The Magical City: A Colouring Book (Magical Colouring Books)

I brought this book at full price for my personal collection. I colour purely as a hobby, one that I put an incredible amount of time and effort in to.The Magical City is a beautiful colouring book based on distorted images of famous cities, landmarks, buildings and roads. At the time of posting Lizzie Mary Cullen has 6 colouring books published.Inside this book there are 58 single page illustrations and 12 double page spreads. The illustrations are printed on white, non-perforated medium quality paper. Alcohol markers bleed through this paper and dark coloured gel pens leave slight shadows on the next page. I found the best medium for this paper was pencils. I had no problems layering multiple colours and used a mix of Polychromos and Marco Raffines. I also used gold/light blue and red gel pens for texture and had no shadowing. The majority of the illustrations do go in to the spine, with careful pressing the spine lays fairly flat but do expect some issues colouring extremely close to it.I sometimes have issues understanding the illustrations. They are so abstract and swirly I'm not sure if some parts are meant to be light, water or a pathway. As someone who has a terrible perfectionist streak when colouring this drives me crazy. A quick search for the illustration on google however usually resolves this issue. (Each illustration contains small black writing detailing where the illustration originates. I.e Hyde park, Soho, Newcastle ect..)This is a unique colouring book offering a magical and abstract look at some of the worlds most famous cities and landmarks.

As a newbie to the new colouring craze that is sweeping the world as we know it. I decided on 4 different books to keep me busy. This book being my first delve into the psychedelic magical world of Lizzie Mary Cullen's colouring books.From the moment I saw the book I just knew it was going to be quality. It is not your average run of the mill adult colouring book. This one delivers much more than that. From the silky feeling, striking embossed front cover, to page after page of almost psychedelic fun and very magical artwork. This beautiful adult colouring book just oozes quality.Each page is thick enough to be confident that it can handle watercolors, in particular pencil watercolors (see my pic). You just have to go easy on the water application, as the paper is thick, but obviously not waterproof! I'm using felt tips on mine too, and as long as you don't put too much pressure, or use markers it won't show through on the other side.I am loving the very unique style of Lizzie Mary Cullen. And it makes a change from your average mandala colouring book. There is so much to see and take in, looking at each page is like taking your own trip around Lizzie's take on the world.Lastly, the price is magical too. I'd have paid more for this. It is quality and a book you can treasure and look back on for years to come.

A real beautiful book to pass time!

I love this book, but the paper quality is terrible. It appears to be thick but if you use anything other than coloured pencils the colour bleeds and seeps through to the other side - inktense, watercolour, water based markers, fibre tips and gel pens. If you use an eraser on it chances are you won't get more than one layer of pencil over the top. Applying any more than 2 layers of pencil and the paper pills up and is very easily damaged. I have had no problems in other books so not just me being heavy handed. Really disappointing and will think twice before buying another book from this publisherUPDATE: I contacted Penguin Books and they think I must have had a rogue copy that slipped through on production. They have been so helpful and have offered to send me a new copy of the Magical City. So a big thank you to Penguin books and really looking forward to trying this book again. It really is a great book and I love Lizzie's artwork. Have therefore updated my rating for this book because I do love the book.

We purchased this as a Christmas gift for our daughter, who was wanting to find a new way to relieve the many stresses within her working days. I am already hooked on the new adult colouring craze a few months back and this book is a colouring journey around the world to far away places. If your not dreaming of this years holiday, you soon will be with this book.The drawings reminded me very much of the cross stitch kits which are of a similar in design and anyone who loves those, will definitely love this book. I also have other books by the same author and the paper quality is very thick and smooth. I personally use faber castell water colour pencils for my adult colouring books and they do blend really well in these books.My personal favourite is the abbey road animals picture but all the pictures are amazing. Our daughter loved this book and it has helped her ease some of the stress. I personally will be buying this book in the near future to add to my collection.

Brilliant, amazing colouring book!The quality is fabulous, from the cover to the paper inside. It doesn't bleed when using fineliners and felt tips. (I do not use sharpies!)The illustrations are divine, ever so different and modern. I'm not a girly girl so the usual flowers etc don't grab me! But this is just so fresh, different and pretty in a cool way! You can tell Lizzie loves what she does, and that she really wants to take you on a journey with this fantastic art book. She's very talented, I hope she does another book (at least)! My daughter loves it too, aged 8 - she prefers a challenge!It's meant to be crazy, busy and lots of fun like the cover suggests with its wacky pictures - because of this, the book really gives you hours and hours of fun!I recommend fineliners or a sharpener for the intricate parts.