Lolita Fashion by Glenn Song was released in October 2016. The designs in this adult coloring book are one-sided on non-perforated pages, and the paper is of typical Create Space quality. It’s okay to use with different media, and I suggest putting a blank sheet of paper behind the page when using markers and gel pens. I recommend this with all coloring books. The designs stop well before the spine of the book, so you can spiral-bind the book or remove the pages easily enough, should you desire to do so.
Seven of the pages have borders, most don’t, and all are portrait-oriented. There’s also a test page for colors at the end of the book. According to the illustrator, the designs are a mix of real brands, pop culture and designs he dreamed up himself. You get 39 illustrations. On the reverse page, each design has a number and title. You’ll notice that some numbers repeat and they only go up to 30, but that’s because a few of the designs are of the same dress, but feature a different angle.
While the book is marketed for adults, I think that teenagers who are into Asian-inspired pop culture would enjoy this as well. Also, colorists who are looking for fashion books, especially if they like Gothic and Kawaii inspired clothing designs, even if they didn’t know what Lolita Fashion was, would enjoy this book.
You can preview some of the images from this book on its press release. The images are mannequin-like, so if you feel leery about not getting skin tones etc. just right, you needn’t worry: The focus is on the fashions. Plus, plenty of them are facing backwards, so you don’t need any experience in coloring facial features anyway.
Some of them have what might seem like strange accessories, but that’s because the designs were based on the illustrator’s web comic. You can check out Glenn’s Instagram to get an idea of what I’m talking about, and to also see some ideas of what the images look like when colored.
I find that a page can be completed in a couple of hours or less (of course it depends on how fast or slow you color, what media you use and if you add your own touches, backgrounds etc). Personally, I would go without backgrounds for these. I like that you can really let your imagination loose on the fashions and you don’t have to worry about using the “wrong” colors.
I used markers on this one, except for the hair and hand.
The top picture is a scan, the bottom picture was taken with a cellphone.
I normally don't use soft colors in my colorings, but I tried something different here because I thought it would suit the dress. The picture on top is a 300 dpi scan, the one on the bottom is a simple cellphone picture. Unfortunately, they don't do the picture justice. That's why I normally stay away from these light shades.
