by N/A, Rachel Curtis
Published by IDW Publishing on 21 December 2016
Style: double page printing
Pages: 80
Format: Dust Jacket, Glue & Stitched
I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the product or the content of my review.
Goodreads
Color your way through The Princess Bride Story Book. Scenes from Florin to the Fire Swamps and in between. Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beloved film, The Princess Bride, in color.
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The Princess Bride: A Story Book To Color Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of The Princess Bride: A Story Book to Color Coloring Book illustrated by Rachel Curtis.
The Princess Bride: A Story Book To Color Video Review
The Princess Bride started life as a novel and was later recreated as a movie. Fans of the movie, The Princess Bride may be as surprised as I was, to realize that 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of this movie. Time goes so fast, I felt that it was only 10 years ago that I watched Robin Wright play Buttercup, in this romantic and fantasy based movie. The Princess Bride has remained an iconic movie to watch because it has it all. There’s the Renaissance era setting, the romance between Buttercup and the farm boy, Westley. There’s drama and misunderstandings. Duels, struggles and pirate ships. Of course, there is love lost, a Prince and drama and emotion in abundance.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary IDW Publishing created a coloring book based on the movie. When I knew that IDW were creating this book I immediately asked to review it. IDW previously published one of my favorite coloring books, Beauty of Horror, which was exceptionally well made and illustrated. I knew that this one would be as well.
Cover & Layout
The eggshell white, thick dust jacket on The Princess Bride features Buttercup and Westley in silhouette on the cover Highlights in gold foil are featured on elements throughout the line art on both the front and back. A gold foil ribbon denotes the 30th anniversary of the movie. The dust jacket cover could be colored in, if you wished. The spine features the same color gold as the foiling with with text in white. Overall it presents as a very elegant book.
The fold out flaps of the dust jacket feature line art of a different design showing keys and ropes to color in. The lock that fits that key is cleverly positioned on the flap at the end of the book in a symbolic gesture.
The inner part of the dust jacket features a pattern of crowns and filigree type design which all could be colored in.
The actual book cover repeats the dust jacket design but with gold printing rather than foil. The inner card cover features black matte background with roses and swords outlined in rose gold/copper printing. It really is stunning as I knew it would be from their previous coloring book.
Ancillary Pages
The book commences with a text based title page that is blank on the reverse. This would be an ideal place to test out your mediums and see how they react with the paper and your coloring style. An expanded title page follows which features the cover art line work for you to color in. On the reverse of this page is the copyright information. An elaborate “old world” nameplate page follows which features a wreath of flowers with a book nestled in it.
The Princess Bride coloring book also features a “Create Your Own” section comprising 4 pages at the end of the book. Line art has been provided and you can either doodle within these images, use it to write down how you felt when you colored the book, or test out color palettes or mediums. Within this section there are two pages that feature a lovely frame of flowers and I would be tempted to cut these out and use them to decorate photographs or other images.
Layout
The illustrations have been printed on both sides of the paper. The paper is white and excellent quality. It is definitely a medium quality but is at the higher end, being similar to a light card stock. Even though the paper is deluxe you will still need to test your mediums on the ancillary pages to see how they react with the paper. I know a lot of colorists like to use watercolors or inktense in their coloring books but most coloring books are not designed for that “wetness”. If you do wish to use these mediums, use the ancillary pages to do your testing before diving in.
All of the illustrations have been printed in portrait orientation.
Within the book the bulk of the images are double page scenes with 27 pages of single page scenes. The book has been bound extremely well. As you will see from the video, the book lays down nearly flat. Even though art work does run to the spine there is no difficulty coloring it due to the binding that has been used.
Two pages within the book have a pre-printed black background on it.
The Princess Bride: A Story Book To Color Video Review Illustrations & Image Gallery
Rachel Curtis has illustrated The Princess Bride Coloring Book and has done an outstanding job of replicating the movie in coloring book form. You will be taken on a journey through the pages starting with the young boy being read the story by his Grandfather. Iconic wording and scenes from the movie have been illustrated to remind you of this classic film. A cute touch is “The End” illustration that features so well in movies and story books.
Often in most coloring books there is an absence of men in the art work but The Princess Bride has redressed that balance featuring an abundance of men to color in different formats and costumes. Kings and Princes, farm workers and giants as well as swashbuckling pirates are all featured.
There are a number of scenes which depict nature for those that love to color trees and leaves. There are ocean scenes and an assortment of castles and buildings. Colorists that love to color animals will enjoy the horses, serpents and rodents to color in.
You will also find several pages of patterns. There are the cute assortment of rodents, the jumbles of keys as well as the line art from the inner cover.
Visually, the line art is black and crisp and very easy to see for colorists with a minor visual impairment. Colorists with motor skills impairment will appreciate that there are a number of illustrations that have large open spaces for ease of coloring.
Please click on the images to view more detail.
[foogallery id=”5437″]Where to buy The Princess Bride: A Story Book To Color Video Review
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Happy coloring x
Lea
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