by Aisling D’Art
Another coloring book, and another free sample page!
Coloring Pages of Yesteryear – Volume 1 is an old-fashioned, fine art coloring book. The images are ink sketches of landscapes, including beach scenes, mountain views, and rolling hills. They’re not detailed pictures. If you’re an experienced colorist or have longed for coloring pages you can make distinctly yours, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.
The image on the cover started as a b&w coloring page, from inside this book. I colored it myself, using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, some Staedtler colored pencils, and a few from a RoseArt pencil set.
Throughout this article, you’ll see other examples, showing how I colored a few pages from this book.
(Note: All of the pages inside this book are black-and-white line drawings, ready for you to color.)
This book was a labor of love. The coloring pages are from 1910 – 1912, and they were originally published in newspapers. Today, those newspapers are smudged, stained, and sometimes blurry.
So, I worked with each image, individually. Restoring them took about two hours per coloring page, and sometimes much more.
Sure, I could have used Photoshop shortcuts. Others do.
I’ve been coloring my own illustrations, by hand, for decades. The “shortcut” versions of these 50 unique pages weren’t good enough for me… and they weren’t good enough for my readers, either.
So, compiling this book took about 150 hours of intense and dedicated work.
The original artwork seems to be by two or three people. Some are more detailed than others. And, in this book, all of the coloring pages are landscapes. None include people.
Four include a single animals, in each. (Five do, if you count the seagull in one of the ocean scenes.)
What surprised me the most was that these coloring pages were originally intended for children ages 12 and under. To me, these seem like coloring pages for adults. The simplicity of them allows you to add your own coloring flourishes. They’re especially good for adults who have some coloring or fine art experience.
In the coloring page at left, you might make the sky a serene blue, or even somewhat dark and overcast with a nearly-white sun trying to burn through foggy skies.
Or, you could color the sky midnight blue, lit by a full moon. (It doesn’t have to be a sun, or even daytime.)
Your water might be dark blue, dark green, or something reflecting more of the sky colors.
I left the ship’s sails white. You might color some or all of them.
That’s something I like about these coloring pages: Every person will make different color choices.
If you’d like to “test drive” one of these pages, click here for a free, full-sized sample. It’s a PDF you can print at home.
The book is available at Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk, and other Amazon retailers. (You can also order it through your local bookstore.)