Colouring Book Review: Summer Blossoms by Christopher Mark Stokes

Summer Blossom by Christopher Mark Stokes

Published: 25th April 2016

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Images to Colour: 24

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Rating: 2/5

After becoming hooked on colouring I have been looking for a book which has some floral images but were not quite as detailed as the Johanna Basford books which I own, Summer Blossom by Christopher Mark Stokes seemed to fit that as the images are based on summer florals and looking at the cover I was drawn to this book.

Sadly I feel that the paper and printing quality let this book down. The paper is very thin, similar to everyday copier paper. The images themselves also look like they’ve been printer on a home printer as some images seem to be very pixelated and have that “photocopied” look to them. Although the images are lovely I do feel that they have too many repeating elements, possibly due to been drawn via computer, but only guessing at that.  The grass for example in most of the pictures is exactly the same as it has been copied and pasted onto the next image.

There are twenty-four images in total, a mixtures of summer garden images, patterns and close up flowers all with a slightly whimsical look to them. I have enjoyed the images I have coloured so far and feel they make excellent images for practicing blending and shading techniques which is what I was looking for. Here are some of my favourite images:

     

I have used a mixture of coloured pencil brands and all have worked alright, not sure how the paper would take many layers of built up colour though as its quite thin. Although I have not used them to colour a full picture yet I have tested out the Staedtler fibre tips and the Staedtler Triplus fine-liners at the back and they have bled through slightly, so I probably would only use pencils with this book. Here's an image which I have finished which I coloured with Prismacolour pencils.