Night Magic - Gothic and Halloween Coloring Book (Fantasy Coloring by Selina)

I own a number of Selina Fenech's coloring books so I am very familiar with her elegant artwork. I also really enjoy Halloween inspired designs and am always looking for new books to add to my collection (especially as there have been very few published compared to other genres.) In “Night Magic”, Ms. Fenech has provided a number of lovely witches along with Gothic style designs. I would not categorize the book as a Halloween book but rather one that includes Halloween designs. The designs are detailed and I find them fairly easy to color. While some designs have small details, the designs are not generally intricate with tiny details that are hard to color. I like to work first with my markers and then with my colored pencils as I find that that is the process that works best for me with Ms. Fenech's coloring books. Two things I really appreciate about the book are that you get two copies of each design. That makes it easy to share or to try two different colorways or mediums. The second thing I really like is that almost all of the designs have framing lines around them. It gives me a natural stopping point which gives a more finished look at the end and it also saves me ink/pencil as I don’t' have to color to all the edges. This is what I experienced while coloring in this book and testing my coloring medium on the paper: 25 x 2 Gothic and Halloween-inspired designs Printed one side of the page Paper is white, thin, slightly rough and non-perforated Designs do not merge into the binding and there is plenty of room to cut out pages if you choose to do so. Most designs have a framing line around the outer edge Glue Binding Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page quickly. Water-based markers bleed through in spots. Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows on back of the page. India ink can bleed through if you apply heavily or multiple coats. Coloring Pencils work well with this paper. I found that I could layers the same color for deeper pigment or multiple colors and I could blend easily using a pencils style blending stick. Both wax and oil based pencils worked well with the paper. Hard lead pencils can leave dents through the page. I like to use a blotter when working in the book. I use a page of card stock or several sheets of heavyweight paper under my working page. It keeps seeping ink and marring dents from ruining the pages below.

I am going to preface this review that I love Selena Fenech's art, I received this coloring book in a timely manner. As with all of her color books the pictures are one sided, the back has the name of the picture. There are 25 pictures, with duplicates on the last part of the book. I often mess up so I appreciate the duplicates. Each picture is clear and beautiful from easy to more complex. The paper is white and thin, no different than any of her previous books (typical for Amazon/createspace). The only thing that was a bit odd was that a couple of the pictures the girl was looking up and your looking up her nostrils. This paper takes pencil easily. Use a blotter page to protect the next picture from all wet media. I give this book 5 stars, these pictures are beautiful.

Selina Fenech is another talented artist I discovered this season through my Amazon recommended for you list. (After purchasing Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Halloween Coloring book, which I was very impressed with.) Selina Fenech is a impressively talented artist also. Night Magic is the first of the 3 books I purchased that were also part of books recommended to me. Other than both artists having Halloween themed coloring books out, it is my opinion that they are very different in styles Night Magic contains pictures of what I would. call."portrait design"'and not a part of the "big eyes" genre of books. The features I like most about this book are: + the author takes the time to say why she chose to include 2 copies of each of the 25 pictures. This is a nice touch rather then leave a customer guessing. + the author also gives some instructional advice on how to use the book which surprisingly includes dismantling the book for personal use. Something I haven't seen done before. + Each of the 25 pictures take up the majority of the page and have a well-defined boarder around all four edges. The boarder does not run into the binding as I have seen in other books. + Has chosen to use a "book 1/ book 2" method to display the two sets of 25 rather than putting the duplication right after the first design. I really like the book like approach rather than, turning the page and finding the duplicate right there. There are three areas where I would like to see. Improvements. 1 Each of the pictures are named however, it is written in light gray letter on the back left of each picture for the picture to the right. The lettering isn't easy to see. Especially after coloring. 2 The paper quality isn't that great although not the worst I have seen. It is on the thin side. My gel pens leave a "medium heavy" shadow to the back which does interferes with the title to the next page. My markers bleed through the heaviest. Leaving a complete reverse image of the picture. I would like to see better paper used. 3 Non-perforated pages. I was surprised after reading the authors advice to dismantle the book that she hasn't provided perforation . To make the removal of pages easily done. Overall I really like Night Magic and would highly recommend it to others who enjoy Halloween and are looking for designs that aren't childish or too dark a theme.

The paper is fairly thin, but nice and smooth. It responds well to Brutfuner and Black Widow pencils. The artwork is beautiful, with crisp images perfect for fall or Halloween coloring of all ages. There are 2 of every image, separated by the 25 different images. The pages are also single sided, which means I can use my alcohol markers without worrying about ruining an image. I will have to use the blotter sheet, but that's a give in. If you are interested in trying different techniques or using certain color/medium challenges, this is definitely something I would recommend because the double images allows for mistakes or experimentation.

I desperately needed a little therapy coloring sesh and wanted to color something that wasn't a Disney princess. I found Selina's books and fell in love with her art style and was able to get a few good rage colorings out so far. I also love that she has doubles since sometimes my first go is not the greatest if emotions ran high during it. Would absolutely recommend this item as well as looking forward to collecting all of her books and having a "wine and color" girls night soon.

Cute designs!

I absolutely love this coloring book. The artwork is top notch and fun to color. Selina Fenech is a wonderful author and artist and I think this is my 3rd book of hers to date. Each book is unique and has fascinating drawings. Make sure you pay attention to which you choose as some are grayscale. I prefer the ones that are not. Two sets of each of the drawings give you a second chance if you don't happen to like your color choices with your first one. You can also share with a friend or family member. I plan on keeping my second set for when my granddaughters get of age and are able to color this beautifully detailed work. This way they will have one from me and one they did.

I'm pretty well gonna 5-star anything Selina Fench, because I love her artwork, I love the range and variety of art she provides us to colour. I draw, but I don't like colouring my own drawings, but I love colouring other peoples for some reason.... Her Greyscale books are great, they look good when coloured, and teach you how you can shade things yourself in books like this! I have enjoyed this book and will continue too. Another great thing about Selina Fench (And a couple others, but very few), she puts TWO copies of each print in the books she puts out. Why? Because as an artist she knows that oopsies can happen as can wanting to use a different colour scheme on the same picture! I've bought multiples of a couple of her books because of just ONE picture I wanted to keep changing the way I did it :3. So please enjoy her books as much as I am continuing too.