Summer Nights Coloring Book: Originally Published in Sweden as "Sommarnatt" (Hanna Karlzon)

The media could not be loaded.  I was seeing a few completed coloring pages from this book on Social Media sites, and just had to purchase it to review all the delicious pages by the artist inside the book. This book, Summer Nights Coloring Book, illustrated by Hanna Karlzon, a Sweden-based illustrator, is one of the more popular and most aesthetic coloring books out on the market. I just had to review this book and share it with others. But instead of looking this book solely as a colorist, I am looking at the book from an artist's eye viewpoint, and whether or not the book is suitable and appealing to colorists.The ISBN-13: 978-1-4236-4558-0Paper - Slightly thicker than medium weight.Paper Color - Cream coloredCover - Hard Cover, Glue BoundPublished by Gibbs Smith, Utah, USANon-Perforated pages47 pages (double-sided) for 94 total illustrations, including the "This book belongs to" page.What caught my eye was Ms. Karlzon used one nib-width of ink pen throughout the book which is in keeping with the popular model of the target market of hobby colorists. The lines are crisp, clean, and uniform throughout the coloring book, but this does not detract from the aesthetics of the book illustrations. Most books with the 'same ol, same ol' line width may be boring, but she manages to get past that minor obstacle and really user her creativity to impress.There is a mix of simple, medium, and complicated (detailed) artwork throughout the coloring book, and thus the simpler illustrations are minor elements of the more complicated pictures, so buyers and colorists can practice on the simpler illustrations first before attempting the more details pictures.Ms. Karlzon definitely has a beautiful style to her drawings. I loved the freckles on the faces of the lovely illustrations of women throughout the book. Her more details pictures have so many little elements in the pictures themselves, hobby colorists will be delighted at what they find, as they are drawing in the book pages.This is one of the 'higher' quality coloring books out on the market, and I would highly recommend this coloring book to those who are getting into the hobby that are seeking more interesting coloring illustrations that appeal to the 'more demanding' coloring book hobbyists and art lovers. The pen and ink art work in the book by itself is worth the price of the book.See my video review at: http:// youtu.be/ 662RtlR5V4o (<-paste the characters into one string to get the link)

This book has really inspired my artistic side. The illustrations draw out what little artistic skill I have in the desire to make beautiful pictures. The paper is a dream to color on with color pencils, and I used chalk pastels for the background in many of my completed pages. I have not tried any other mediums because the versatility of color pencils allows for so many different effects and techniques. I use Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Derwent Drawing Pencils for the images I have attached. The background on the picture with the girl and the bird was done in pencil, the other pages had pastel backgrounds, Artist Loft Soft pastel. I did also use a white Jelly Roll gel pen and a clear Stardust Jelly Roll pen to highlight a few spots.The book is a beautiful hardback with some gold embossing on the cover. The paper is thick, smooth and creamy white. The pages are not perforated for removal, it is a sewn binding, but most of the images stop before they run into the spine. There are a few that cover two pages and those do run into the spine. I was able to open it mostly flat for coloring.The illustrations appear to be hand drawn and original. The illustrations are on both sides of the page. The subject matter is fanciful nature, animals, insects, objects, buildings, and people; sort of like a fairyland. The pages vary from simple to very complex. All have some detail but are not super tiny for the most part. Some were easy to complete in one sitting while others took many days to complete. They can be colored as is or they lend themselves to embellishment. You can expand what is on the page with your own background or additions. Look around Pintrest or Youtube for some fabulous examples. The reviews here also have some beautiful examples. I will say that the pages I have completed in this book have made me the happiest about the finished product of any I have done before. I have over 50 coloring books of varying styles and quality and have finish over 100 pages so far. For me this is a really fabulous book, my current favorite. I plan to keep it intact and once I have finished all the pages use it as a coffee table book.

Bonitos diseños, es de pasta dura lo cuál hace el libro muy bonito por fuera.

Great paper beautiful book

Fantastic illustrations Love the whole set from this wonderful illustrator

Lindo!!

Could find myself running for cover with this review,but while I think the hard cover denotes quality I (personally) might find the illustrations on the left hand side pages awkward to colour ('cos of the binding) being right handed. The pages are quality but the book would likely be easier to colour if it were spiral bound so could lie perfectly flat. Just my thought folks, so please don't shoot lol!