The Present aka The Night Voyage – Daria Song

Buy from Etailer
by Daria Song
Style: color inspiration images, Contains Extras, double page printing, Instructions - Tips
Format: Card cover

The Present (aka The Night Voyage) by Daria Song sees the beautiful little girl that fans are used to being swept away in the world of gift giving. Get swept away in this coloring book and go on the magical journey that illustrations by this artist evoke.

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The Present aka The Night Voyage – Daria Song

Talented Korean artist, Daria Song, sneakily released “The Present” in 2015 but it was not released in all countries 🙁  Tracking down a copy of this book was difficult at first, until I resorted to Ebay 🙂 I am a massive fan of Daria Song.   Her talent, her art and her imagination has me in awe of her.  I absolutely adore “The Present” and it is in my top 5 fave coloring books of the year.

If you wish to track down this beautiful book the cover of the Thai version is as below (this is the version that I have in the video review).

Now, there will also be a Japanese edition of the book released and it has a different cover on it as below:

and then, of course….drumroll please and save the date, in September 2016 the US version is being released complete with a new cover and a new name!

I adore the illustrations by Daria Song.    They are so whimsical and magical all at once.     The book opens with a lovely title page that has elements of the front cover on it.   I love these introductory pages as they are always a good place to test out your mediums and see how they react.   There is a small, simplistic nameplate page.   I confess that Hanna Karlzon has spoilt name plate pages for me.    If they are not ornate and works of art in their own right I’m not happy. 🙁   I would have loved to see a beautiful present inspired nameplate page in this book and to me it is one tiny, negative.

I confess, I cannot understand any of the text on the pages that follow (so I will have to buy The Night Voyage as well 🙂 ).   I do love the kitty helping to tie the bow on the double page spread of a present.

Inside the illustrations take the form of a story book, as do all Daria Song’s coloring books for adults.    We start in a little girl’s room (who always looks like Daria herself to me).   The room is packed to the brim with toys, including lots of lovely gift wrapped presents.  To me, The Present is an alternative Christmas story but according to the blurb for the Night Voyage the story is about the eve of the girl’s birthday.     The pictures inside of trains, sleighs and the like conjure up Christmas with me, no matter what the intent of the artist may be.

The paper is white and good quality.    The book measures approximately 25cm x 25cm.

There is a lovely illustration with a black background and grey printing on it.  It is very nostalgic and whimsical with a man on a penny farthing bicycle with the headlamp illuminating the young girl.  The penny farthing is featured again pulling a carriage packed full of gifts through the sky.  You will find gorgeous illustrations that use the whole of the page to show off the cute cat, the little girl or the lovely presents.  One of my favorite things within the book are illustrations of the origami cranes.  It reminds me of a childhood game we used to play at school.

There are a number of pages that have pre printed backgrounds which differs from her other books The Time Chamber and The Time Garden.    There is a lovely double page spread of a pattern of a cat with  presents and of course, the penny farthing on a grey printed background.  I would have liked to see more variation in this pattern rather than a repeat on both pages, but that is a minor gripe.

There is another double page spread of a girl writing on a black background which is very cute.    The heart on the opposite page has words (but I am unable to read them).  I presume that like most artists, you are being instructed to draw something yourself.

At the back of the book are some tips on how to color in printed in color.     The pencils of choice are Steadtler.   Although, I cannot read the instructions, I can follow along by looking at the step by step images.    The tips show you to color the girl, a snowflake, heart and cat.    All of these elements come together in the one picture (a colored picture is included) but oddly the line work for the picture is not included in the book.

The next page sees the little girl asleep on a bed of presents.   There is a colored illustration and the black and white line work for you to color.  There are two further colored images with line work as well at the end of the book.

My book has a lovely double page colored spread of the girl looking out the window with a tree and presents below.   Sadly the complete line work for this beautiful picture is not included 🙁

At the end of the book, are three lovely colored postcards on perforated paper.   There is also one last image which contains part of the line work for the colored double page spread referred to above.

The Present Coloring Book Review (Thai version)

Enjoy the video review of  The Present illustrated by Daria Song below:

The line work throughout is crisp and black making it easy to see.   Although Daria’s work is very detailed, there are also a large amount of big spaces in the drawings.    Many of the illustrations would be suitable to color even if you do not like detailed images.

I absolutely adore this book and look forward to coloring it in but it does have a few negatives for me, which I hope are corrected in The Night Voyage.     Whilst I absolutely adore the colored images of the art I would like all of  the line work to be included in the book.  I am slightly disappointed that the tips on how to color a particular picture are shown but not the drawing so I can learn and color as well.     A small niggle is the cards at the end.  I love the colored cards but again, I would have liked some illustrated cards so I could color some myself.

The Present Coloring Book Inspirational Images

If you wish to be inspired by colored pages from “The Present” (The Night Voyage) please see The Present Pinterest board.

Where to Buy The Present Coloring Book

You can purchase The Present Thai version from this etailer.

Where to Buy The Night Voyage

The Night Voyage is an English imprint based on The Present without the colored images but with more line art.   You can read my review here.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Book Depository

Happy coloring x

Lea

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