Tolkien's World: A Fantasy Coloring Book Paperback – April 12, 2016

The media could not be loaded.      Attached to this review will be a silent flip-through of the entire coloring book so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not it will work for you.I have included a comparison between the US and British versions of this coloring book below. The video and photos on this review are only from the US version while those on my other review are only from the British version.Rather than discuss how this is like or different from the books and/or the various movies, I will discuss only how I feel about it as an adult coloring book.The illustrations and the designs show that a number of artists have been involved with the coloring book (according to the book, there are six artists.) There are a variety of styles and it is easy to see which designs are by the same artist. I mention illustrations because a number of the drawings appear to be almost finished ink and pen studies rather than designs that a colorist can easily finish and interpret in their own unique way. I had this same issue with the recent “Game of Thrones” coloring book and I ended up using Tombow water-based markers (brush end only) to put larger swathes of color on many areas. It worked okay but it was not ideal. Something I really like about the book is that at the bottom of each page, there is a notation which tells which book the design is from and who the character is or which location is being shown.There are still many designs which I feel that I can, as a moderately experienced colorist and artist, be able to color and enjoy. Some have intricate details but others have are mostly outline drawings that I will give me opportunities to try various blending techniques.Physically, the book is put together better than some but missed the mark in a couple of ways. The designs are printed on both sides of the page with many of the images spanning across two pages. The non-perforated pages are white and medium weight. Unlike the British version of the book, the cover on the US version is attached. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so removing pages will require a few snips of thread throughout the book but you will be removing more than one page at a time Many of the designs merge into the binding and in my copy, most do not line up well. That gives me pause on removing pages because it will be very difficult deal with misaligned pages outside of the book.None of my gel pens bled through to the back of the page. My colored pencils all worked well on the surface of the paper especially my soft lead ones (Prismacolor and Derwent.) My water-based markers (Tombows dual end, Stabilo 88, Staedler triplus fineliners and Pentel) did not leak through (though my Stabilo 88 left the slightest of shadows on the backside of the page.) My ultra-fine Sharpies and Copics bled through immediately. I would suggest checking your specific gel pens and markers as I don't have every type to try. For me, I will probably use various water-based markers, gel pens, and colored pencils for this book and let my alcohol-based markers sit this one out.My review is of the US release of the coloring book which is published by Thunder Bay Press. I also ordered and reviewed the UK version which is published by a branch of Hatchette UK Company. I have done a comparison of the two and will include that both here and also in the first comment of my review of the British version (because a glitch in the Amazon system is not allowing me to edit my reviews once a video or photo is attached but I can leave comments.) It is also possible that the reviews for both books will be merged into one listing after both are published (as happened with “Lost Ocean” and “Animorphia”.) If that happens, one or both of my reviews may show up in the same listing.The comparison is unusually simple as generally the difference between country printings are quite striking. In this case, not really much is different besides a few items. The books are the same size, they weight the same (when I remove the British dust cover), and the paper is of similar quality (though the British one may be the very slightest of brighter white.) They have similar bindings and the same images. The differences: the cover art and material is very different; the British version has a removable dust cover, and the US version has a few more misaligned pages and they are more noticeably misaligned on two-page spread designs. The last item may be more specific to my two books, but I thought it important enough to mention. Essentially, the books seem very much the same to me. I would not go out of my way for the dust cover. The books weight one pound each and the cover is flimsy and weights slightly over one half of an ounce.In summary, an interesting coloring book with some very colorist unfriendly but beautiful illustrations. Between these drawings, the two-page spans, and misaligned pages, I detracted a star from my rating. I like the book itself but the publishing could have been improved in a variety of ways.

There are a lot of good, very detailed images in this book, but the faces certainly leave something to be desired. Many of the characters would not be distinguishable were it not for the written descriptions on the pages, and some of them appear to have piggish sort of noses. The landscapes are good and varied and the paper quality is not terrible, though I would still caution you to test your markers or pens to avoid bleed through onto the next page.There is more than one book/film represented in these pictures and there is a lot of colouring space for those who like to do full pages. As with other books that have scenes that stretch from one page to another, some of the images end up in the crack of the book and that makes it difficult to colour, but I suppose that is hard to avoid in a book like this.Overall, I am pretty happy with this book and think it would make a nice gift for those who enjoy colouring or are Tolkien fans.

I know a lot of people have complained about the complexity of the pictures in this book. I'm not a professional artist, just a hobbyist who enjoys coloring, so I don't really care about that. I ordered two of these, one for myself and one for an adult daughter who also likes grown-up coloring books; and the only thing that really disappointed us was that (as with the Peter Jackson LOTR movies), Tom Bombadil wasn't represented in any of the scenes. One little picture of this fascinating character from the books would have made us very happy. But as to the book itself, I do see lots of potential for subtle color, even in the most pen-and-ink-looking drawings, and for very vivid coloring opportunities in other pictures. Yes, the pages are printed two-sided and the paper may not be thick enough to attempt bleedable media, but if you lighten up a little on the perfectionism and try to just have fun, I think you will be pleased.

I am a huge huge tolkien fan. I have been obsessed since I was little. I saw this and was amazed. I had to have it to add to my collection. I love the fact it has stuff from the hobbit, the silmarillion and lord of the rings. The art work is beautiful and well done. The only thing I hate is they're double sided so markers are a no go for this book. Otherwise I adore this book and I was excited to see stuff from the silmarillion.

There was pages that where colored on, edges of book where all crunched. Folds in back cover. Would never buy a used book agein. Pay the extra for new.

The pictures in this coloring book are great. The only real issue I have with it is: What on earth is going on with Bilbo's neck? The way Bilbo's neck is drawn looks super weird. And I wish that there was a drawing of the entire fellowship together or at least the four hobbits together. But other than that I recommend it.

I am enjoying this coloring book although I thought at first it would be hard to color. However some of the faces are not my image of the characters by a long shot and before I colored anywhere I printed a picture of Liv Tyler as Arwen and pasted it on Luthien, same with Elrond printed a photo from the movie. I may yet do the same with Frodo and possibly a few others. Some of the pictures are sort of like paint by numbers without the numbers. This is not a pattern coloring book. I keep goiing back and forth between 3 and 4 stars, finally decided on 3 because of the faces and some other awkward things.

This was a gift for my husband who is a Tolkien fan and he loved it! The illustrations are the best I've seen for these types of coloring books, but he enjoyed seeing and coloring his favorite scenes of Tolkien's books.

Overall a great colouring book. There are different artists featured here, so not all the illustrations are of the same quality. There are a few here that are really dislike, which is why I can't give it 5 stars. And yet the illustrations I do like more than make up for it. I was pleasintly surprised at just how many landscape double pages illustrations are in this book- that's actually pretty rare. Scenes of mountains, forests etc. There are plenty of people and creatures to practice on, so it's really a cross genre coloring book. Good quality print and paper, though probably not for alcohol based markers.

O livro é bonito, com gravuras muito bem feitas. É interessante para ter uma visão diferente das histórias além da imagem que temos nos filmes e dos lugares e personagens dos livros. E também serve pra colorir :P

a little too much black on some of the pages but overall good interesting they included some scenes from The Silmarillion

Great pictures. Perfect for adult colouring.

Un très beau livre de colo qui balaye tous les ouvrages de Tolkien. : le silmarillon, le Hobbit, le,seigneur des anneaux... Quelques dessins de personnages sont pas les mieux réussis (Elrond), mais dans l' ensemble ce livre est magnifique et ravira les fans.