Angel Coloring Book by Angie F. Michelli Trotter

As beautiful and successful as mainstream, mass produced colouring books are, there's always something a little more personal about handmade books that you can't get off a supermarket shelf. Angie Trotter is a fine artist from Arizona, USA, who uses her art as a form of pain management for her chronic migraines. As you all know I struggle with mental health problems and colouring helps me immensely, so I imagine that's what Angie's illustrating does for her too. This is her first colouring book, although she has floral and creature themed ones in the works. Angie's previous artwork is held in private collections all across southeastern US.

The Angel Coloring book is more a small collection of singular art pieces than just a book, in that there are only 10 pages but each image has taken a great amount of effort and intricacy. The drawings are reminiscent of stained glass panels, filled with tiny shards of detail and an icon in the centre. If you like colouring religious subject matter you won't go wrong with this book, and even if you don't you'll still be creating some beautiful Greek & Roman imagery.

The book is printed on cardstock and is one-sided, so bleeding isn't an issue. All of Angie's books are hand-bound with twine by her daughters, who encouraged her to create the book. The binding also doubles up as a bookmark, with a lovely beaded end. The illustrations are finished in Indian ink, so be aware that some light colours will cause the edges to bleed if you're not careful. Each drawing is contained in a border, perfect for removing and framing, although some of the images haven't been printed quite straight on the paper (this just adds to the handmade, imperfect nature of it IMO). 

Take a look at my finished Angel :) He took quite some time to finish, but I'm thrilled with the results. I tried to keep the edges dark as a contrast to the bright infills, just like real stained glass.

And now for a giveaway! If you want to win a copy of Angie's book PLUS some beautifully illustrated cards, just make sure you like the Colour with Claire Facebook page, and I'll choose a winner from the likes next Friday (17th July). Good luck! 

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review. You can purchase your copy on Angie's Etsy page.