Happy Coloring Series by Elena Bogdanovych

Elena Bogdanovych is a Ukrainian artist living in Italy who has produced 9 colouring books: 8 of them in the Happy Coloring series, and 1 purely of mandala designs. I was given books 1,2,3 and 5 to get a flavour of Elena's style and the quality of art on offer.

As you know I'm not a geometrics fan, but I can honestly say that if you are these are the books for you. They're absolutely crammed with kaleidoscopic patterns, repeated images and intricate mandalas. The 5th book, Tropical Forest, contains half jungle scenes, half mandalas in a square border. I must say that judging by the cover you would hope the whole book was landscapes, but this is something Elena is aware of and has now changed the book to replace the mandalas with more flowers and tropics. Here's a little preview of the 4 books!

As you can see the patterns are all very similar, so if you're wanting to have a go at blending and shading then these books are a perfect practice board. The majority of the artwork is extremely intricate and would require a steady hand and some seriously sharpened pencils, but if you dig those mega-detailed pages that take days to complete, you're well in here! I don't particularly like digitally rendered images as I think it takes individuality away from the art, but there's no denying when coloured they look spectacular. These books are designed particularly to aid mindfulness, as you concentrate purely on filling a space with colour rather than the content or theme of what it is you're colouring.

The paper is average quality with a smooth surface, and each of the mandalas are contained in a square border, centred on the page. The Tropical Forest book is not bordered and contains more organic lines with varying thicknesses. There are around 30 designs in each A4 sized book, all printed on one side. With the amount of detail you're getting, there's got to be hours of colouring here. The mesmerising (and often eye-crossing) patterns will keep you going for weeks & months to come! 

I was given these books in exchange for an honest review. You can find all of Elena's books on the links below:

Happy Coloring: Geometric Kaleidoscopic Patterns: Volume 1

Happy Coloring: Flowers - Kaleidoscopic Patterns: Volume 2

Happy Coloring: Flower Patterns - Coloring Pages for Adults: Volume 3

Happy Coloring 4: Geometric Kaleidoscopic Patterns: Volume 4

Happy Coloring 5: Tropical Forest - Coloring Pages for Adults: Volume 5

Happy Coloring 6: Floral Patterns - Coloring Pages for Adults: Volume 6

Happy Coloring 7: Easy Patterns - Coloring Pages for Adults: Volume 7

Happy Coloring 8: Easy Patterns - Coloring Pages for Beginners: Volume 8

Beautiful Mandalas: A Coloring Book Featuring 24 Artworks: Volume 1