Classic Novel Coloring Book Review

Classic Novel Coloring Book Style: color inspiration images, Contains Extras, double page printing
Format: Dust Jacket

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Table of Contents

Classic Novel Coloring Book Video Review

I hope you enjoyed the video review of Classic Novel Coloring Book (a Korean book of paper dolls)

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Classic Novel Coloring Book Review

I adore Korean coloring books and I was intrigued by the reference to paper dolls with this one – so I had to have it! As a child, the only toys that I had growing up on a farm were paper dolls, so that explains my love of them. I was a bit of a tomboy, come to think of it – I still am, and always wanted a slot car set (my brother had one but wouldn’t let me play with it!). There were always a lot of things to do on a farm – pick mushrooms, climb trees, jump off the shed, milk cows or make delicious mud pies from the wheat crop. The paper dolls though, were a good standby to play with on a rainy day or at night. I had hours of fun cutting them out and popping different outfits on and off them. All of my school friends had a Barbie doll but I really liked my paper dolls that folded up neatly into a book.

Cover & Layout

This Korean coloring book has a deep blue background and features three Korean girls in traditional Hanbok dress on the front cover. The back cover contains text in Korean on it.

It should be noted that the cover is thin. It is not as thick as card and feels more like a high quality dust jacket. The fold out flaps have text in Korean at the front and ads for books at the back.

There is nothing to color in on the inner cover.

Classic Novel Coloring Book 1 measures approximately 28cm x 21.5cm.

Ancillary Pages

A scaled down version of the cover art features as the title page for the coloring book with text on the reverse.

There is a two page visual instruction diagram which I assume shows how to tie the Korean costume, but really, I am not sure.

Layout

This coloring book appears to have two parts. The first section presents as a normal coloring book with scene based illustrations printed on both sides of the paper. It then moves into illustrations that comprise only a girl in traditional costume with no background or other elements. The final section is printed in color and comprises colored illustrations on one side of the paper only. These are the paper dolls which feature two different girls and several pages of outfits to cut out and play with.

The paper that has been used in this coloring book is lovely. It is white and a medium quality like a light cardstock.

A patterned border features on the side margin of each coloring page.

Classic Novel Coloring Book Images and Illustrations

There are some beautifully illustrated scene based drawings in this coloring book that feature a young girl with beautifully long plaited hair and impossibly thick eyelashes! Colorists can enjoy coloring leaves, birds, flowers, art materials and fashion accessories that feature in the illustrations at the start of the book. These illustrations have been drawn in a fine black line and are quite delicate. Many elements in a drawing have additional texture lines added and some very faint gray shading. The bulk of these drawings have been well positioned on the page except one. The illustration of the tired artist with her art materials on one page and her on the other could have been positioned so it sat on the one page. A small part of her dress is inked over the fold line of the book, which could have been avoided.

The costumed ladies showcase the outfit that they are wearing as well as their hair style. These illustrations do not fill the page and have been centered and positioned well. As the drawing consists of a full figure of a person on one page, the features on the face are quite small. Consequently, colorists that have a minor visual impairment may find coloring these areas challenging.

Coloring fashion can be a lot of fun and very instructive in a coloring book like this. As the artist has shown the fold lines and creases on the drawings it helps new colorists understand where the darker areas should be colored on the picture. The bulk of the costumes have very little decoration on them and the real feature is the style of the garment and the way that it hangs on the girl. Some of these illustrations have a hand drawn sketchy appearance to them.

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