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Sketchy Stories: The Sketchbook Art of Kerby Rosanes
The image content is really varied but it all has Kerby’s signature style. There are lots of morphing animals, objects and scenes that show vast contrast between nature and mechanics, softness and structure, ethereality and reality. There are small drawings and large drawings, some which are much more realistic and others which are filled with alien creatures and the surreal. The images contain a huge number of different animals from deer to bats, birds of all types to sea creatures, foxes to giraffes and so much more. Interspersed with these are skulls, feathers, buildings and structures, mechanical images and doodles. As with all of Kerby’s work, the majority of the images include heavy black shading which isn’t to everyone’s taste but I personally find that it really adds to the movement and reality of the image. Some of the images have black backgrounds and some are drawn entirely in black with thin white lines that could be coloured if you wished, there is a real variety within this book and it truly shows off the versatility and talent of this illustrator.
In terms of mental health, this book is just fascinating to look through let alone colour! The images are so interesting to look at and ponder over and the more you look, the more you notice and see so this is definitely a book that keeps on giving and you’re unlikely to ever tire of it! In many ways, this book is almost too beautiful to colour, but it would look truly stunning if you chose to, though it does of course look finished as it is. The line thickness varies throughout from thin to spindly thin and some are verging on microscopic because the images have been shrunk from the original drawing scale. The intricacy and detail levels also massively vary from large open spaces of animal faces to the teeniest tiniest details that are difficult to even see, let alone to contemplate colouring, this means that it’s essential that you have very good vision and fine motor control if you’re wanting to colour this book, though this won’t be necessary if you’re wanting to just view it as a finished piece of art. I personally found this book to be ideal for mindfulness and distraction, the images are so packed full of detail that you can’t help but become completely immersed and absorbed within this fantasy world and you quickly feel your anxiety and other symptoms melt away. The artwork is breathtakingly beautiful and it really does have to be seen to be believed!
This book is ideal as a work of art, but would also be beautiful for adult colourers to fill with their own colour. You will need very good vision and motor control but the size of these images makes them ideal for bad days as small colouring projects, the format could have been improved for the colouring community but as a reproduction of Kerby’s sketchbook it’s beautifully produced and just fascinating to look through!
If you’d like to purchase a copy it’s available here:
Amazon UK – Sketchy Stories: The Sketchbook Art of Kerby Rosanes
Book Depository Worldwide – http://www.bookdepository.com/Sketchy-Stories/9781631061752/?a_aid=colouringitmom
If you’re new to Kerby’s work then you can read my reviews of his adult colouring books here: Animorphia and Imagimorphia.
The image below was coloured using Stabilo Point 88 Fineliners.
and 
are published by Rockport, a sub-company of Quarto Publishing who kindly sent me copies to review. They are part of a large “Just Add Color” series which continues to be added to and already contains a huge variety of titles and themes including Carnival, Day of the Dead, Folk Art, and Circus . These books are soft-back with a normal thickness card cover, they are lightly glue-bound and the book can be fully opened to enable colouring of the full page but it doesn’t lie flat on a surface without being held. The images are printed one-sided onto beautiful, thick, heavyweight white paper (almost thick enough to be described as card) and the pages are perforated meaning they can be removed easily from the book before or after colouring. I coloured using Staedtler fibre-tips and experienced no bleed-through and only very slight bleeding when using various brands of fineliners but this isn’t an issue as the images are one-sided. The paper is very smooth with little texture meaning coloured pencils lay on even colour easily with little effort or need to change direction to fill in gaps. Each book contains 30 images created by one illustrator (different illustrators for each book in the series) which leads to a lovely cohesive image style within each book. Because each book is created by a different illustrator, the line thickness varies between books, but not within. The books are almost square in shape but smaller than the usual square-booked bestsellers. Each book varies in style and content so I have included sample images as well as a coloured page from each for you to see in the links below. In addition, I give a more detailed description of what each book contains and how your mental health may affect and be affected by the book.
-buy it here from Amazon UK
– Amazon UK
In The Midst Of Madness 