Inky Garden: Creative colouring with quests & 3D paper flower (Inky Colouring books)

The media could not be loaded.  “Inky Garden” is beautiful and intricate coloring book with more than 50 pages of hand-drawn coloring designs. The designs, by artist Helen Elliston, cover a wide range from flowers to animals to wishing wells to topiaries. I really enjoy this artist's work. It is very detailed and presents a beautiful picture both before coloring and afterward. There is a quest included in the book as well as a fold-able 3D flower (with pages and instructions at the end of the book.)As with her first coloring book, for the most part, I consider the book to be printed on one side of the page only. The back side of most pages have a slight design. There are perhaps nine designs that seem to spread across two pages. For those, I will ignore the small portion of the design on the opposite page and treat it as if it was a single page design. In some cases, that may have been the artist's intent as the designs stop well before the binding and trying to color them as an entire design would leave a big white space between the two pages.All of the design stop well before the binding. The designs are printed on one side of thin white non-perforated paper that is typical for books published by CreateSpace. The binding is glued but there is plenty of room for you to cut a page out if you choose to do so.All of my markers bleed through and my gel pens either bleed through or leave a distinct shadow on the back of the page. My coloring pencils work well with the paper. I will use a piece of chipboard or heavy paper behind the page I am working on so I don't ruin the following page with leaking ink.While I could wish for thicker, perforated paper, the designs in this book are so lovely it just doesn't matter that to me. I stumbled across Ms. Elliston's first book “Inky Ocean” and I am now a real fan of her work. I will be looking for more great books from her in the future.

I was looking for an adult coloring book similar in style to Johanna Basford's work and came upon Helen Elliston's series. The Inky Garden did not disappoint and I am now a fan of her style! The paper is rather thin, anything other than pencils will seep through, and even pencils show a shadow on the opposite. Not even the Staedtler fine tips were immune, in fact they reacted just like sharpies do on regular paper...bleeding out and through. Surprisingly, though it is thin, it has enough tooth to get a few layers going. The pages are one sided, minus a small image or two on the backs, so you can put a protector piece under the page while coloring. The book is glue bound, opens flat with just a little pressure, and the images do not run into the seam. There are only a couple of what I call filler pages, and she has included some bookmark size images and some templates you can cut out to make flowers. She includes a decent assortment of both detailed and not so detailed works for all coloring abilities, and every page is a beautiful work of art calling out to be completed.

The day the book came out I immediately ordered it after seeing a picture in the book that the illustrator colored herself on Facebook. It was a picture of a book lying open with butterflies coming out. I'm a sucker for butterfly drawings and I love books.As soon as I received the book from Amazon I started flipping through and saw all of these beautiful illustrations, some simple (for the person that just wants a quick little coloring session) and most images in the book are more detailed giving the colorist hours of enjoyment.My only complaint is that I wish the pictures were printed on a heavier weight paper but as long as you add a piece of cardstock behind the page you are working on you can use any medium youThe butterfly picture below is the first picture out of the book that I have colored so far.

Usually I like to open up a book before I buy it to see the artwork of the authors. Trust me, I've seen some bad artistry when it comes to coloring books and it's not even worth coloring! I'm super picky when it comes to these types of books! Anyways, I was anxiously awaiting my new book! It arrived at the same time my gel pens did, so that was a plus! OMG!! What beautiful artwork! Love that there is a variety of pictures to color and not all of them is focused just on one area like flowers or nature! It's a thick book and will keep you entertained for months! I know I'm going to be buying her other books! This is worth every penny! You will not be disappointed!

I just got both Helen Elliston's books in the mail and I am so happy with them. Her drawing and artistry is amazing. Some of the pictures are amazingly detailed and some are more simple for beginners. The artwork is so beautiful and makes me smile. I love nature and these books make me feel like I'm smack dab in the garden or ocean full of whimsical or stunningly beautiful creatures and botanical delights. There is also a sense of humor which i find much needed in this busy stressful world. I don't think the paper quality is an issue. These books are so amazing I plan on copying onto cardstock so I can color these designs again and again. Will look forward to more great books from this great artist.

With a name that has ink in it I was disappointed with the paper but the book is amazingly drawn

I bought both Inky books and they arrived today. I looked through them very excited but after perusing every page, I returned both books. I have been coloring for awhile and I'm used to better quality.. The paper is inferior and some of the pictures look as though they ran out of ink leaving the lines gray (in the middle of an object??Very sad because I wanted to love them.

I love the artwork in this book. It's beautiful. This is my first Inky book but I will definitely buy more. The paper is decent, not great but not bad either. It's average. The artwork is more complicated than some books with a few tiny spaces. It's definitely worth buying!

Love the designs in this book. The style of drawings are amazing and the feel of the book is like being in a country garden with a few quirks.The paper is thinner than some of the of the other books available but for me as the images are single sided any shadowing and bleed is not a problem as a result.The only downside of the books is the print quality. The images can be fuzzy and the lines not as crisp as other books. After looking at other finished illustrations I decided to still try the book and having completed my first picture I am glad I did.I do feel that going forward for future books/print runs an improvement in print quality would add further to the great illustrations in the book.

Along the same idea as the enchanted forest and secret garden books but not quite as well executed. The paper quality isn't as great as it could be which may not matter since there isn't a design on the back of the pictures so you don't have to worry about bleed through. But the pages literally look like they've come from a bad printer. It is very grainy and pixelated and not really the kind of colouring book that I'd purchase. However the designs on the pages are lovely but I wouldn't buy another copy unless they made some changes to the quality of the book.

I was dubious about ordering this as some of the reviews were not positive.I m glad i did yes the paper is thin but the illustrations are really nice and it is a great quality book that has got plenty going for it and there is good detail in the pictures as well i m glad i bought it and will get others in the series .well worth the money

bought as a present - and was told it was lovely -had t hought to keep for myself but I am not really into pictures (apart from Johanna Basford of course!!). Printed on one side and use a card to separate so no bleeding

Picture was fun and interesting. Paper was not of the best quality. Ink did rub when using colouring pencils. But over all it was a great way to spend some time. I would buy more books if they print any new ones.