,A cut above even the best Adult Coloring Books, Exquisite & Unique Portraits
While I can not draw, I love art and have fallen in love with adult coloring books.  Only in the last 6 months have I discovered portraits and found I really love them best.  I have all the Hanna Karlzon books which include many portraits.  He books however are printed on both sides of the page and have a lot of repetitive objects included.  I am tired of coloring the same flower, mushrooms coming out of the head and stars on the face for example!<br />This book is superior in many respects.  It is printed on high quality paper on one side.  While it is paperback bound, it is in every respect a superior product to others.  The characters are unique and have unique elements included in the drawing.  They are of both sexes and every age group.  The artist has conveyed so much personality into each character that you can almost guess their background.  I was pleased to see she has in fact written short stories which go with each one that you can access on the web.<br />The book is over sized measuring 10 inches square.  It has the best protective packaging I have ever had any book come in.  It is first enclosed within a plastic form fitted sleeve which you can peel and unpeel the flap so as to kieep the edges crisp when not coloring.  Then it is enclosed in a box built to the books dimensions before being placed into the Amazon box.  There is no chance you will receive a book which has been damaged in transit.<br />If like me you need to practice you can always copy the page and practice until you have the colors that work best.  As I am still struggling with coloring skin I have started to do this with all the portraits.  I also purchased some thicker paper and have done my final copy on it so as to leave the images in the book intact.  PLEASE NOTE:  Reproducing this for other than your personal use is illegal and just WRONG!  The artist is entitled to be reimbursed for their work just and copying for any other purpose should never happen.<br />In addition to the beautiful portraits, the artist has added two pages for practice of just ears, eyes, hair, mouth and noses.  There is another practice page of just the faces in a small form form so you can test colors before committing to one. I know of no other artist who has included practice pages and short stories to accompany their coloring book.<br />If you want to try a single image this artist does sale on Etsy and you can buy a single image to download.  I am glad I purchased the entire book but will be checking to see if she has additional new works available in the future.<br />I will edit this after coloring a page or two if necessary.<br />EDIT:  The photos are from 6 months ago when I first got the book. I need to do them once again as my skills have drastically improved!  That being said, I like to look at my first attempts to encourage me to continue to get better.  While I do this for fun, it is more fun to do it the best of your ability!  Laura has YouTube videos that I have now watched since writing the initial review.  I strongly recommend them.  She does a great job showing you how to do a better job, learn new skills and otherwise get more out of your coloring.  She is really sweet and pleasant to listen to unlike some of the YouTube vids I have watched where I have to mute it and just watch!  I have also purchased a copy you download of some of her single pages at the Etsy site.  That is a good way to try an artist's works without expending a huge amount of money.<br />The best thing about this edit is that my opinion has not changed, this is still a book of portraits that I would highly recommend!
Rating: 5 stars