Some Really Good Adult Coloring Books

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Hey all,

Don't know if anyone else has stumbled across these, but within the last week I discovered two really great, recent coloring book series on Amazon that are as much a proper scientific reference as they are an art activity.

First, I found Stanton Fink's series. He's done a lot of paleoart for Wikipedia which you may recognize.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1544933347/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

He's got over 20 books by now in this series, and I noticed he published another earlier this month. I chose "17 Prehistoric Agnathans Everyone Should Know About" and "17 Placoderms Everyone Should Know About" to start. There is a page of good, relevant information for each animal, with references cited in the back. I've got a couple frames done in "Agnathans" and it's been some of the best zen time between writing up my thesis results. It feels like adding color and shading is completing these books, and I intend to keep these on the shelf next to my other references.

Next (actually just last night), I found that Prehistoric Times has their own coloring book series as well on obscure beasties:

https://www.amazon.com/color-Prehistoric-Sharks-Times-Coloring/dp/1983692395/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=what+color+were+sharks&qid=1582564993&s=books&sr=1-1

This series started even more recently, and there are 5 or 6 books so far. Definitely had to get "Sharks and Rays" to start, which purportedly has 50 different animals inside. Looks like there is also scientific info in these books too, but won't receive it until Wednesday to fully see.

This idea had me super thrilled as soon as I saw Stanton Fink's spread. Such a fun collectible paleoart idea I'd never considered for the last 25 years.

Let me know your thoughts!

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Received my copies of "17 Placoderms" and "Sharks and Rays" today.

The Placoderm book by Fink has a very nice range of obscure fish, and a distinct lack of Dunkleosteus which made room for more obscurities. Some might argue the cranial plates on his placoderms should look more hidden, oh well. I like his simple line drawings because they are distinct, pretty accurate, and I think he does a good job of capturing depth. Scientific references cited in back (though not directly in text) provide legitimacy to all the information included. He also likes to organize the animals in his books by earliest to most recent which is a great touch.

The Prehistoric Times series is a little bit simpler. There is a good deal of technical information for all fifty animals, though some inaccurate such as referring to Helicoprion as a shark (while getting it right for Edestus, which is also drawn looking a bit like the Safari Toob Edestus, despite the book being dedicated to Ray Troll, a man who knows how to draw Edestus...) and no references cited section, which instantly makes it a bit less serious than Fink's series. The art is by two different people and while some of the line drawings are overall a bit rough, they are mostly good. Will be fun to color. They also have one on prehistoric crocs...

Overall I like Stanton Fink's art and presentation a bit more overall.

Anyone else care these books exist, or was this the wrong sub-forum? It's kind of art, kind of books n' media I guess.

[Halichoeres]

I bought the PT one a while back because I saw it advertised in the magazine, and I found it mildly interesting. These Fink ones look much cooler! I went to indiebound.org and had them shipped to a book shop in my neighborhood, so hopefully I'll get them in a couple of days. Thanks for bringing those to our attention!

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Glad to pass these along, Halichoeres. I thought someone like you might appreciate books like these.

Indiebound is a good option for those with a close participating bookstore, but in my case I would have had to then drive ~70 miles to pick them up and bring them home

[Gwangi]

I'm glad that they exist and added a couple of the Fink books to my wishlist. I like to color with my daughter but her coloring books are, well, childish. The real trick is convincing her that they would be "dad only" coloring books. So yeah, thanks for sharing!

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Right on, hope these are as enjoyable for you as they have been for me. If I get around to it maybe I will post a pic of a colored two-page spread with the facts page too, from 17 Agnathans.

An extra bit of fun with Fink's books is his inclusion of a "common" name for each animal in addition to the Latin. Pteraspis rostrata for example is also called the "nosy wingfish". I don't know if any paleontologists use his names but it is fun to consider what people might have called these animals if they were still with us today.

[Halichoeres]

Glad to pass these along, Halichoeres. I thought someone like you might appreciate books like these.

Indiebound is a good option for those with a close participating bookstore, but in my case I would have had to then drive ~70 miles to pick them up and bring them home

Oof yeah, in that case I'd probably use Amazon too. Just one of many reasons I feel very lucky to live in Chicago.

[Dean Nonychus]

While the promise of realistic colouring might be inaccurate (I mean is that meant to be my boi, the Deinonychus, or a Velociraptor?) but you know what, there's still some good colouring to found here, especially considering it's for free: https://www.twinkl.co.za/resource/t2-s-350-realistic-dinosaurs-colouring-pages

[EmmaLVV]

Oooo, I do enjoy colouring books. Although I have to keep the super nice ones away from my 3.5 year old!