Colortronic Animals: A Kaleidoscopic Coloring Challenge Paperback – April 4, 2017

This is one of the few coloring books that I have enjoyed so much that I will probably buy another one when I've finished it. The animals are beautifully draw, and from interesting and varying perspectives so that none of the images are boring, and they don't get monotonous to color.Pros:- Lots of animals, lots of colors.- The color schemes are all slightly different, so you don't feel like you're doing the same thing over and over.- The paper are nice and thick so there isn't any bleed-through, even with heavy-duty markers!- Illustrations are on single-sided pages with perforation, which is always preferred with coloring books.- The book is color-by-number, and the colors are all shades you probably have. This is a big issue I have with other color-by-numbers-- When they are ten shades of the same color in one illustration, and any given set of markers has maybe two or three shades. Most of the illustrations DO have multiple shades of the same color per page, but I don't think I've encountered more than three shades at once.-It's a pretty big book. The pages are large, I think around 10x10" or 12x12". There's enough surface area on each page to keep you busy for quite a while. I've had this book for several months, and I'm only a little more than halfway through it. It's my go-to coloring book when I'm relaxing, so it gets used fairly often. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it.-If you get bored with the color schemes they author chose for each picture, it's easy to introduce your own. Corresponding a color of your choice to each number will get you a pretty awesome result! This is actually how I prefer to do it, but I'm not big on technicolor-style things.-The lines are clean and smooth. They're the perfect size for dividing areas without being so thick that they ruin the image, or too thin to see. They're also a sharp black, so there's no soft grayscale that you have to squint to see.Cons:-Some of the illustrations have very, very large blocks to color in. If you have broad-tipped markers, this is fine, but even felt tips will struggle with some of the areas. I definitely do NOT recommend using fine tips for this book. You will kill the tips of their markers and they'll run out of ink. I attempted using fine tips once, and it was more frustrating than relaxing to try and fill in the spaces.-Not good paper for colored pencils or crayons. The paper is just smooth enough that it will forever rub and smear your work. I would say this paper is really only good for markers or gel pens.-You can still see the division lines through most marker strokes. A minor annoyance.-Trying to layer markers will tear up the paper. Not good if you're trying to blend with art markers, or layer shades to achieve a certain color.Bottom Line:This is my favorite coloring book-- so much so that I plan to buy another copy once I finished mine. It will last you a long time, and the pictures are very fun and interesting. It's a color-by-number book, but I've never felt that following the coloring instructions is mandatory. Sometimes I'll freehand it or choose different colors for each number. Don't be afraid to get creative with how you color.It's always really rewarding to finish a page, because the each portrait is beautifully drawn and rendered. The illustrator, Lauren Farnsworth, is fantastic. I desperately wish she had more books like this one.To be honest, I can't believe this book isn't more expensive. I'm more than pleased with just about every aspect of it, and it's one of the very few coloring books that I get genuinely excited to use every time I pull it off the shelf.

The media could not be loaded. This is my first Colortronic coloring book so I didn't really know what to expect. The designs are beautifully drawn and the suggested colors are very vibrant and create a stunning project.I followed the colors suggested for my first project except that I did not use a background color as yet. It was so much fun that I am considering buying two of the book – one to follow the colors by and one with which to do my own color choices.I used Copic markers and then came back and enhanced the colors and some shading with Polychromos pencils. I found that using both gave a depth of color to the project and allowed me to fine tune my color choices for a more balanced looking project.Apart from the color choices, the animals are drawn realistically without “doodles”. The designs are detailed but are not overly intricate. I had no problems using any of my medium in the color areas.The color numbers do show through unless I used an extremely dark or opaque color. I'd love it if the artist/publisher also published the same pictures in a regular line drawn coloring book but I am sold on their style of color by number.This is what I found while coloring in the book and testing my coloring medium on the paper.29 Beautiful Animal Designs in a Color by Number formatDesigns printed on one side of the page with color guide on the binding side of the perforationsPaper is heavyweight, white, slightly rough and micro-perforatedSewn BindingDesigns do not cross over the perforations. Each design has a framing line at the outer edge.I could get the book to lay fairly flat for coloring with a little effort.Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use this medium, I suggest using a blotter page to keep ink from seeping through. I use card stock but a couple of pages of paper should work as well. It will bleed through to the quote on the back of the page, which doesn't bother me, but I want to note it if it is an issue for you.Water-based markers, India ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through the page. Some do leave slight and indistinct shadows on the back of the page. Some gel pens require additional drying time.Colored pencils worked well with this paper. It has good “tooth” and allowed for applying layers of the same color to get rich pigment. I could also layer multiple colors well and I could blend both oil and wax based pencils easily with a pencil style blending stick.

I love this book. I like the images and the colors are detailed enough to keep me interested. Paper quality is excellent and accepts pencil colors well. I hope the publisher will consider doing another - maybe butterflies, birds, flowers, gardens, etc.I would recommend 2 areas for improvement.(1) Colors: Yes, I know there is no wrong way to color these, but let's face it: most of us adults who buy color-by-number do so because we sometimes obsess over getting the "right" colors if we have to choose on our own. I'd prefer a single color index with names (For example: 1 always = light yellow; 2 always = golden yellow, etc, and a picture might use colors "3", "7", "8", "13", etc) . Then I can set out all of my colors once, and not for every page.(2) Size: I like the square format, but found the large size a big awkward. If it were a little smaller, it would be easier to work with and would make for more detailed coloring.But these are just suggestions and, regardless, I would highly recommend this book.

I like this book a lot....however, I don't use it for coloring. I paint the pictures with opaque paints--only by mixing colors can I get the vast array of colors required for all the pictures, and also cover up the lines and numbers. I did one with water-based markers and it just looked silly, but the painted pictures come out pretty nice. See photo of a couple of them done with paint (I did change the background color on the elephant)