Flowers and Dreams: A Coloring Book of Beautiful Botanical Symmetry

Flowers and Dreams Coloring Book Review

Flowers and Dreams is the first adult coloring book by artist, C.L. Aldridge. The book is a soft cover approximately 28 cm x 21.5 cm (approximately 11 inches x 8.5 inches). This is a common standard size of adult coloring books and easily fits into most home printers for easy copying. The cover was colored by Virginia Sanders. On the back cover you can see some other illustrations colored by the artist, Karen Oderkirk and Susan Curry.

Table of Contents

Inside you will find 24 floral illustrations that are printed on white single sided paper. You will then find those 24 illustrations have been further duplicated to half size of approximately 5 inches x 7 inches to be used as greeting cards or crafting. In total there are 48 drawings in two different sizes. In addition, at the back of the book, you will find several pieces of paper that have been inserted for you to test your markers on, or use as a blotter page between pages.

The paper is thin and is of the type often used for coloring books. When using the pictures, put a piece of card between the pages, to blot the ink and avoid pencils denting the image underneath. I usually, like to copy the image on cardstock and colour the copied image. This means that the images remain intact in the book and I can try out a number of color schemes and techniques. It often takes me a few goes before I have a result that I am happy with 🙂

At the start of the book you will find some tips for colorists. You will also find thumbnails of the 24 illustrations contained in the book.

Now, onto the meat of the book, The illustrations are all floral based and have a border around them. They have been nicely centred on the page avoiding the spine area for ease of coloring. All of the illustrations have been signed and dated by the artist, something I have not seen in any other coloring book I own (which is over 200).

The line work is crisp, black and thin. Although the lines are generally thin they are easy to see without turning my magnifying lamp on or reaching for my glasses. What I have noticed is that unlike most coloring books with a floral theme, that have teeny weeny flowers to color, these flowers are big and bold. This means that the flowers would adapt well to coloring with wide markers and are suitable for those with poor vision or who prefer large spaces. I like the way the flowers have been framed throughout the book through various borders. This makes this book different from other coloring books that are more fluid with their design or detailed with their flowers.

When the images have been reduced to the 5 x 7 size for cards, some have very fine detail. These images would need my glasses and magnifying lamp to complete.