Amazon.com: Rooms of Wonder: Step Inside This Magical Coloring Book: 9780143136958: Basford, Johanna: Books

I always enjoy Johanna Basford's books so when this was came up on sale during PrimeDay, I had to have it. No regrets, it's another beautiful book. I do find this one to be a bit more challenging than some of the others I have since some of the images are a bit more complex.

I have a few of Johanna Basford's coloring books in this series. They're delightfully detailed. They do take time to color, but the joy of the details makes them super fun. I have only started one in this particular book, but it makes me happy.

*Images: I love that this is filled with many wonderfully fun, different rooms to explore. It's just so relaxing to spend time in each room getting lost in the adventure. What a joy!The images are fairly intricate but not so much that you can't get good shading and blends on many of the pages. There are still some images that are so tiny blending/shading would be impossible. I love those pages that don't have rooms but have separate images to color for when time is short. I just have to say though, I really dislike the wallpaper, mandela and filler pages. As always, the images are printed on both sides of the page making alcohol markers unusable unless one doesn't mind sacrificing a page or even 2 if you don't use blotter paper in between. (I do think this less toothy paper would be a pleasure to use with alcohol markers, especially the bullet nib kind.)Printing: I know that Basford's most recent book had some printing issues, but this book does not have the double lines at all. Those errors seem to be contained to a batch or 2 in the Small Victories book. (I'm waiting until those issues are ironed out before purchasing.)*Paper: I prefer Joann's older creamy, toothy paper, but the quality of this paper is quite good too. She said her usual paper became unavailable so she chose the same paper used in the Kerby Rosanes' books. As you can see in the photo above, I tried many different brands and media to test on the paper. I preferred Polychromos and other oil based colored pencils, like Pablo & Koh-i-noir, on this paper over the creamier wax based brands, like Prisma & Black Widow. I didn't do a lot of layers because the size of the images were too small, but I did do some burnishing and erasing without any issues. The paper held up well to multiple techniques. The Arteza Real Brush Pens and Ohuhu water based markers either bled through or ghosted. I was able to use watercolor pencils with small amounts of water without any buckling of the paper at all, but I did keep the water to a minimal dampness.Value: I bought on a 3 for 2 sale so I got a it at a great price point.*Overall: This is a fun book, in Basford's typical classy and imaginative style. I love it.*Note: I subtracted 1/2 star for paper and 1/2 star for filler, wallpaper type images.

I know that people don't like the change in the paper - but I don't really care. I use colored pencils mostly and it works just fine.The designs are sweet, detailed, and lots of fun to color in.

This would make a great gift for an adult that loves to color. The pictures are gorgeous. Every page is such a treat. Would recommend this book.