Beautiful Creatures: A Boundless Coloring Book Adventure

Oh my! Challenging but super fun and a winner in the grayscale coloring book opportunities. This is definitely a prime coloring book for adults. Below are the things that I found and loved about this book. `In this stunning array of beautiful creatures, there are soooo many gorgeous, handsome, beautiful, a bit scary, fluttery etc. animals to choose from. There are both wild animals and domesticated ones with a total of 48. `The paper is super quality, white and heavy. I experimented with a variety of brands in colored pens, gel pens, brush markers and water color pencils with wet brushes. I did not have any bleed-through, however, it is always best to use a blotter paper under the page you are working on. `The pages are micro-perforated for easy removal. `The foreground designs are well defined so the colorist knows what he/she is coloring. No guesswork here. The backgrounds are somewhat muted and can be colored in any way the colorist desires. They will look fantabulous whether they are shades of gray or have brilliant colors. `Printed on one side. The back of the printed page has a muted rectangle for putting the colorist’s name and date colored. Nice…..if you give your finished work of art as a gift, hang it on the wall or archive your masterpieces. `The cover picture is included. `The designs are centered on the page with a ragged, black border torn paper look. It’s attractive and adds character to the finished picture. `The book is 9¼ X 10 ½ x 3/8 inches and is thick enough to do lap coloring if a hard flat surface is not available. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who loves grayscale coloring books.

This has just become my #1 coloring book. I have never done Grayscale before. I sat down tonight, read the very simple instructions and dove right in. This was the result. I am very pleased and definitely recommend this book to others. Unlike a normal coloring book that leaves white spaces, this type of coloring book is intentionally done in shades of gray. The gray helps you define the lightness or darkness of each color and helps with shading to give a more realistic look. I used Copic Markers and Colored Pencils but would say that colored pencils for the most part work the best as the markers don't blend as well and could obscure the details. I would not recommend gel pens as they too would cover up the effects. NOTE: There are some highly negative reviews out here but these are left by people who don't understand what "grayscale" is. Bear in mind that this is a totally different type of coloring and the images are meant to be in varying shades of gray. They come alive when you color them and you do not need to be a pro to get amazing results.It may seem daunting, or that the image is too dark and your color won't go on - or that it will be too difficult... but that's not true! Just read up online or watch some online tutorials it's very easy. The below picture took me about 2.5 hours from start to finish never having done it before. It seems like it would take a huge amount of skill but the gray actually helps bring detail through to your work and adds realism. And this is a very old technique too. A lot of the master painters of old painted in grayscale first so they would understand how light/dark each area of color in their painting needed to be. Then they would paint over it in color. This gave them a much better understanding of how each color should look in light and shadow. Using the photographs is a wonderful way to learn while getting professional results!!!

An awesome book! I do not believe I have ever seen any book like this one before. These are actual photographs (NOT drawings) of gorgeous animals which have been printed as grayscale images. I had the book a good week before I used it, I felt intimidated by it at first so I made two copies of each page... I colored the lion first and by just using a google image of a lion for an idea on natural colors, I started the picture and it all just came together!!! I was actually quite impressed with my finished picture and have since given my other two copies to family members that color. You can color these any way you want but so far I have tried to color them as true to life as I can. The paper in this book is great!!! The pages are one sided and are also perforated for easy removal. This is a one of a kind coloring book and I really enjoy it!

I'm extremely pleased with this book. I love to color over grayscale and this is the first coloring book I've found that offers this. It is a beautiful book that I am truly enjoying coloring. I will be buying more copies to give as a gift for the holidays because of how lovely the book is overall. The paper is excellent quality. It's thick and printed on only one side which is something I prefer in a coloring book. Colored pencils layer very nicely on this paper. I've also found that the paper can handle all kinds of mediums, not just colored pencils.The pages can be removed (perforated) and they have a nice little area on the back of each page for putting your name and the date you completed the piece. I think that's quite a special touch. There are 48 images in the book that are all quite stunning and eye-catching. I'm very excited to color most if not all of them!

What a magnificent book! Our whole family has enjoyed coloring this so much that we had to go out and buy 3 more this weekend so that we could compare how each of us colored each beautiful creature. It is amazing to see how different each creation is and how spectacular each one is. Our daughter (8) cant stop coloring and is creating things that have done amazing things for her art "confidence." This is the kind of gift that is wonderful for a seasoned artists or a novice. What all of us have enjoyed most is how incredibly soothing and rewarding it is to sit and color in this creative way. I know this book has only been out for a week or so, but what I want to know is WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING?!!!

I won this book as a prize on Facebook 6 months ago, when it was not even released in India. This is what I have to say: Beautiful Creatures Grayscale Coloring Book is a Delight!!! I have yet to see such excellent high quality, acid free archival paper and one sided images in a colouring book. Nicole Stocker has curated 48 adorable grayscale images for us to color. They range from insects to fish, to amphibians, to birds, to reptiles, to mammals. This is my first grayscale coloring book and I totally enjoyed my first stab at it -- definitely photo-realistic (see my colored-in image). It is not as daunting as it may seem. For those who may feel intimated starting off grayscale coloring, Nicole Stroker has even shared detailed grayscale coloring techniques on her website huelishdotcom. There is even a gallery where you can share your colored pictures. I cannot wait to dive into the rest of the images and for more books from Nicole. I HIGHLY recommend this coloring book. It is a must for every fervent colorist who would like to test waters with something other than black and white illustrations.

Arrived today not used yet but looks interesting

Knowing I love to get lost in coloring books, a colleague of mine recommended 'Beautiful Creatures'. Having completed nearly half the illustrations, I can confidentially say this is at the top of my list of best adult coloring books. The unique approach threw me at first, I didn't know what to expect. After a few minutes it immediately became obvious what a great book this was. The grey tones transform to dynamic, eye popping portraits as I added color. I actually felt as though I were bringing the pictures to life. I was lost in it for hours. The animal plates allow for a ton of variety in color and tone. This will be a beautiful book for all of the adult illustrators like myself.

The beauty of grayscale colouring is that the shading is done for you. No need to worry what direction the light is coming from as it's clear from the image. Use your lightest shade of colour on the lightest parts of the image, your midtown on the mid grey, dark tone on the dark grey, simple. If its the first time coloured since school, you won't be disappointed, beautiful creatures has many stunning images to colour as you choose, just because it's a real photo doesn't mean you have to colour true to nature, let yourself go and enjoy hours of relaxing "me time". The pages are perforated so you can easily game your finished mastetpiece, and the paper thick enough to use water colour pencils or paints if you choose.. Checkout the huelish website for stunning examples