Pop Manga Coloring Book: A Surreal Journey Through a Cute, Curious, Bizarre, and Beautiful World Paperback – Coloring Book, July 19, 2016

*** Some of the pictures I am sharing are from pages I've used from her other coloring books. I will be coping and pasting this review to the other books I've bought in her collection. ***I have bought 3 different Camilla d'Errico coloring books and can not say enough how great these are. Her art style is so unique and surprising, and you never know what to expect. They are designed in such a fantastical way that allows you to really use any colors you want. I have been trying to break out of my box of "color rules" and be more creative with my coloring. These books are so perfect to practice in. The pages are good sized and thick, so you never have to worry about bleed through when using ink/paint. They are also very durable so if you need to erase something, you can do so without damaging the paper. For anyone looking for a fun coloring experience, this is totally worth it.

The media could not be loaded. This is a wonderful coloring book filled with imaginative and unusual Manga style designs. I am used to straight-forward Manga with cute girls with big eyes. In this book, the girls are still beautiful but are incorporated into fantasy style images. Quite often, the subject girl is pensive, staring off into space.This is a book that I am buying for several of my friends for gifts at the holidays. It is so unusual and different, they will be sure to love it, too.The designs are detailed and some are intricate. Coloring them is definitely akin to coloring artwork rather than simple line drawings. I think the book is pretty much one of a kind, though I can hope that the artist may consider issuing another coloring book in the future.This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:80 pages of imaginative and unusual Manga style designs (includes title page and copyright page.)Printed on both sides of the pagePaper is heavy weight, white, slightly rough and non-perforatedGlue bindingDesigns merge into the binding area and a number of them cross over the binding for a two-page designBook can be opened fairly flat but takes some effort and breaks the spine of the book.Alcohol-based markers bleed through the paperbacksWater-based markers, India ink pens, and gel pens do not bleed through or leave shadows. Some gel pens require additional drying time.Colored pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a blending stick. I tested both oil and wax based pencils.

I absolutely love this book. So much so that I have considered buying a second copy. I feel like even though over a million coloring books exist, it is still an untapped market. There are all the conventional ones (like Secret Garden) and it seems like the majority of the unconventional ones are swear words, but there are so many of those that they are conventional too.This book is just different. We need more like it. I love how the pictures inspire creativity, because they call for bright pops of color, and since most of the drawings are so imaginative, there are no rules about what conventional colors objects must be.I also like that the author encourages colorists to color outside the lines and not follow rules. I had fun adding some of my own embellishments and covering over ones that didn't work well for me.I only had a couple small issues. Some pictures seemed incomplete. Like eyes with no pupils or irises. Just really rough sketches. It just seems like some were drawn with care and attention to detail, and others were drawn with haste and had elements that look sloppy. It probably isn't that big of an issue if you have a graphite pencil or black pen. Other issues can get taken care of as you add color.This isn't a huge deal, but areas where I applied a lot of pressure, had some ink that rubbed off of underlying images on to other ones. It looked like pencil marks that are very light and weren't completely erased; the lines would probably disappear when colored over with even a light color, I bet.

This book has amazing images that are really fun to color. My only complaint is that the pages are double sided, so if you use alcohol ink or watercolors, you'll only be able to use one side of each page. I also prefer to cut the pages out with a craft knife before coloring, so the few pages that are two page spreads won't be as interesting for me to color. I've used both alcohol ink markers and watercolor on a few images (the photo is of alcohol ink) and the paper holds up beautifully. The cover is also is able to be colored, and under the dust cover there are a few images that are printed on the bright colored cover which would be good for acrylic or gauche paints (thought I haven't tried this). The book is a bargain at this price! I have seen a few people complain that the eyes of many of the characters are just white, but I love this because you can color them in and have a different look than just the pre-drawn pupils and highlights. In the image attached, I was able to color in the eyes entirely, and I think they turned out pretty great.