Outside the Lines: An Artists' Coloring Book for Giant Imaginations Paperback – Coloring Book, September 3, 2013

I originally bought this book for my nine year old daughter but after looking at it I think I am going to keep it for myself. I am not an expert on the contemporary art 'scene' (I am not as hip as I once thought I was) but this book is a great primer for what is happening right now in art. The diversity of the works in this book are amazing! Pieces from graphic designers, cartoonists, street artists, and illustrators are included. I especially like the way that the author left the back side of the works blank except for the authors name and web page. That has been a coloring book pet peeve of mine ever since I was a kid. I have taken the time to explore some of the artists through their web pages and I am astounded at two things. First, I love seeing the artist's work the way that THEY decided to color it and I love learning more about each artist and seeing other examples of their work.I teach middle school and I am going to have an opportunity to use this book in a few ways. I teach an elective to 7th and 8th graders, it is basically art for people who aren't artists. This book will be a tremendous resource for me to plan a unit on what is happening in art right now. Also, have you ever given a 7th grader crayons and just let them color? I never have but I am eager to give my students examples of contemporary art from this book to color as I teach them about specific artists or styles. What a great learning tool for me AND the students.Looks like I am gong to be buying a few of these books for my students. Can I get a bulk discount? :-)

I bought this for my 12 year old cousin who loved an "outside the box" coloring book I got her little sister, but to whom I wanted to give something a little more grown up. Many gorgeous illustrations of many different styles. Something for everyone. The cover and paper seem to be very high quality. There is also only one picture on a page with nothing on the back but the artist and other information, making coloring with markers a great option.. I'm thinking about getting one for myself as well. However, I felt the need to remove 2 of the pages for concerns my aunt wouldn't find them appropriate for her preteen. I don't support censorship but 2 of them were very dark and I would suggest you look through the pages before gifting it to a young person, particularly someone else's child. Otherwise, it's a really cool and good quality coloring book, especially for lovers of contemporary art. I was so pleased to see pieces by Keith haring and other loved artists I recognized. A great mix of thoughtful and whimsical art for any type of coloring mood you are in. Much more interesting than a book by just one artist.

I really love this book. It's inspired my creativity and as the title said, it's an artist's coloring book. There's complexity in the images that can be a hurdle but it's satisfying to bridge. And, with artwork featured from so many talented artists it's a good buy. It definitely leans abstract, modern, hipster, but if that seems kinda cool to you you'll love this.My solitary gripe about this book is the paper. Considering it's a coloring book for artists, a paper with some more weight to it would be appreciated so that I could use watercolor pencils in it. My last attempt to use Derwent Inktense in the book yielded a wrinkled mess even after I ironed it, which luckily looked cool on the image but would make me hesitate to try it again.Aside from that it's my fav, can't wait to try her next one!

I'm a 16 year old with a very artistic and creative mind and I went searching for a coloring book to not only color, but to provide me with inspiration for my own artwork. The cover for this book is what grabbed my attention. It looks like EXACTLY what I like to doodle and observe. The sample of this book on Amazon only had a few pictures to judge, but the reviews promised a book full of beautiful artwork to improve upon with color.When I got the book, I excitedly opened it up and soaked in all the beautiful artwork.Now some of the art in this book is too good to color than I tore it out and hung it on my wall, while some other pieces are too complicated to color without fine tip art products. And of course, if you've read other reviews, there are two pages of just black ink. But the rest of the book is perfect for coloring and really lets you add your own touch to other artist's work.The book is amazing and creative and a very good idea, if there was ever another collection of works like these I would by the book in a heartbeat.

I bought this for myself. I am college aged and I like coloring to relieve stress. This book is full of cool, unique designs, and even has some pages that you can add your own detail to. Kids love using this book too. It's fun for the whole family!Update: It's kinda boring, and there are a bunch of pages that I don't even see the point of coloring, and theres one page that's solid black. The designs are VERY different, as they're all by different artists. I just wasn't that impressed. Some designs just made no sense and were already shaded in greyscale, so there was nothing to color. It's not my favorite, but if you're artistic, you might have fun tweaking the designs or adding your own details.