My coloring books reviewed

"Just Add Color" series: Folk Art (S$16.05)  

This book has about 30 drawings rendered by Lisa Congdon in naive art style.  The subjects are simple, mostly drawn from nature or are abstract. They range from a basket of fruit to birds in trees to human figures dressed in a style that reminds me of the Amish.

The paper is smooth, super white, and the areas to be filled in with color are large enough for the artist to attempt blending colors, or playing with shades.

The strong point here is that the pages are perforated on the edges, which means if you are pleased with the result of your work, tearing it out safely for framing is easy.

"Harmony of Colour" series: Wildlife & Nature (A$12.95) 

This book, which the husband bought for me from a bookshop between Hunter Valley and Sydney last September, while we were on holiday,  has 33 drawings, beautifully detailed. The fourth book in the series, it has a chittering community in a Facebook page. It contains a lot more black areas in each drawing than the other two books. The paper is much thinner than the other two as well.

The annoying thing is that the drawings go right to the inside edge of the book, so getting to the extreme left hand edge is a challenge. If you want to frame any of these up, you'll just have to go at it with a sharp pen knife and hope for the best.

The Harmony of Colour people say in the preface: "Be aware of the overall harmony of your coloring, rather than focusing on each element individually. Try to balance the colors so that they are a reflection of your emotions of the moment. If the colors on your page are in harmony, then your mind will follow!"

Er. I'm in two minds about that. Yes, I do believe in trying to achieve a color palette that is "harmonious", but at the same time, I notice that several of these drawings enter the realm of fantasy. After all, what crazy whale has floral patterns all over its skin? What owl wears a dream catcher?  What eagle looks just trippy, set as it is against a manic swirl of busy background patterns? To me, these fantasy drawings are throwing an invitation to me to play with a riot of colors, yes, even clashing ones. The owl doesn't have to be brown, though I colored mine in restrained shades of earth tones in an exercise to get to know the browns among my pencils.

That said, these drawings gave me quite a bit of practice in choosing and blending colors.

Johanna Basford,  Enchanted Forest (9.95 British pounds) 

OK. I haven't got her best selling Secret Garden, but a look through this book gives an idea of her drawing style - very detailed, very painstaking.  

Don't embark on this unless you are prepared to take a number of sessions to finish each. Basford offers you five kajillion leaves on her trees and plants to fill in with color, a real test of anyone's patience. And each leaf is tiny, which limits the amount of shading and blending you can do. Basford is perhaps best for those who are less ambitious about achieving gradations of colour, or playing on light and textures. Just looking to do straight coloring and are patient by nature? This will do fine.

This Enchanted Forest one features "symbols" - such as a treasure chest, small animals or birds - tucked away among the trees and plant life and woodland animals, with which one can "unlock" the secret object that the castle at the back of the book is "hiding". Frankly, I can't be bothered with the "mystery". I just want to color!

All in, I would say the Harmony of Colour book is my favourite.