Mermaids, Fairies & Fantasy: Grayscale Coloring Book for Grownups, Adults (Wingfeather Coloring Book)

I was very disappointed in this book. I love adult coloring and was amazed with the whole grayscale thing. I also bought the Beautiful Creatures grayscale coloring book by Nicole Stocker. I loved it. The paper was thick, very heavy and yet a decent but fine enough tooth which was perfect for colored pencils. So I set high expectations for this one as well and I guess I shouldn't have for the price. Although the images are beautiful and printed one side, the paper is very, very thin. You could print grayscale images from Google on printer paper and get the same thing.My main issue or problem that I found with this book wasn't just the paper weight. It had a very smooth tooth which can be helpful for colored pencils but don't give much to layers, burnishing, etc. But the actual printing of this book gave me problems. Not only can you see the actual lines where the printer possibly was running low? (Which just might have been just my book but that's a quality issue and shouldn't get past quality control) but you can actually see the tiny little dots of the gray and the white paper in between them. I don't know if they did this thinking leaving white area would help to color over the gray or if this is just how they printed it but I could see them through my color very distinctively. And in the Beautiful Creatures (which is a more expensive and higher quality so maybe it's not fair that I compare the two but..) the gray was smooth... Like coloring over a gray picture and my colors came out much more vivid as well. I mean I expected the paper to be not that great for the price but the printing could've been better for sure. And the gray also will smear at times. NEVER USE A COLORLESS BLENDER PENCIL ON THESE IMAGES!!! The gray will smear and you will get an extremely muddy color. I used a prismacolor colorless blender that was clean with no other colors on it and sharpened and it smeared the gray that was printed into the picture. The colors I colored were no where near a gray color and normally blend perfectly with the blender. I also tried it on another page hoping that it was just that one picture but it wasn't. It also smeared. Very disappointing. I hope that they possibly print a 2nd edition on higher quality paper and using a better printing method or printer. Because the main thing that made me buy this particular coloring book is its pictures. No other grayscale coloring book has such lifelike images of women or people in general. Beautiful Creatures is animals and Spellbinding Images Grayscale Coloring book (whitch is gorgeous and I've heard amazing reviews) but it's semi-realism and more cartoon-like. But from what I've seen its better than this one and I think it's my last hope for grayscale with people/women. I've heard that Nicole Stocker will bring out more grayscale books besides just Beautiful Creatures and I hope they will have realistic (fantasy or not... I don't care) of women/people or even children and families. I'd enjoy that a lot. I love coloring chubby little babies and toddler faces. Lol. But I was very disappointed that the only realistic people/women/fantasy grayscale available turned out to be not that great of quality. Please.. Cheryl Casey... Revamp this coloring book and make it better. You have the right idea to make a coloring book that's grayscale with fantasy/people/women unlike any out there... Just make it of better quality! I want to believe in this coloring book because it's one of a kind and just wish it was better quality.One thing that upset me about all grayscale is how gray and desaturated the colors are once you color them. I guess I thought the gray wouldn't desaturate the colors that much but it did even in the Beautiful Creatures book. But I thought that maybe prismacolor, being such an opaque, soft lead that it would leave brighter colors but even them left very desaturated colors but even still the images turned out beautiful still yet. Just don't expect a very bright colored picture with any of the grayscale books like I did because it's near impossible. But you can still get beautiful desaturated and pale colors and finished pictures and if you like that, grayscale is for you. I mainly went with the grayscale because I liked the whole idea of getting a lot of shading without the effort but I would rather do my own shading and have vibrant colors than to have a very desaturated, pale finished picture. But it's perfect to relax and just let the grayscale work for you if you don't mind the pale colors. It does help to use the different tones of one color to get a more vivid picture. (Like using 3 different levels of one color... Lighter, deeper and medium) by using the deeper color where the gray is darkest, the lighter color where it's lightest (highlights) and the medium to blend it altogether and for all the in-between grays.I gave this book 3-stars because like I said... The right idea. Beautiful pictures just bad quality. I would spend $15 on this book if it was higher quality with the same images.... Better paper and tooth and especially the print of this book. I know they can't sell it super cheap with a high quality paper and print images. Beautiful Creatures is $12-13 and it has amazing quality paper, tooth and printed images. You can even use wet media on beautiful creatures. Because there's none like it...im sure this book, same images but better paler and print would sell with a higher price. It truly is a beautiful book with gorgeous images perfect for coloring and so many ideas flow through my head with each image as to what colors Id use. I just wish the colors would take well and you couldn't see all the tiny gray dots coming through and the smearing wouldn't happen when you use a colorless blender or try to burnish. Maybe a better tooth, deeper tooth (not sure how to word that) but would keep the gray from smearing.Please Find this helpful if you agree so we can hopefully get Cheryl Casey's attention and hopefully get a better 2nd edition to this book. I want to color in this book and hope that I'll get too put all these color ideas to use in a 2nd revamped edition of this book! Thanks 😊

