Product Reviews

Creative Haven
      I really wish Creative Haven didn't make coloring books.  Or perhaps I wish I had never discovered them.  Seriously 23 books later, I think I may have an addiction.  Their books appeal to me and I find myself wanting them all.  Yes, all. Do you realize that "all" means probably hundreds??
Before we look at a couple of titles I was given to review, let's talk about the overall Creative Haven coloring book product.
Pros -
      The price.  For the quality and the selection, their price cannot be beat.  Most titles are around $6.00 and they almost always have some sort of sale going on so you can pick up a few favorites even cheaper.
      The selection.  I really don't know how many different titles they have, but I do know that they probably have something for just about every interest.  Animals, famous paintings, mandalas, fashion - just to name a very few categories. 
      The art work.  As I said, I have quite a large selection of titles and I have yet to purchase one that the art work is not top notch.  Very detailed and well done.  Some coloring books (other companies) can have frequent unfinished lines or "mysterious" elements.  I have yet to see this with my Creative Haven books.  I also really like the fact that the artist's name is on the cover of each book.  That way if I decide there is a book that I really like (or one I don't), I know what artist to be on the look out for.
       Paper quality.  The paper handles most mediums well.  I use alcohol based markers (more about that later), water color pencils, and regular pencils all with quite a bit of success.  There is some bleed through with markers but putting a blotter page behind where you are working solves that problem nicely, protecting the next page.  The pages are also perforated so you can remove them if you wish.  While the pages with a little prodding lay flat, you could use an office supply store to put a spiral binding in if that is important to you. 
        Labels.  Quite a few of the books have a label on the back or on the binding edge of what the piece of art work was taken from.  My Beautiful Birds book tells what kind of bird is shown plus what colors are normal for that bird.  The Saturday Evening Post book tells the original artist and the year it was the cover.  Great bits of information. 
       Rewards.  If you do purchase through Dover, their publisher, you are available for a free membership.  This gives you points on every book you purchase and then you can spend them on - guess what - more books!!  You even get bonus points for getting someone to join using your link. 
Cons -
       Binding.  Sometimes the labels I mentioned can be too close to the binding and hard to see.  The Great Horses book tells the name of each horse but it is almost impossible to read on some of them.  Minor issue, but since I use the name to look up the real animal for reference it is annoying.

Lovable Cats and Dogs / Great Horses

       Here are my two latest Creative Haven books.  Since I love animals they are perfect for me.  I can't show you page by page the books - each does have 31 beautiful pictures to color with lots of details.  Here are some photos (pardon the glare) of the inside of each of the titles.

As you can see, there are very detailed drawings of the animals and the backgrounds.  I would say they are probably for the more experienced colorists, but children might enjoy them as well.
       Here are two of my pieces from Great Horses.

They are done in prisma color pencils, which is my favorite way to work.  The paper takes the color very well and is smooth.  The smoothness allows for easy blending of colors.  It also has some "tooth" so burnishing or blending helps to rid your colored piece of "white spots". 
       I don't use markers very often.  I don't have the success blending them like other artists do.  So if a piece of artwork requires blending I usually stick with pencils.  However combining the two is one of my favorite techniques.  So for this piece from Lovable Cats and Dogs I used both pencils and markers. 

This is my first pass on this page with alcohol marker alone.  I just put down my base color.
 

Next I use my prismas to layer and shade my work, since I don't really do that well with markers.

   Here is a scan of the back of the cat page so you can see what the markers do to the paper.  They only bleed through, there is no buckling of the paper or damage at all. 

  I did another selection in the Lovable Cats and Dogs book using my water color pencils and prismas.  The paper holds up well with the water pencils.  If you get your paper too wet there is a bit of buckling while you work.  However, when I finished I let it dry and closed the book with something on top of it and there wasn't a problem at all with it laying flat.  You just need to control the water.

The bottom line is that like all my Creative Haven books, I am loving these two newest ones.  Lots of beautiful artwork to make my own and all in a well presented format. 
Just Sayin'
      If you enjoy adult coloring, you need to head over to Creative Haven and check out their many great selections.  Also, I am warning you - they are addictive.