Published by Orage Forlag Style: single page illustrations
Format: Glue Binding, Saddle Stitch, Soft cover
En Sjelden Fugl provides you with hours of coloring beautiful girls and birds from this well known Norwegian artist.
En Sjelden Fugl – (A Rare Bird) Coloring Book Review
I have to say I have no idea how to pronounce the name of this lovely book. Google translate informs me that the Norwegian title means “A Rare Bird” in English. This seems that it could be correct, as the book features a number of birds throughout the pages. I have searched online, and asked the artist, and found that, at this stage, an English version of this book is not available.
Cover & Layout
En Sjelden Fugl measures approximately 29.5 cm x 21 cm (11 in x 8 1/4 in approximately). It has a soft glossy cover which depicts a colored drawing from the book. The cover is enticing and intriguing as the colored image looks very effective, vibrant and eye catching but only a limited color palette has been used. I am immediately drawn to this as I love the result that can be achieved using solid color. I consider myself a colorist on training wheels, so this book immediately appeals. I can color it now, while I’m learning, and then add techniques to this later on to produce a different result.
The inside and back cover feature text and some small colored elements. Unfortunately, I cannot transcribe all the text and assume that it refers to copyright, publisher information and the like.
The cover image has been incorporated in the book for you to color as well.
I would have loved to see a title page or a nameplate page in the book. This is often a great place to test out your mediums before you embark on the coloring book proper. The book does not contain any ancillary pages so you will need to test your mediums on the paper that you are coloring.
Illustrations
There are 48 illustrations comprised in En Sjelden Fugl coloring book. Of those three of the illustrations contain children and 44 comprise a variety of beautiful women and one appears to be a jester. In most of the illustrations a bird is featured as either feathers, in the background or placed on the woman in some way (hands, hair, shoulder).
The images of the children, and perhaps the jester, are gorgeous but they do not appear to fit the theme of the book for me. However, as I cannot read the text foreword to the book, I may be misunderstanding the context of the theme.
This is a lovely book that has a variety of looks to it with a common theme. It is part fantasy and part whimsy in style.
The illustrations have been printed on white, good quality, medium weight paper. The paper is smooth to the touch but has a faint texture to it. Illustrations have been printed on one side of the paper only. Although, there is dashed line indicating perforations, the paper is not perforated. This is merely a guide to cut the image out from the book, if you wished to do so. The bulk of the images have been orientated portrait style but there are a few images that are landscape orientation.
Mariann has outlined the illustrations in a dull black line which ranges from fine to medium. The line work has a hand drawn feel to it.
I am particularly impressed with the variety of women included and the various levels of complexity.
Many of the illustrations have fine details on them which may not be suitable for those with visual impairment. I found, that I could see the lines quite clearly, without my glasses and using my magnifying lamp.
One small niggle with the book relates to the illustrations. On the whole these have been nicely centered on the page, well away from the cutting guide. However, there are one or two images where parts of the illustration have been cut off by the trim size for the book.
En Sjelden Fugl Coloring Book Video Review
Enjoy the video flip through of the lovely En Sjelden Fugl Coloring Book:
Where to buy En Sjelden Fugl Coloring Book
At the time of writing this lovely Norwegian coloring book does not have an English publisher. I purchased my copy from Ark.no an online bookstore.
Happy coloring x
Lea
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