It appears printing malfunctions occurred affecting a significant percentage of the coloring images. The lines in the coloring images look much like the photocopies my old printer produced when it was running out of toner. The lines run up and down in the exact same place on each of the images causing it to be distorted or the space totally void of any part of the image. Missing the time frame for return is my yum yum but preparation for the holidays and incoming relatives were my primary focus. I also never dreamed of a faulty coloring book. First time for everything I suppose. :) I sat down this evening to unwind with coloring and found the problem. I also find the greyscale to be more of a blackout than shading, this too might be a bad print setting? Might it be possible to get a digital download from the artist or her vendor? I would return the book to whomever I am told if it will be accepted outside of the normal protocol. This isn't a complaint about you, Amazon. I find it ridiculous to hold you responsible for the artist's printing company obviously having a less than satisfactory quality assurance dept. Amazon, I would only suggest you check the remaining inventory of this book you possess to prevent any other customer complaints in the future. :)

Though it's a decent coloring book with grayscale photos, it's basically a book with online copied pictures. NOT KIDDING. You can find most of the photos simply by google searching them. And you'll find them under their original creators. Again, I'm not saying its terrible but I was let down when I realized it. I recognized some of the photos when I had printed them off for a drawing inspiration to practice realism drawing for hands, faces and hair. You could literally save yourself money by google searching mermaids, or fairies, print them off in grayscale and simply color over it. I was disappointed when I noticed it. I'm only keeping it due to the fact that I've already bought it and I might actually find use in it due to my creativity.Don't believe me? Google search, "Alena Lazareva." Some of the artwork were designed by Alena Lazareva who is very talented. If you look through her "Fantasy Art" portfolio on her website, you will notice a few more familiar photos. Again, not trying to keep people from buying this book but I want people to know what they are buying. This might explain why some people are saying the photos look "TOO REALISTIC." As the realistic photos might be actual photos of models from other sites. Here's her site. [...]Update: The author added in the actual artist name in the "product description" AFTER this review was posted. I find it funny how the second book related to the "greyscale coloring* collection by the same author, now credits the artist. Yet the cover of this book, "Mermaids, Fairies, etc" remains the same without the artist credited both inside and outside of the cover. Just give credit to the artist. Alena worked hard on her beautiful artwork.

Really disappointed, the pictures are beautiful and I was so excited to start colouring. But after trying, faber castell polys an then Marco raffines and also markers the way that it's printed and the poor quality paper means that the markers wet the Greyscale ink and it runs and neither brand of pencil sits properly on the paper. A blending pencil rubs at the ink under the pencil and makes it smudgeI HAVE TO ADD, AFTER READING SOME OF THE " BETTER" REVIWS THAT IF YOU RAD THEM PROPERLY, THEY ARE REFERING TO A DIFFERENT BOOK!, ONE REVIEW MENTIONS, " COLOURING BY NUMBERS" AND "GREYSCALE" NEITHER OF WHICH APPEAR IN THIS BOOK! IHAVE NOTICED AMAZON USING MT " GOOD" REVIEWS ON ONE BOOK, ON A BOOK I HAVENT BOUGHT OR REVIEWED! NAUGHTY NAUGHTY AMAZON!!!!

Very disappointed with this item, its not really a colouring book, just black and white photos, cant see how u can actually colour them in. Should show some picftures of the contents, i wld never have ordered this if i had seen the content, the cover photo is not a accurate indicator. Annoyed,what a waste of money

I don't usually writ reviews but felt compelled to on this one. I'm very disappointed with my purchase. There's no way you can colour these in. They are basically just black and white photos. Don't bother with this. Save your money

I am 56 and still love colouring in, what can I say, this is the perfect book for me!

Looks like black and white photos