Jasmine Becket-Griffith Coloring Book

Summary 
Current Price: £10.20
Number of Pages: 96
Size: 28 x 21cm
Paper colour: Cream
Paper surface: Smooth  
Paper thickness: Good  
Linework: Fine  
Perforated: No  
One sided: Yes
Binding: Glue  
Drawings go into the spine: No
Waterbased pen bleed: None

I absolutely love the whimsical, wide eyed wonder of drawings from illustrators such as Tanya Bond and WhiteStag, so I was extremely excited to receive this book by an artist I've been following for a while, Jasmine Becket-Griffith. Jasmine specialises in fantasy with elements of literature and the occult- two of my favourite things- and even works with Disney! Her illustrations are so beautiful it's hard to believe they were hand-drawn and not digitally rendered.
As my blog fans will know I love anything remotely gothic or creepy, and this book has to be the most well made colouring book in that category. 

Each illustration is a line drawing taken from Jasmine's painted artworks, all of them accompanied by a little paragraph of info on the opposing page, telling you when they were created, the character's name and some background on the picture. The book features 55 different pages to colour, a comprehensive look at some of Jasmine's most beautiful work. Images include scenes inspired by the great writer Edgar Allan Poe, Disney characters such as Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding Hood, Tarot characters featured on a real deck co-designed by Jasmine, Steampunk fairies, a lavishly adorned Marie Antoinette, kick ass pirate girls, mermaids and more.

As I mentioned earlier, this book exudes quality and seems more like a professional artist portfolio than a mere colouring book. The cover is thick yet flexible board with a dimpled dust jacket that feels almost like watercolour card. The paper is cream coloured and superb quality- not the thickest I've seen, but certainly the best if you're planning on using alcohol markers. Usually my Spectrum Noir pens spread out of the lines no matter how careful I am, but this paper seems to soak it up and stop the ink in its tracks almost exactly where you laid it down. Don't forget to always put some scrap paper behind the page you're working on or you will encounter bleed.

Each illustration is contained in a fine border that almost fills the entire page, keeping maximum scale without going off the page or into the spine. The line work is very fine but solid, precise, crisp and clean. As you can tell I really do love this book and the way it has been produced with care and quality; I'd even go as far as saying that if you're a fan of this particular artwork and only buy one colouring book in your life, this should be it. 

Here is my finished page, Captain Molly Morgan! I coloured this with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and a white gel pen for the sea foam.

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. You can find it on Amazon here:

Jasmine Becket-Griffith Coloring Book: A Fantasy Art Adventure