art work in this book, as the art produced in Colorful Flowers, as some of the art features florals in this book as well.
Although the designs are simple there is a lot of detail on each page due to the wall to wall art work. You may have to pay attention to avoid confusion when coloring so many different elements on a page.
Many of the illustrations have areas of large space where colorists that have health issues like arthritis will be pleased. The majority of the illustrations are tightly packed with pattern giving the colorist a lot of opportunity to test out different color palettes.
The illustrations are wall to wall leaving no white space for those colorists that love to do background effects.
I am a huge fan of the Colorit products because they are very well made and ideal for new colorists. I was surprised at how relaxed I felt just aimlessly coloring in some doodles with markers. Usually, I’m such a slow colorist. I spend a lot of time wondering what colors to use, often having buyers remorse afterwards 🙂 I then spend a lot of time layering (badly) and blending (badly) that it was wonderful just to go for it, with whatever markers I had in front of me, and enjoy myself. This is the perfect book when you just want to color in, without any hassle of technique and enjoy the meditative qualities of relaxing with art.
Calming Doodles Coloring Book Video Review
Enjoy the video review of the Calming Doodles coloring book below:
Bonus
Purchasers of the Calming Doodles Coloring Book will also see in their coloring book details of where they can download 10 additional images to color in and print at home.
Where to buy Calming Doodles Coloring Book
You can buy the Colorit Calming Doodles (Volume 1) Coloring Book in the US here. Colorit do not appear to sell in the UK or Canada at present, with only independent sellers offering the books for sale, (at far in excess of the regular price).
Other books in the Color it range of coloring books:
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See how my markers and inktense pencils reacted with the paper in the Colorit coloring books here.
Happy coloring x
Lea
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