Balance (Angie’s Extreme Stress Menders)

This is an amazing book. It has easy-ish, hard, and very hard designs in it, but only a very small handful do I actually not like enough to try to color them. You can be creative in your color palates. I bought more than 1 of these, because some designs simply must be done in more than one palate.Things have been very stressful and I've found myself turning to these coloring book to get away from the stress, but also to just have a way to do beautiful art! They are good if your need mental exercises too, as figuring out what colors to use and getting a vision going on the finished product is good for the brain cells! You can de-stress and exercise the brain all at the same time!I use colored pencils (Crayola box of 50, which do just fine!) and do a lot of blending and shading (the white pencil actually works well to shade, without diluting the colors at all), so it stretches the way the colors work with each other. If you want designs that you can look at and figure out what they are, there are quite a few in this book that I have no clue what they are, but they are still lots of fun to color. I feel that on those 7 or 8, the author leaves it up to us to interpret them in content as well as colors. There is one design per page, so you won't waste any designs because you have to choose whether to color the front design or the back. I always back the design being colored with 2 sheets of blank paper because I press hard sometimes, especially when blending or going for intense color, and this stops the design behind from being marked up. While the paper the designs are printed on is around 20-25 lb weight, still, if you use ink or markers, make sure you put extra sheets behind so there is no bleed through.Many designs are achingly beautiful, some I've looked at and thought, hm, bring out the magnifier (and I do use a half-page magnifier bookmark for the very tiny parts of designs). Others have large enough areas that the magnifier isn't needed. Sometimes I use shading or grading from light to dark -- I'm having a blast! The only thing I would change about Angie Grace coloring books is to make the pages perforated for easier removal. I would also like to see what the designs look like if slightly enlarged. Even 5% larger could make a huge difference in some of the super-intricate designs.

Quality and using quality pens means it's great paper for coloring in fine detail

This was my very first adult coloring book, and it's an excellent choice as a starter or for those with more experience. This book is comprised of a series of mandalas, and is great for de-stressing. Here's the salient points:- Manadala designs in a variety of patterns. You'll get several distinct styles in the book- Printed on one side of the page.- Paper is a bit thin, so if you're using markers put a piece of paper behind your page. That will prevent bleed through. I use permanent markers like sharpies and Bic Mark-Its, and a regular piece of paper will soak up all the bleeding.- A variety of media work nicely- you can use markers, gel pens, or colored pencils. There are some tight spaces, so you'll want extra fine markers.- All designs are symmetrical. If you're the sort of person who is pleased by symmetry and regular patterns, this is a great book for you.- It seems no matter what color combinations I pick the designs look beautiful. Even when I do a grab bag and randomly select 7-8 markers from my bag, the results are still beautiful. Also, no shading or advanced coloring techniques are required to make beautiful results.- Pages are not perforated. I leave my pages in my coloring books so this is not an issue for me, but I know some people like to take them out.- Designs don't go too close to the binding, so you don't have to worry about coloring into the binding.- Good level of complexity to the mandalas. These aren't simplistic designs.Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, and I will definitely buy more books in this series.

I got this book a few months ago. I started coloring with the 8 1/2 x 11 size books like Creative Haven and Zenspirations. I like them, but wanted something different. I found it with this book and am addicted!! It is full of mandalas of all sorts of designs - some fine some larger, some a little of both. I've enjoyed experimenting with all kinds of color combinations. I'm an ICU RN and a lot of times it's hard to stop my brain from going over my day. I have noticed coloring helps me to work out my thoughts while working with the designs and to wind down before bedtime.The size of the book is better for me - about 8 1/2 square. It doesn't lay flat, but the binding is strong enough to fold back the pages on itself. I don't know why publishers won't produce these books with spiral binding so they will lie flat. Probably has something to do with cost, but I think customers may pay a little bit more for it.I have used the Rose Art 100 colored pencils for most of these mandalas, but have recently purchased the Ohuhu 48 Professional pencils and the Staedtler Color Pen 36 set. I can see the difference in the quality of the pencils and the pens are great for the finer details of these mandalas. The pens do bleed through the paper a little, but do not mark up the next page. That's easily fixed by placing a sheet of computer paper under the page I'm working on. I have started experimenting with using the pens with the pencils and really like the contrast. The photos attached show the one on the left with pencils and pens and the other with just pencils.

模様がとても細かくて塗りごたえがあります。出来上がりも美しいです。絵の裏側は全て白紙で、裏移りがあっても問題になりません。模様・紙とも、色鉛筆よりは、ペンや細字マーカーの方が向いていると思います。英文のレビューでは、紙が薄いなどのコメントがたくさんありましたが、私はこの紙の質がとても気に入りました。確かに薄いのですが、つるつるしていなくて、マーカーのインクが本当によく馴染みます。インクが吸い込まれる感じです。マーカーではよくある色ムラが出来にくく、均一の、滑らかな色に仕上がります。でも、下敷きは必須ですね。全体的に素敵な本です。複雑な柄を楽しみたい方におすすめです。

Love this book. Very nice paper for colouring in - not too bright, but not yellowish either. The paper also absorbs the shade quite well. The size of the book is quite good - almost A4, though a little smaller. You can either colour in page after page or you can cut the pages out (there is enough room between the margin of the book and the mandalas, so its up to personal preference). The mandalas themselves are quite detailed, they keep you going for a very long time if you decide to colour in every little detail in a different colour. At the same time, if you want to be more generous with your colouring there is that option too - especially where there are little squares (which there seems to be a lot of in the book). I've included images of both methods/techniques for comparison purposes. Only downside is that I wish I'd purchased the book during Black Friday sales as it was reduced by good 50%. I bought it in October 2015 for £7.76 with free P&P. So if you're not in a rush (like I was to get going) and can wait - you never know, they might have a deal on this book next year too. In either case, I am happy to recommend you purchase it, especially if you dont have much experience with adult colouring books. Its a great place to start :)

My new favourite book! It's lovely, and exactly what I was looking for. I have a couple of other mandala books and while the are ok, I don't want to colour every image in the book. With this book, there isn't one image I don't like. The detail is just right for me and is not too demanding. I've used Stabilo 88's so far and there was no bleed through. Alcohol markers like Sharpies may bleed, but as the designs are printed single sided, putting a sheet of paper behind should protect the next image just in case. I cannot recommend this book more, and will certainly be getting the 2nd and 3rd Stress Mender books.

Paper is to thin for felt tips. Shame as I loved the patterns but no good paper spoils the books now

Bought this along with Whimsy and Baubles to take on holiday as a change from reading and Tablet games. The patterns are intricate and some of the detail is quite small. This could be problem if you have difficulty discerning detail. I found it easier to colour in by working under a good reading lamp. Lots of pages and some patterns appear similar, but for the price I thought they were good value. I treated myself to some posh Derwent colouring pencils to go with them.