Pop Manga Mermaids and Other Sea Creatures Coloring Book Review

Camilla d’Errico is an amazing artist with seemingly limitless talent. Her paintings and her artwork that adorns cities, no doubt bring a smile to everyone that sees it. She has such a distinctive style which her use of colors – particularly blues, pinks and purples and her surreal artwork that it is easy to remember and distinguish her work from other artists.

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When Camilla released her first coloring book, Pop Manga, it easily became a best seller. I am ashamed to say that Pop Manga is still in my “to review” stack 🙂 It is such a beautiful book that I wondered if Camilla would be able to create a follow-up book that echoed the style, and contained as many beautiful pictures suitable for colorists rather than painters. Of course, she managed that with ease with her follow up book, Pop Manga Mermaids and other Sea Creatures.

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Cover & Layout

Mermaids and other Sea Creatures has the same format as Pop Manga for consistency. The coloring book measures 9.9 x 9.9 inches.

It comes with a fold-out dust jacket cover. The inside of which has been decorated with seahorses for you to color. The card cover of the coloring book features a light blue background and line art of jellyfish. On the back cover, one of the illustrations from the book has been used to complement the publisher’s blurb.

Ancillary Pages

A plain text title page commences the book. Overleaf a beautiful mermaid rides her horse. This is followed by a two page decorated spread which features a note from the artist. In the note, Camilla explains that many of the illustrations in the book are from her imagination. They feature different combinations of mermaids that she has created. Any of these pages would be suitable to test out your mediums before diving in.

Layout

Illustrations have been printed on both sides of the thick, white medium quality paper. There are 28 pages that comprise double-page scenes in the book. At the moment, the binding is really stiff and I may need Mr Muscles to give it a push to help lay it down flat. Some of the illustrations could have been better positioned on the page, in order to avoid the spine area.

Art Work

Camilla’s imagination makes this artwork very exciting. Mermaids, as you have never imagined them in the company of bizarre and unusual combinations of animals, make this book memorable and appealing. Her big-eyed mermaids which feature cute critters on their heads just make me smile at the absurdity.

I love the variation that she gives us with her mermaids, there are many with just headshots as well as her selection of full-bodied mermaids. Her art is made more appealing by the amount of other elements that feature among the pages, turtles, horses, jellyfish and strange creatures all get their turn on the page. The variation of the type of images is particularly useful. When you have a small amount of time, you may only want to do one of the headshot style pictures. For longer sittings , you might choose one of the full-bodied mermaids or one with more elements in the picture to work on.

Some of the illustrations in Camilla’s book have a distinctive darkness to them and are a little creepy which is a fabulous contrast to her sweet and pastel pretty art. This little bit of darkness makes the book quite versatile for the different coloring moods that you may find yourself in.

Camilla’s line art is very “arty” with a lot of the illustrations having a hand drawn, very sketchy appearance to them. Other illustrations are more refined with crisper lines.

The line weight and color vary throughout the pages which gives the illustrations that distinctive hand drawn and arty look. It also tends to make the finished coloring page have a “painterly” effect.

In some drawings, Camilla adds in a lot of detail to hair and fish for example but in others, she leaves some areas less detailed so the colorist can add their own effects. This style of coloring book is very suitable for beginners to coloring as a lot of images are very textured and detailed, showing the colorist in effect how to complete the picture. More experienced colorists that have skills and techniques have a range of opportunities with these drawings to showcase those talents.

Colorists that have a minor visual impairment, will appreciate the clear black lines and large open spaces in many of Camilla’s drawings.