Secrets Beneath the Leaves by Arto Törmänen & Mika Haikonen

Summary
Current Price: £5.49
Number of Pages: 74
Size: 28 x 21cm
Paper colour: White
Paper surface: Rough tooth
Paper thickness: Average
Linework: Fine
Perforated: No 
One sided: Yes 
Binding: Glue 
Drawings go into the spine: ​No
Waterbased pen bleed: Yes

Arto and Mika are the creators of Vivid Owl Coloring, a publishing company that designs and produces colouring books for adults, based in Finland. Arto is the illustrator and Mika runs the business side of things, with design ideas bouncing off each other in between. Read my interview with them here.

​Secrets Beneath the Leaves is their debut book, and at first glance contains a tangled assortment of leaves and fronds until you look closer... The 30 hand-illustrated designs conceal some fairly erotic imagery- although very tastefully executed- of couples in various sensual poses and positions. Arto describes the book as "inspired by the nature and beauty of the human body", which is exactly what it incapsulates. Everything and everyone is made up entirely of leaves, camouflaged within the foliage, blurring the lines of where nature ends and humans begin. 

The illustrations are one-sided but the paper is quite thin so you will need a sheet of scrap paper between pages. Despite this, it has a rough, toothy surface ideal for coloured pencils. The linework is very fine and the designs sometimes intricate, so you will need fineliners or very sharp pencils to get into the smaller areas. 

I really like this book as the illustrations are undeniably beautiful and flowing; it feels so organic  and is truly a joy to colour. Like Johanna Basford books, the designs here are very leafy so you'll definitely need to replace your greens and browns after colouring! If you're into wildlife and have a bit of a kinky side, Secrets Beneath the Leaves would be the perfect Christmas present to yourself or anyone else who appreciates beautiful art.

Here's my work in progress, coloured with Derwent Coloursoft pencils.

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

Secrets Beneath the Leaves