The Flower Year: A Coloring Book for Adults Hardcover – Coloring Book, April 25, 2017

This is my current go-to coloring book. It is a beautiful hardback, slightly larger than 7" x 9", and it has a place-marking ribbon, which I appreciate! The images cover both sides of the pages, which is normally a feature I avoid, but so far I'm not having any problems with it. (I have used only Faber Castell Polychromos and Caran d'Ache Pablo pencils in this book.) The paper is high quality, very smooth, and cream-colored. It is NOT watercolor-appropriate paper, as was used in the Floribunda book.Everything about this book is lovely! It even has beautiful, dark olive green paste downs & fly leaves that coordinate very well with the muted pink cover. (The ribbon is also olive green.) The first page (before the title page) has a gorgeously illustrated name plate. After the title page, for each month there is a page with the name of the month, a quote, and an illustration, then 7 pages (by "page" I mean single side) of further illustrations. Some illustrations are single-page drawings of one or two labeled flowering plants, like a classic botanical text. Others are luscious 2-page-spreads of bunches of flowers. Occasionally, birds, butterflies, and dragonflies appear. At the end, there is a 4-page visual index. Each page shows 12 miniature (but highly accurate!) 2-page spreads, and below each mini-spread are notes that identify all of the flowers included in the illustrations on those pages! I love that the author went to this trouble! For those who wish to use accurate colors but who wouldn't otherwise be able to identify every flower, this is extremely helpful! Finally, the very last page has just a single honey bee in the center. A perfect touch, in my opinion!Leila Duly's illustrations are detailed and artistic without being overly stylized. There is no gray shading one must color over, only line drawings with some small areas of blacked-in background. The drawings seem seasonally appropriate to me - for a temperate climate - and there is a calmness about the depictions that I find very soothing.I can't think of a single criticism for this exquisite coloring book! I think it would make a fabulous gift for anyone who enjoys coloring. That said, just because it is gift-quality doesn't mean one shouldn't buy it for oneself!!

Makes an excellent gift. Hard cover, lovely illustrations that can be colored but even if you don't color them, it's beautiful just to look at. I ordered one for each of my friends and one for myself. Good paper but keep in mind, if you color with marker brushes, it will bleed through and you won't be able to use both sides. Better to use colored pencils. Enjoy!

Not just a coloring book but a gorgeous keepsake whether you color in it or not.The paper is of a good weight, smooth, not too much tooth, so I recommending using an oil-based pencil rather than wax based. Polychromos, Arteza, etc.If you like to color realistically like I do, the back has an index showing the names of each flower and animal so that you can look them up and color them correctly.

I bought this for an upcoming surgery that i was having and i am sooo happy about my purchase! I love the hardcover and the intricacy of the pages. Such wonderful quality and gorgeous pictures. I used soft core colored pencils and every page becomes a work of art!!

The media could not be loaded. I will attach a silent, full book video flip-through (as well as a few photos) so you can decide for yourself if this book will work for you.I must admit that my first feelings upon opening this book were of disappointment. I had expected this book to be in the same format as Leila Duly's first book and was surprised and unhappy to see the new format.The first book was printed in large format, single sided and on heavy card stock. This book is printed in a smaller than average format, printed on both sides of the page and the paper is considerably lighter in weight (medium/heavyweight paper rather than card stock.)After getting over both my initial feelings and just myself in general, I looked again at the book and realized that while it was not published as fantastically as the first book, it is still a very well done book compared to most coloring books out there.My only real problem with the book, and the reason I detracted a star, is that many of designs are so scaled down in size to fit the smaller format that it is difficult to color in the tiny spaces. The book is both detailed and intricate in scope, I cannot recommend it to anyone with fine motor or vision issues.While those are not issues for me, finding coloring medium that works with the book requires using ultra-fine, micro-point and extremely sharp nib medium. I choose to use coloring pencils sharpened to a very fine point. I may use my Tombows and other watercolor brushes and markers as well as they did not leak through the page (see below.)The designs are set up as a calendar of sorts of flowers which are in bloom during each month of the year. The names are generally included on the each design and there is a thumbnail listing of the designs (and flowers therein) at the end of the book.I am also in hopes that the publisher, Laurence King Publishing, will come out with an artists edition of this book as they did with Johanna Basford when she was with this publisher. If so, I hope that they concentrate on the two-page spread designs and enlarge them for ease of coloring rather than printing large versions of the single flower designs. Ms. Duly's first book was in the format of an artists edition, so I think there is hope that it will happen.This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing it with my coloring medium.95 flower designs as shown throughout the year. Some of these are elaborate and intricate while others are small designs to fill in a page of quotations.Printed on both sides of the page. There is a mix single page designs and designs that spread across two pagesPaper is heavyweight, ivory color, lightly rough, and non-perforatedSewn binding which can be snipped to release several pages at a time. I prefer to keep my book intact as a calendar of flowers throughout the year.Book is smaller than average (approximately 7 x 9 inches) with a hard back cover and an attached fabric ribbon bookmark.Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. If you use these, you will have ink seep through and mar the design on the back of the page.Water-based markers, gel pens and India ink pens do not bleed through the page.Colored pencils work well with the slightly rough paper. I was able to blend, layer the same and multiple colors using both oil and wax-based pencils with ease.

This is such a beautifully illustrated coloring book that is reminiscent of an antique illustrated botanical book. I love that it’s a hard cover with a built in satin bookmark. Unlike many of the soft cover coloring books I’ve discarded, this one will be a nice keepsake . The added touch of the plant names in cursive handwriting is so pretty, not to mention very helpful; I have used Google to reference a couple of the plant names so that I could accurately color them. I am so glad I found this…it was worth every penny.