Coloring Animal Mandalas

Coloring Animal Mandalas is the title of Wendy Piersall's book published by Ulysses Press. When asked, I happily agreed to review this book. My readers know that I myself, love to play with the mandala form and often include nature in the themes, so I thought this one just might be a fun book to explore.

Here is a look at the front and back covers

Lets start with the basics....the book measures 9.25" x  7.5" there are 31 different designs for your colouring pleasure, presented on crisp white pages. A really nice feature is the "lay flat" binding.

I used this as an opportunity to play with colour in a way I don't normally. I did not worry about careful colour choice/consideration....I just picked up pencils and went to it.  Warning!...colour riot ahead!
With these first two, I used colour pencils only....often closing my eyes when picking a colour, allowing myself to use colours and colour combos I likely would not have chosen on purpose  :-)  Kinda fun to see what happens as the colours begin to take their place, to mix, mingle, and play off each other. The process is rather meditative and somewhat addictive.

There are no instructions with this book...it is, after all, a colouring book.....but I assumed it would be suitable for dry media only....I was wrong!!!!  Know how I know? because I decided to give some watercolour a go to see what would happen. I was certain the paper would crinkle and not withstand the wet media. I began by taping a piece of watercolour paper behind a page just in case it would bleed through (turns out that was probably not necessary)

I used cake watercolours as well as Inktense pencils with water...the page held up quite well...really quite well! and as you can see, I laid down a lot of colour.....everything used on this design was wet. I initially began rather timidly, using just a dampened brush, but as I progressed I used more and more wet colour, now, mind you....I don't think I would use any heavy "washes" but it sure handled the moisture I did throw on it. 

Some designs in the book are more elaborate than others......Lots of detail in each one. I think the Frog and Dragonfly was likely my personal favourite but in Coloring Animal Mandalas, you will find insects, elephants, seahorses, serpents, cats, birds, flowers, fish....and well...like I said 31 different designs to enjoy!