ARTEZA Adult Coloring Book, Mandala Designs, 9x9 Inches, Stress-Relieving Coloring Pages with 50 One-Sided Images, 100 lb Paper

To start I am not a coloring aficionado. I decided to try this because a friend advised me she was coloring to relax during the pandemic and found it cleared her head and was allowing her to have a break from her worries. I was also planning a long socially isolated car trip with my husband where I would be a passenger some of the time. I was surprised that this book was about a half inch longer than my iPhone 8 in height and width but that worked for me since I was planning to try it for the first time while traveling. The individual sheets seem thick to me. They certainly are not like a child’s coloring book or even printer paper. I think I could probably use markers with this but I have not tried it. (It says 100 lb on the cover which I assume refers to this as the book certainly isn’t that weight!). I used colored pencils I had and found they worked great (a larger set of Crayola). I think you would want colors that provide multiple shades of a color (many different greens, different reds, etc. to choose from and to use in connected shapes for shading the overall flower or leaf). The designs are very detailed and when using it in a car while traveling I did find it a little difficult keeping inside the lines on some of the smaller shapes because of the roughness of the road but it wasn’t impossible to use. It was relaxing to think about only the colors and shapes and shading. I did find that there were some places I thought needed shading which did not have a shape drawn there. I improvised but that might be a draw back to some. There were also shapes drawn where I would not have shaded with a different color but found it provided interest to follow their hint and use a different tone/hue? (I’m not an artist...). of the color I was using. I thought the designs were beautiful and detailed enough to be very interesting. Some are repeating the same flower of flower, some are of one or two flowers in a closeup, some are many, a variety of different flowers and leaves (some more natural and some leaning towards fantasy in my view), occasional trees, most fill the page but a view have plain backgrounds... I was a bit concerned before buying that I would find an entire book of flowers to grow boring but there is a lot of variety within that theme and I don’t think I will grow bored with the designs (although I don’t expect to do this daily or even several times a week most of the time—it would be an occasional activity I think for me). The back cover is thick cardboard that was very easy to color on without anything else under the book (I used it on my lap in the car and would do it again without any hesitation.) The pages will tear out of the glued binding easily if I want to do that. I do think that would work well if you work from front to back of the book but if you skip around and tear out pages you would have other pages coming out I think. Overall, I really was extremely pleased with this book. It did cost more than I would have liked but the quality is there. I feel like I did get what I paid for. It is better quality than I expected to get! FYI, I am a 52 year old woman but I do work with elementary age children. These are detailed designs but I think a child of 3rd grade who was very interested in art and had good fine motor skills (good at coloring) could be able to use this and enjoy it. Some designs are a little larger shapes that are easier so they could jump around if they didn’t tear out pages (or had a folder or rubber and to hold the pages in the book) and “grow into it”. Many of the designs would be frustrating for an average third grader however. An adult/teen could share random pages with an upper elementary aged child if they didn’t mind tearing out random pages. There are definitely some in there they could do without being an “expert” colorer. (Always nice to have options for how you can use something.)

Excellent quality art coloring book. Absolutely one of my all time favorite book purchases ever!

As a disclaimer, this picture is literally my first time ever coloring in an adult coloring book. I make my own art and have never considered coloring books before, but I just decided to give it a go, and I bought these books.I’m brand new to adult coloring books but I’m not new to coloring, as it were. I’ve been using pens and colored pencils and all manner of art mediums for years, so I don’t think my struggle with the fine details in this book were user error or a lack of experience with the materials. They are just incredibly tiny details, and it’s very hard to get even cheap oil-based colored pencils sharp enough to fit into the spaces. I had planned to do markers over pencils (Polychromos and Luminance pencils and Staedtler multi-ink brush pens). I started with the pencils but I ended up abandoning them. I just used the brush pens and added a little bit of white gel pen (Stabilo) at the end to bring back some highlights.I like how my picture turned out, so I can’t complain. The pictures are fun. It’s nice that they are single-sided, and my ink did not bleed through or absorb too quickly (the ink is permanent when dry but I was able to blend with my fingers and even the pens themselves). I’m very used to thick, highly-absorbent watercolor paper, so I expected this very thin paper would struggle to accept many layers and would bleed through. I was pleasantly surprised with how it stood up. As long as I let the ink dry first I was able to add quite a few layers without it getting muddy or damaging the paper. I went back over my layers with the blue green for the water several times and it took each one. Impressive.Mainly I just think a book this size should probably not have such intricate details, and I didn’t really grasp how that would be in actual practice when looking at the images online. If your vision isn’t the best or if your hands are not super steady you might not enjoy these pages.

small size, great to take anywhere, awesome pictures

To allow myself to mindlessly color and go into zen mode, I bought this pair of coloring books to tide me over until I had time for real art creation. I use an inexpensive colored pencil set with it. I do not believe the paper could handle all but the lightest watercolor wash. I pop on music and color my stress away without having to think about sketching or coming up with ideas. The patterns are intricate and soothing. For this use, it is perfect. i'm glad I made the purchase.

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