Published by Pagina förlag on 30 September 2016
Style: double page printing
Pages: 96
Format: Glue & Stitched, Hard back
"Mytologiska Väsen (Mythological Beings) is a colouring book for adults featuring hybrid goddesses and amazons inspired by
legends collected from around the world. The drawings are highlighting feminist mythology, celebrating female strength and beauty."
Mytologiska väsen Malarbok Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of Mytologiska väsen Malarbok
Mytologiska väsen Malarbok Review
Last year this book caught my eye when I was doing a spot of online shopping from a Swedish bookstore. The title roughly translates to Mythological Beings and that’s what you will find in this coloring book. Some mythological creatures can be quite intimidating and sometimes an itty bitty bit scary. These ones do not have that feel to them, making it more suitable for scaredy cats like me 🙂 The reason that these creatures are not as I expected, is possibly due to the fact that the book celebrates female strength and beauty and this gives the book, a softer, delicate feel. This softer look is evidenced in the cover and in the line work within.
Layout
The hard back cover is what attracted me in the first place, as is often the case. The lovely lilac background with delicately drawn women and animals in pastel shades caught my eye. Highlights of hot pink make a bold statement for the title and publisher name.
The spine has a lovely turquoise cloth binding with hot pink foil title.
Scaled down images of women and animals fill the back cover using the same color palette as the front cover. All in the all the cover is pastel pretty with a few shots of bold. The more I think about it, the more I think that this cover is an indication of what the content is, created in a very clever way. The softness that is often portrayed for a woman (they haven’t met me without coffee lol) and then that amazing strength that has been seen in mythology, evidenced by the bold pink foil. Or, it could be that I am imagining all of that and it just looked pretty 🙂
Inside thick turquoise paper serves as protector pages both front and back of the book.
Ancillary Pages
A plain text title page opens the book and contains copyright information on the reverse. This would be the best place to test out your mediums. Over the page a decorated nameplate page starts the book.
At the rear of the book, with cute little images and Swedish text, a legend setting out the names of the mythical beings and information about them spans 2 pages. Finishing the book a message from the art studio that created the book has been decorated with a sole mythical being
Layout
The art work is printed on both sides of the off white, medium quality paper. All of the images have been orientated portrait style. Most of the images in the book are double page scenes where the art work does run to the spine. However, the binding is beautiful and the book lays down flat to easily color these areas. There are three double page scenes that have a pre printed black background on them.
Mytologiska väsen Malarbok Images and Illustrations
All of the art work in Mytologiska väsen Malarbok has been drawn with a fine, crisp, black hand. The lines have a real air of delicacy about them. Even though they are crisp and black, they may be difficult for readers with a minor visual impairment to see, due to the fine line weight. In fact, they were difficult to film 🙂
The art work has a starkness about it that is quite interesting to me. Although the pages are detailed with different elements, it is not overwhelming because the details are not tightly packed in a small space and elements often are not detailed, but outlined only. This contributes to the stark look that I feel about some of the imagery.
You will find all types of strong powerful mythological women throughout this book. Often they are accompanied by birds, flowers and other animals.
Many of the images have large open spaces and, usually this is great for those that have visual impairment, but in this case, I do think the line weight is quite fine and may be a challenge.
Please click on an image to view more detail
[foogallery id=”7458″]Detail Level
Where to buy Mytologiska väsen Malarbok
| Pen Store – Sweden | Print Works – Sweden |
Happy coloring x
Lea
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