by Yuko Higuchi
on 6 March 2015
Style: Contains Extras, double page printing, pre colored background
Format: Dust Jacket
Follow two cats, brother and sister on their magical, and at times surreal, adventure through Yuko Higuchi's museum of natural science. They are transformed into the creatures they encounter plants, mushrooms, mammals, reptiles, molluscs, stones, and ancient creatures.
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Museum Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review above of Museum Coloring Book – Japanese edition.
Museum Coloring Book Review
When I first seen Museum Coloring Book in a Japanese book shop in Sydney last year I have to confess I was not immediately smitten with it. Whilst I loved the kitties I was not too keen on the pre printed backgrounds in it. As money was tight, and I was already heavily loaded, Museum coloring book was one that I put back on the shelf.
It’s funny how times change. Now when I look at Museum Coloring Book I love it. The quirkiness of the drawings, and the detail of the art, makes me wonder how I could possibly have put it back on the shelf last year.
Two cats, a brother and sister visit the museum
Cover & Layout
The cover of Museum features a lovely dust jacket that has a slight texture to it The two cats feature on the front surrounded by line art of animals, skeletons and plant life. There are some pre printed colors on the front including the cats, scales, plant life. One thing that really stands out is the way that the color has been added to produce an illustration that is very well balanced while also denoting that it is a coloring book.
The cover is indicative of the content inside. The book tends to focus on the types of objects that you would find in a natural history museum. You could color the remaining black and white elements if you wished.
The spine is white with red title text and black text in Japanese. On the back cover you will find some colored elements and some line art of mushrooms, plant life and one of the cats. You could color these elements if you wished.
The book measures 24.5cm x 21.5 cm (approximately 9.5 in x 8.5 in)
The fold out french flaps feature on the front two cute colored crocodiles and on the back two colored wet cats.
There is no line art to color on the inner part of the dust jacket.
The card cover is matte and has a slight texture to it. It features an aqua background with line art in whole of the front cover art. The rear of the cover features the rear view of the cats looking through the curtains. This behind view is quite a popular look in Japanese books to signify the end of the book, I imagine.
Ancillary Pages
You will find a cute title page featuring the name of the book creating with different life forms and attached to ribbons that opens the book.
Museum uses two different types of paper in the book. I have tried researching the paper and come up empty handed on the type of paper that is being used in this book. The front of the book contains a number of ancillary pages including: the title, two children, cats. There are 8 pages at the front in total. These pages all feature black printing on a special paper. The paper is very thin and transparent like rice paper. It has one glossy side and one matte side. The images alternate between being printed on the glossy side and the matte side. The artist has worked with Holbein previously and I wondered, but am not sure, if these are Holbein style painting papers or Washi paper. Another illustration is printed as the last image in the book, also on this paper.
At the end of the book you will find 4 pages of colored drawings with little palettes and presumably the text explains coloring techniques.
Layout
All of the images have been orientated portrait style throughout the book. The bulk of the images are printed on both sides of the paper. All of the images in the Ancillary Pages have been printed on single sided paper.
The bulk of the illustrations contain line art with a pre printed colored background. There are 5 illustrations at the end of the book that do not have a colored background.
Museum Coloring Book Images and Illustrations
Yuko Higuchi is well known in Japan for her artistic style that tends to feature cats and elements of nature in fantastical and bizarre scenes. Her first coloring book Museum follows the journey of two cats who, when visiting the museum, become the creatures and objects that they are visiting.
Yuko draws with exquisite and elegant detail. You will appreciate the skeletal bones in the creatures that she draws and the expressions that the cats have throughout the book. Her drawings of shells and crustaceans are so life like that you feel that they may just jump off the page.
Throughout the book you will find all of the creatures and plant life that you would expect from a visit to the natural history museum. One thing that you will not find is background or foreground detail. The bulk of the images have pre colored backgrounds so that the line art stands out on the page. Some colorists may find the pre colored backgrounds limiting to their color selection.
Yuko is a great artist. It is worthwhile just looking at some of her other published art books to get an idea of how much emotion and detail she puts in to each piece of work. Her crying kittens tend to pull on my heart strings as they seem so realistic. You end up being caught up in her world just looking through the pages.
There are 5 illustrations that do not have a pre colored background
At the end of the book there are 5 images that do not have colored backgrounds.
The line art varies throughout the book in sizing. You will find medium, fine lines and solid black. Hatching and shadowing has been used extensively to provide depth and details to the images. The line art all tends to have a hand drawn look and feel to it without the slickness of computer generated imagery.
Colorists that have visual impairment may find the omission of background and foreground elements assists them to focus on the main theme of the image, without too many distractions. These focal point types of coloring books can be far less challenging to color for those with minor visual impairment. Many images have large areas of open space which is helpful for colorists with visual issues and motor skill challenges.
There are 24 double page scenes where the art work runs to the center of the book. The binding on the book is incredibly sturdy and it may be challenging to reach those spots in the middle of the book. I am not confident that it will relax further with use, so colorists will have to do the best they can with those center spots and push really hard!
Please click on an image to view more detail:
[foogallery id=”5690″]Where to buy Museum Coloring Book – Japanese Edition
| Etailer | Amazon Japan | Yes Asia – Free Shipping |
Please note: – There is also an English edition of Museum Coloring Book for released in April, 2017.
Where to buy English Edition Museum Coloring Book
You can order the English edition of Museum Coloring Book here.
Happy coloring x
Lea
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