Up and Away by Stacey Vaux

13/12/2015

Summary
Current Price: £10
Number of Pages: 36
Size: 28 x 22cm
Paper colour: White
Paper surface: Smooth
Paper thickness: Very Good
Linework: Fine
Perforated: Yes
One sided: Yes
Binding: Spiral
Drawings go into the spine: No
Waterbased pen bleed: None

I've been following Stacey's journey to her first colouring book for months on her Instagram account, and finally the finished work is in my hands! Her story is in fact very similar to mine; she's a mother of two children who got into adult colouring as a way to relax after a stressful day, and gradually began creating her own doodles in the back of the books. With encouragement from others to create her own art for other people, Stacey began to develop colouring pages available for download on her Etsy page, ColourIn Designs.

Up and Away is a hot air balloon colouring book, featuring lots of patterened and patchwork balloons with various different themes, such as Steampunk and floral. Each illustration has a distinct hand-drawn feel, with imperfect lines and circles. There are varying levels of complexity for whatever your skill/preference, and lots of detail in the patterns.

The paper used in this book is second to none in terms of thickness- it's very dense card that holds up to different mediums with ease, and its smooth surface is suited to markers as well as pencils. The spiral binding makes it easy to position and perforations provide quick removal of the pages. Stacey definitely did her homework on the format colourists prefer on their colouring books!

Due to the paper, the book is heavy and substantial and would equip its owner with plenty of colouring hours to complete. Saying that, the majority of the illustrations are simple enough and only a few have very tiny spaces.

Here's my finished picture, completed with Zig Brushables and PanPastels.