by Miki Takei
on March 2016
Style: color inspiration images, double page printing, Instructions - Tips
Pages: 72
Format: Dust Jacket
Filled with sweetly whimsical images to color and enjoy
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Colors Make You Happy Vol 1 Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of Colors Make You Happy Vol 1 Coloring Book.
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Colors Make You Happy Vol 1 Coloring Book Review
Colors Make You Happy Volume 1 is the first of two books by Japanese artist, Miki Takei. Miki creates cute and sweet art work that has such a sugar and spice feel to it, that it is difficult to imagine it in anything else but pastel colors. You may have seen my previous review of her second coloring book Colors Make You Happy which has a different style of imagery in it.
Cover & Layout
Colors Make You Happy has a sturdy dust jacket on it. From the dust jacket, you can immediately see that this is a sweet little book full of pretty little images like unicorns, swans, cupcakes and Cinderella style carriages against a pinkish background. There are some line art elements on the cover t hat you could color in if you wished to.
The coloring book proper has a rose colored cover with white line art on it.
A double protective sheet is at the start and end of the book. The paper is gloss on one side with a texture on the reverse. All of the protective paper has been printed with little gems and keys in pink ink. This may be difficult to color in, if you wanted to, as the pink is a little difficult to see.
Colors Make You Happy Volume 1 Coloring Book measures approximately 23cm x 23cm.
Ancillary Pages
Unusually for a coloring book, the title page is printed in color. Against a pink striped background, beautifully colored and pastel pretty items are displayed in a circle – bows, perfume bottles, shoes, bags, delicious looking cake and a gorgeous fluffy cat with a bow on her bottom! There are a few little bits of line art that you can color as well, bird, bow and butterfly being the main items.
A colored two page spread follows with the bulk of the page being text in Japanese. I presume that it is a note from the artist and some pictures of her range of stationery that she has for sale.
Another colored page follows with some coloring tips. The pictures are self explanatory fortunately as the text is in Japanese.
If you love carousels as much I do, then the colored image on the facing page depicting a carousel with a delicious pastel background may make you swoon. It’s just so sugary sweet that I can feel a filling coming on!
This is followed by a beautiful image of two swans that has also been colored. You can get a lot of inspiration from this image and Miki’s clever use of white space within the picture. In the next two pages, Miki shows you step by step how to color the swan as she did.
The coloring book line art then commences with a relatively plain title page. There are some elements to color here. The copyright page is at the end of the book. Sadly there is no “spare” page to test out your mediums and see how they would react with the paper (the title and copyright page have line art on the reverse).
Layout
Illustrations are printed on both sides of the off white, medium quality paper. The paper is very sturdy and good quality with a faint texture to it.
There are 30 pages that comprise double page scenes. Line art does run to the spine of the book, however the book binding is very good and lays down flat easily. Colorists should not have any difficulties coloring in this area.
The coloring book is divided into chapters as follows:
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- Flower Shower
- Laddy Lesson (presume there is some language translation issue here)
- Dreamy party
- Sweet Time
- Eternal Lovers
- Whisper of Spring
- Happy Halloween
- Holy Night
- Dreamy Princess
Colors Make You Happy Vol 1 Coloring Book Images and Illustrations
Miki uses a fine to medium weight line to create her art which gives the page a delicate and dainty feel to it. The line color is a dull black and may be difficult for colorists with a visual impairment to see easily.
Inside, the illustrations may remind you of childhood when all was sugar and spice and all things nice. There are gorgeous animals throughout the book that are realistically drawn but in a cute style. You will find deer, chicks, bunnies, cats and butterflies among others. You can also escape to a fairy tale world in your winged horses, carousel, fairy castle or Cinderella carriage. Throughout the book, there are other “girly girl” accessories to color, bows, perfume bottles, gems and shoes.
Each of the chapters accurately describes the illustrations that you will find in that section.
Please click on an image to view more detail
[foogallery id=”9382″]Detail Level
Where to buy Colors Make You Happy Vol 1
| Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Japan | Etailer | Yes Asia |
Happy coloring x
Lea
Great review as always, and thanks for the time and effort you put into them. I had asked about this book as a comment on one of your YouTube videos (can’t remember exactly when, or which video, but not long ago), so I was excited to see this review. Ahh, I hear my bank card screaming to be used! 😉
Oh, I keep meaning to ask: do you know where I can find a copy of zemilja snova (sp?). I can’t find a copy anywhere, and I’ve looked pretty thoroughly.
I get so many questions about Zemlja Snova that I’ve added it to my FAQ here – http://coloringqueen.net/ufaqs/trying-order-book-overseas-price-like-1200/ Happy coloring x
It is cute! She is a talented artist at bringing out the pastel pretty girly girl in me, buried deep down lol! Happy coloring x