Colorful Creations Butterfly Mandalas

Open the book and you will be amazed at the amount of useful into that will inspire you to take a fantasy trip through Butterfly Land. I am delighted with my new coloring book, and there is not much to not like about it. This book allows the colorist/artist to either duplicate some of the beautiful examples or show the world your own creative ideas.Lots of Pros:The beginning of the book is filled with various guides that include explanation and examples:1. EMOTION GUIDES: assists with identifying colors that are associated with various moods or emotions such as happy, quiet, sad, adventurous, mysterious etc. Ex: Happy...yellow, green, turquoise, red, orange.2. ELEMENTS OF ART are explained with examples such as Line, Shape, Texture etc.3. COLORING TECHNIQUES: A fantabulous bonus that serves as an indispensable aid to expanding the skills of the colorist who needs help in choosing colors that best complement each other.4. COLOR WHEEL: guide to help you make color choices for creating awesome butterfly mandalas. These pages explain various colors such as primary, secondary, complementary etc. and show awesome examples with names of tools (pens, pencils, markers etc.) used for each finished image, colorist name, and page number of coloring page to either duplicate or create your own masterpiece.5. Quality glue bound spine, easy open and stay put for at ease and stress free coloring.6. Choice paper: White, smooth (just a hint of texture/tooth) and a good weight. The guides and colored examples at the front of the book are on slightly glossy, smoother paper. Nice.7. Most coloring tools work well. I used a variety from wet (markers, gel pens) to dry (variety of colored pencils and leads). Colored leads are by far the easiest and most forgiving, but do not offer the intense colors that gel pens and markers produce.8. Nice variety of high caliber designs with one per page, including simple to more complex. The back of each coloring page has a quote by a famous person, and that is surrounded by a design just waiting to be colored. The front cover picture is included again in color and another waiting for your ingenuity to create same or a different look.9. Nice size: Just under 8.5 inches wide x 10¾ L x 3/8 inches thick with a colorful, gloss, heavy wight (think card-stock) cover. A little large for a handbag, but would fit nicely into a brief case, tote bag, back pack or hand carry.10. Numbered front/back pages (80) with copyright, artist name (Jess Volinski) web page addresses, book title, and design name at bottom of page.11. Images are well-spaced on each page and leave a 3/8” - ½” space between the images and spine and ½” to paper's edge.While this is a good investment for soothing the tattered nerves, it is not perfect...close however.Cons:1. Markers will bleed-through and muss the page with the quotes. Always use a blotter! This will not prevent bleed-through, but may forestall a few tears.2. Gel pens leave a shadow on back side of colored page. Best use a blotter here also.3. Light touch with colored pencils leaves a sandpaper texture look unless several layers are applied. A blender pencil or a heavier hand will smooth the look.The HAPPINESS picture is my experimental one, and it does not look like the original. Some of my colored leads do not show up very well, and the glitter gels just turned dull and dark. The picture does; however, show the bleed-through and the shadows. Perhaps I need to work on my photography as well as acquiring a steady hand for small areas!WHAT I USED: Colored leads: El Cheapo Mechanical pencils 2mm, (made in China variety), June Gold 2mm mechanical pencils, Faber-Castell metallic, Prismacolor Premier, Prisamacolor Col-eraseGel Pens: Gelly Roll metallic, Color Technik premium, metallic), LeDessin metallic gel pens, Paper Mate InkJoy, Lolliz glitter, metallic and neon, AmazaPens pastelMarkers: Pentel Arts color pen (fine point), Aquarelle Brush (dual tip)

This is the very first time I've done any "coloring books", and I've done these two (pictured) so far, with Bic Intesity markers. This wonderful woman, Jess Volinski, who designed these mandalas is, to me, very talented. I never heard of her before, just decided I wanted to try "adult coloring" for stress, and starting browsing the books on Amazon. I found this one, with butterflies and flowers, and I'm so glad I got it. I've had SO MUCH FUN, and enjoyment. Jess has included many things, color interpretation for instance, and a beautiful quote on the back of each page (I didn't think about it the first time, and the good strong colors of the markers going through to the back made the quote impossible to read, but on the second one I wrote the quote in the corner of the back side). I consider myself an amateur artist with acrylics, and some people might consider this just "coloring inside the lines" - which it is - but you do still have to color, and pick your colors - no two will be the same. So good and calming, yet still it can produce beautiful results. I plan to make a wall display of these beautiful mandalas from Jess, so I can enjoy seeing them every day. Only one thing I see to be careful of - each page is perforated near the binding, so I pinch (very carefully) along the perforation, from both ends, before gently tearing out the page - both pages came out nice and clean, no rips - just don't grab and rip. The paper is strong, thick, and easy to work with. I'll be buying more from this lady - thank you so much, Jess!

Each book from Jess Volinski has been excellent. Filled with beautiful designs, a variety of easy to more involved designs, each page is a joy to color with no page being too intricate that one might feel overwhelmed or intimidated. Have noticed her style in designs use similar patterns within her designs from book to book. I find this comforting as I know what to expect.The beginning of the book has examples of completed pages in the book so if you're like me & freeze trying to figure out where to begin, these examples help get you started. Of course, a more experienced colorist can choose whatever color palette they like. Several pages are offered to help the beginning colorist learn techniques of the color wheel, how to choose a color palette that works, & different techniques in coloring like texture, depth, & shading..The pages are each perforated for easy removal and printed on one side to prevent bleed through & ruining any design on the back of the page.All the books I've bought by this artist & author have been a pleasure to use.Please leave feedback yes or no if this review was helpful so I can improve providing helpful reviews. As a consumer, I read other reviews for products I'm considering purchasing and they do help make my decisions.

I love this book! It has plenty of detail but not so much as a lot of my other books. Sometimes it's fun to do a picture that isn't going to take me a few days and this one is perfect. But it isn't too easy either. It's just right and super fun! I love the different sizes of butterflies in every picture and all of the mandalas are super cute. The paper is not flimsy either and I am enjoying it a lot. I would buy it again, for sure. Update: I DID purchase it again, it arrived today! This is the first book I have bought twice! FUN!!!!

This is a cute book good for easy coloring and have fun with different color compliments. The paper is quite porous and I like to use sharpie fine point markers. Would be perfect for colored pencils. I do appreciate the patterns are done one per page!

I love the images in this book so much I purchased it again once I colored all of the pages. They are so lovely. You can't go wrong with this book.