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Last year
innovative publisher Michael O-Mara combined coloring with
puzzles when they launched Colour
Quest by Joanna Webster (also reviewed on this site, link
at the bottom). A year on and here is the second in the series
featuring thirty large format (14½” x 10½”)
pages depicting animals.
I hugely enjoyed the first in the series, being a fan of both
coloring and puzzles. This is a new twist on the old color
by numbers only with grids rather than irregular shapes. Follow
the key down the side and fill in each shape with the right
color, and a picture gradually materializes. The pictures
are printed on one side only, are perforated for easy removal
and have a wide margin around a black line frame so do not
vanish into the spine. Paper is a smooth, bright white and
of a good quality, but some waterbased felt pens might shadow
a bit on the other side, so putting a sheet of paper underneath
is a good idea. I would not recommend using permanent markers
like Sharpies or anything wet like paint. The grids and numbers
are printed in faint grey so as not to be too visible after
coloring and the numbers are small. Sharp eyesight is a must
as is a good light but frankly I cannot think of any way around
this and the finished work looks most impressive. If you cannot
wait to see what the picture is going to be or want to know
what sort of animals are featured there is a page at the back
showing finished thumbnails of all the pictures. The front
depicts a magnificent lion’s head and on the back is
a colorful tropical frog. More than that would spoil part
of the fun but I can comment that there is a wide range of
subjects from mammals to birds, fish, insects and reptiles.
The first book had mostly uniform tessellated grids but this
book also has many looser, mosaic style pictures like the
one on the cover, which suits the subject matter well. I confess
to not having much artistic talent but I do find coloring
relaxing and have a lifelong love of puzzles of all kinds,
so I had a ball with this book. Another plus is that it does
not matter too much if you do not have expensive materials
as this is not about shading, blending or artistic ability
as much as a true coloring book. As with the first title this
ought to last some time and I hope this will be a series with
many more titles.
If
you cannot find a good range of drawing materials locally
try www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.
If
you live in the UK an excellent budget priced (but good quality)
range of coloring materials can be obtained from www.theworks.co.uk
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