A few years ago I would buy nearly every coloring book I came across. Those days have passed. Nowadays I’m a lot more picky and (try to) only buy coloring books that I really like. Every now and then a coloring book catches my attention, which was the case with the ‘One and Only Mandala Coloring Book – Collector’s Edition’ (‘Enige Echte Mandalakleurboek – Collector’s Edition’, which is its official Dutch title) of Mus/BBNC!
In my stash I think I’ve got all the ‘One and Only’ mandala coloring books BBNC has released, so that was another reason to want this book too. Because I had more books on my wish list to order from Bol.com (a Dutch, Amazon like, webshop), I ordered it there.
Wanna know more about this collector’s edition?
First I’ve got to say that this is really a book of great quality. There are 46 mandalas in it, and the paper is very nice, smooth and thick. I’m not sure how thick, but I guess it’s about 200 gsm. The toothing is just perfect for colored pencil. This makes it ideal for layering, but also if you like to color in just one layer, to get a more burnished look.
All pages are printed single sided, which makes this book perfect for all kinds of materials. Beside colored pencils, I’ve also tried watercoloring with pens and a water brush. And I’ve done a mandala with metallic pencils, which was also a delight on this paper!
And then the cover of this collector’s edition… It’s an eye-catcher, with a lovely mandala in gold foil on as well the front as the back side of the book. To me it’s a show piece in my collection, I love the looks as well as the inside of it.
Flip-through video
Let’s take a look inside. I’ve made a flip-through video for you, so you can see it for yourself. Below the video I’ll show you the mandalas that I’ve already colored!
Pastelería
For the first mandala I’ve used a new set of colored pencils that I’ve recently purchased from AliExpress, the Marco Square Pastel C820 pencils. I could easily blend on the paper, the pencils performed pretty good (and that for Marco pencils… I was actually a bit surprised. Will write a review about them later!).
As I usually do, I wanted to give this coloring project a name. Since the colors are soft pastel colors, I’ve chosen to call it ‘Pastelería’. This actually means ‘cake shop’ or ‘pastry shop’ in Spanish, so it actually has nothing to do with pastel colors, but I just liked the sound of ‘Pastelería’ so much 😉 .
Using Derwent metallic pencils
Not so long ago I wrote a review of the Marco Raffiné metallic pencils and compared them with Derwent’s metallic pencils. And when I was working in this new coloring book, I figured it was about time to do some coloring with the Derwent metallic pencils. So I used those pencils for the second mandala.
I started with the new ones, the non water-soluble. They performed perfect on this paper! It really made me curious how well the paper could handle water. So I also took the old Derwent metallic pencils, that are water-soluble. Although they don’t appear to be very metallic on white or cream colored paper (best is to use these on black paper), the paper handled the water I used with the water brush perfectly!
What a delight is this book. The more I colored, the more enthusiastic I became! In between I’ve taken some WIP (Work In Progress) photos, that you can find in the corresponding photo gallery to this review. Here in this blog I’ll just show you the end result of this metallic one, that I called ‘Nice & Shiny‘.
For the finishing touch I used a white Posca pen (the thinnest, PC-1MR) to add highlights, two Staedtler Pigment liners (0.1 and 0.2) for shading, and around the mandala I’ve made a kind of ‘halo’ with a yellow Stabilo CarbOthello soft pastel pencil. With my fingers I’ve spread the chalk of the pastel to the edges of the paper.
Happy bunny dance
Since the paper handled water so well, I wanted to try out some watercoloring with felt tip pens. For this I took my new Stabilo Pen 68 Brush pens and my favorite water brush from Kuretake. I expected them to work nice, but how they actually performed exceeded my expectations. The brushes sort of glided over the paper.
The ink didn’t get immediately sucked into the paper, which gave me plenty of time to dilute it with the water brush and make nice gradients. This book to me is just perfect and a true collector’s edition. I’m absolutely over the moon about this paper, which is way better than the paper BBNC used earlier for their regular 12”x12” (30×30 cm) mandala coloring books!
Because of the joyful feeling I got from coloring this third mandala, partly because of the bright colors I used, but mainly because of the perfect paper, I felt like doing a happy dance. Then I recognized ‘bunny ears’ in the drawing, so therefore this mandala became my ‘Happy bunny dance‘ 😀 .
One last mandala just for the fun of coloring
After coloring with the Stabilo brush pens, I could hardly stop. I was totally in the mood for coloring some more, but I wanted something slightly different. So I decided to use just one color and color a monochrome mandala. My choice was purple.
If you’ve never tried coloring with just one color, you really should. It’s a different experience than using multiple colors. Somehow it gives me a more peaceful feeling. I don’t have to think where to put which color, since there is only one. I chose to only use the pen, so I didn’t dilute the ink.
In the photo below you see how I started this one, not coloring everything, leaving half of it blank. This creates a beautiful effect, a bit kaleidoscopic in a way, even slightly psychedelic. I just love it! If you want to see this mandala completed, go to the earlier mentioned photo gallery, that’s where I’ve posted it 😛 .
Conclusion
For what you get when you purchase this book, I think you really get value for your money. I’m more than pleased by the drawings, and the paper has made me wanting to keep coloring. Pure for the feel of those brush pens gliding over the surface… I think I’ve said it all.
Well, that’s it. Thanks for stopping by.
Greetz,
Disclosure: I am not affiliated to any of the mentioned companies. Also note my Disclosure Promos page!
