by Chiaki Ida
on September 2016
Style: Contains Extras, double page printing, Paper: medium quality
Format: Dust Jacket
A beautifully illustrated book featuring scenes depicting dream rooms and includes the holiday season. A gorgeous book to escape to
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Dream Rooms Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of Dream Rooms Coloring Book
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Dream Rooms Coloring Book  Review
It always surprises me how big my stack of coloring books “to review” is. I shouldn’t really be surprised though as that stack is in actual fact a floor to ceiling bookcase plus a three tier trolley 🙂 Dream Rooms Coloring Book has been sitting in the stack since September 2016 and it is now January 2018.  Yes, I’m a little behind on things 🙂 If it wasn’t for a reader prompting me to move my stack about and find it for review …who knows how much longer it would have sat on the shelf feeling all dejected.  The sad thing is, it’s actually one of my favorite coloring books.   The style of art and the whimsical nature of the book always makes me happy when I flick through it admiring the pages and moving it about my stack.
I’d love a secret room like this to hide my coloring supplies!
Cover & Layout
The cover has a sturdy matte dust jacket in it with a slight texture.  My only negative with this beautiful jacket is that it is prone to smudging from grubby little fingers.  If you were using it often, and wanted to maintain the condition of it, I would suggest some plastic wrap around it. There are some lovely things about the cover. One is the simplicity and beauty of the images which accurately represent the content in the book.  The other is that the colored printing looks like colored pencil.  For a beginner colorist like me, when I look at the cover, I feel that I have a hope of replicating the effect which gives me confidence.
The title of the book is raised lettering and contained in a printed wooden frame with a lovely planter on top.  This is actually a decal like sticker on the book. Not only are your senses awakened by the beautiful coloring but also by the different textural feel on the cover.  Clearly, I spend way too much time touching up my coloring books 🙂
Kraft card covers the coloring book proper with white outlined art.  For me, I find the white outlines difficult to see but others that don’t need to squint and grab their glasses may wish to color it.
Dream Rooms measures approximately 25cm x 25cm.
Ancillary Pages
The title page features a beautiful illustration to color of a room that is incredibly quirky. Views to a castle from a window and a teapot spilling tea from the door are depicted.  Presumably this is the artist’s dream room as there is a pot of paintbrushes and a sketch pad on the table.  It’s a gorgeous page for colorists to test out the mediums that they will use in the book.
At the back of t he book, you will find two pages of the dream houses that presumably the dream rooms belong to.  The areas surrounding these houses or the reverse page could also be used to test out your mediums if you wished.
Layout
Illustrations have been printed on off white, medium quality paper.  All of the images have been orientated portrait style.
There are twelve pages that comprise double page scenes in the book.   Although line art does run to the spine of the book it should fold down easily for coloring with some regular use.   The single page scenes for the most part have been well centered and position on the page, there are a few scenes though where the line art runs to the spine.
Coloring Book Images and Illustrations
The title of the book is Dream Rooms and the content is all about the different type of dream rooms we find in various types of abodes.  These little houses are depicted at the back of the book, which you can color including a tree house!
All of the line art in Dream Rooms is a dull black which has a sketchy, hand drawn feel to it.  There are varying line weights but for the most part it is medium and easy to see.
The art work is gorgeous featuring elements from rooms, interior shots and outdoors scenes.  One of the great things about this book is that the illustrations are not overly detailed.  This makes it suitable for colorists with a minor visual impairment and those that have motor skill challenges.  Having the larger images on the page also means that, if you wanted to, you can really explore your techniques creating beautiful effects of glass, metals, timbers and other textural elements.  If you didn’t want to do that, you would have just as much of a good time coloring this book which is reinforced by that lovely pencil effect on the dust jacket.  You can do as much or as little as you like and still have a wonderful page.
There is a variety of images within the book with varying degrees of complexity.  A small shelf of knick knacks might be a great page for when you have only a small amount of time, whereas a full page scene might be one that you tackle with more time up your sleeve.
Often I feel intimidated by my coloring books because I’m only a beginner colorist with little time to practice.  That’s what I love about this book, I actually feel that I can color the pictures and be happy with the result at the level that I currently am at.  It’s not often that I feel that 🙂
Please click on an image to view more detail
[foogallery id=”11814″]Bonus
At the end of the book, you will find that there is a page of bits and bobs that can decorate a dream room to color.  This is printed on thick card stock and although it is not perforated there is a cutting line.   You can have loads of fun coloring your teddy, shoes, appliances and bathtub. Of course, you need a room to put these things in.
Time to let go of adulthood and turn to the next page, also printed on card stock which depicts the interior and exterior of a house. You can color your dream house in and then add all your little bits to decorate it.  There are no tabs, like paper dolls, so you are free to arrange as you please. If you wished to retain the look though you would need to glue your little bits down.
Think of how much fun you could have either on your own or with a little friend.
Detail Level
Where to buy
| Amazon Japan | Etailer |
Happy coloring x
Lea
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