Percy Presents: Mystic Island - Coloring Book Review

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Percy and the Mystic Island Coloring Book

Percy and the Mystic Island is a lovely hand illustrated coloring book by Australian artist and designer, Narelle Craven. This is the third coloring book in the Percy series. The first books were Percy and the Colouring Wonderland and Percy and Percy and the Colouring Adventure. Percy, is an Australian Fairy Penguin and features on every page of the book. Percy and the Mystic Island is an interactive coloring book meaning that you are tasked with finding Percy on each page. I am always grateful, that Percy is easy to find. I tend to find that interactive books that have too many different types of things to find, that are well hidden, lose my interest pretty quickly.

The first two books were initially released in Australia for sale via the artist’s website. These books were spiral bound and the illustrations were printed on card stock. Subsequently, Percy and the Colouring Wonderland was released on Amazon in standard coloring book format. The original books were then referred to as the “Artist Edition” versions. Percy and the Mystic Island has only been released in standard coloring book format and, as yet, there is no Artist Edition.

The Percy series of books, no matter what the format, are always well presented. The cover is always a delicious collage of various colored artworks from within the book. Narelle has an extremely talented team of colorists whose work you will see on the cover of the book and on the thumbnails on the back cover. The book is standard coloring book measuring approximately 28cm x 21 cm (8.5 in x 11in approximately). It has a soft cover on it, that has a slight waxy feel to it.

The book commences with a beautiful nameplate page that is a whole illustration rather than a few random elements. You will see that my book has the artist’s signature on it as I purchased it direct from the Australian website. In addition, a little notecard based on the Percy books was also included with the book. If you are purchasing from Amazon your book will not include these little extras.

I love the way that the artist not only includes some useful hints and tips at the start of the book but also provides two pages full of elements from within the book to practice on. Usually, the ancillary pages to a coloring book like “about the artist” and “copyright” can be bland but not so with the Percy books. You will find that each of these pages is adorned with Percy artwork as a prelude to the book proper.

In addition to the various pieces of art to color in the introductory pages you will find 33 full page illustrations to color. The illustrations vary providing a range of different scenes including mythical creatures, animals and underwater scenes. There are gemstones galore in the book so luckily you have several images to practice on at the introduction of the book.

The illustrations have been printed on single sided paper. An image of Percy in various poses and positions adorns the facing page. The paper is white and is trade stock paper. If you are using wet mediums or you are forceful with your pencils, you will need to pop some blotting paper between the pages. There are some spare pages at the back of the book that you could use for this purpose.

The line work of the book is black and predominantly a medium weight. There are some elements and illustrations where a finer line has been drawn. I had no difficulty seeing any of the lines without my glasses on 🙂

Although the illustrations are detailed, and the whole of the page is generally used, they are not complex. There are plenty of large spaces to color making them suitable for colorists of all skill levels. There are approximately 3 images within the book with a lot of finer detail which may be tricky for those with visual, arthritic or problems with motor skills.

Most of the illustrations run right to the spine area of the book. If you are forceful, you can lay the book down flat enough to color these areas. Personally, I would cut the images out with a knife and use a clipboard to color with.

I adore Percy but I still have one niggle. It’s very difficult going from an Artist Edition coloring book to a standard coloring book. If the Artist Edition was made available for this book, even though it is more expensive, I would have purchased that instead.