Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure and Coloring Book for Adults

I have two previous books from Ms Basford (gace raving 5 star rating) and I preordered 3 copies for myself and my girls who really loved Enchanted Forest. I just opened Lost Ocean and I'm soooo disappointed. This is my least favorite book out of the three. The drawings are beautiful and intricate, however, it is almost impossible to color because the spaces are so tiny. Color pencils will not work in these tiny spaces. You will need ultra fine liners of some sort. Go for 0.5mm or even less. Other wise it will not color the many many teeny tiny spaces and you will be coloring outsode the lines.

This is my first adult coloring book. I really do love it.

There's a nice blend of intricate, detailed areas for folks that like close up coloring and areas that are bigger for those that enjoy large area coloring. I personally like both and would be pretty disappointed if there wasn't a blend of both.

The one thing that I would like to see improvement on is the paper quality. Although the thickness is nice and my markers do not leak through, if I blend too much, the paper starts to disintegrate.

I'm using Tombow 10 pack markers in "Jelly Bean".

I was looking forward to this book and at least 50% of it is a let down. First, the paper is a huge disappointment compared to Enchanted Forest. My first "Preordered" copy arrived with a machine made looking hole (damage from either the printer or the binder) in the center one of the pages and had to be returned. (Amazon was great re: replacement). The second copy arrived two days later intact. The paper in both copies of "Lost Ocean" that I received is noticeably almost see through thin. To triple check myself, I went to Target today, and checked their copies of "Lost Ocean" with their copies of "Enchanted Forest" and the difference in paper quality, side by side, is huge. Hold a page of "Lost Ocean" up, and you can see through the paper, the design on the other side, not so with "Enchanted Forest". Second, there are too many pages with the intricate details that others have complained about. They are so intricate that unless you have the eyes of an eagle a magnifying glass will probably be required to color them. What to use that will make thin enough lines and not bleed through the paper - I have no clue. Once page like this would have been fine, but there are at least 10 pages afflicted with this microscopic line disorder in varying degrees of severity. There are only a few pages in the happily robust illustration size, and the rest are in the range of struggling to avoid eye strain. It is beautiful artwork that has been mangled for coloring by poor layout - had some of the illustrations that are small narrow bands that go across the page been placed on the diagonal the coloring area would have increased by critical fractions of inches. Some of the repeated patterns just look like micro rendered wallpaper. So many love the ocean, they mystique of the ocean, pirate ships, treasure chests, mermaids, etc. expectations were high that this book would be as well done as "Enchanted Forest" or "Secret Garden" and it is a let down. Johanna Basford has the artistic talent - I wish she would go back to the drawing board and redo this book right and on the decent quality paper. I also miss the decent binding - this book is glued. The others were quality sewn.

Johana, you sold yourself out to go with a big publishing house! I (like sooo many others, am so disappointed in the quality of this book.
Ugh! Where do I start? First thing that immediately caught my attention is the color of the pages. White, not cream. I instantly knew the paper was going to be of poorer quality than your other two books which are outstanding. I remember reading on your blog how you made sure that your books had the best quality paper and that it took you quite a while to find it. I imagine Penguin shoved this new crap down your throat and you had no choice but to take it.
Second, no dust jacket?? It was like part of your signature! Why would they even get rid of that?
Third, roughly 50% of the designs are so intricate that I won't be able to color them. I understand that you like to put detail in your work but I believe this one is too over the top. What type of media are we supposed to use to color those teeny, tiny spaces in so many of the pages?
Fourth, goes right back to the quality of the pages: bleed through! YIKES!!!!
Fifth: again, the quality of the pages do not allow for too much layering of any type of media.

I could go on and on with my disappointment. As it is this is probably the longest review I have ever written on anything.

Johana, I truly hope you find another publisher and don't just see the dollar signs waved in front of your eyes.

Very unhappy with the quality of the paper of my book. I like to color with Staedtler pens with bleed through this paper. I have done some research and found out there are two printings of this book. The American copy comes without the dust cover and with thinner paper. Apparently there is a Chinese printing that comes like the past books, with a dust cover and with the better paper. However, there is no way to tell the difference on this product description. I am so unhappy with the quality that I would return it if I hadn't already colored most of a page.

UPDATE:
I would like to add an update & increase a star on my review. After working in this book now for a few weeks, I have realized that the color of the paper is much more favorable to the color of Secret Garden for these images of the ocean and for the color palette. I also think the paper quality is a little better than originally thought. WITH THAT SAID, when you use colored pencils especially (and use a blender), it causes the corresponding pages to rub the images of the drawings through the pages. This paper quality could really still be much better and when that *hopefully* comes out, I will be buying another one so that I can use the images on oppostie pages that were ruined with either bleed through or image rub-off.
USED: Prismacolor Colored Pencils, Stabilo Point 88 Pens, and Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Pens

The drawings are beautiful; however, the paper is awful. Considering I have the staedler triplus pens that are branded "Johanna basford" and they bleed through this paper - I would say that's very wrong. I have the secret garden book and it is FABULOUS. Never have bleed-through with any medium I have used. This book's paper is just not up to the quality of secret garden. I'm really disappointed because if I saw this in person before buying it...I wouldn't have. So this isn't a negative review of the artwork, but a definite negative review of the publisher.

I've had Lost Ocean preordered for many months now. I was extremely excited when the time finally came for it to be delivered. I was checking my front step every hour as it was out for delivery. The second I got it, I ripped it open and skimmed the pages. All I really saw was patterns and mandalas. I buy Johanna's books because they hardly ever had patterns or mandalas since I don't enjoy doing them. Also, compared to her other books, it has some very small detail. Me and many other colorers in my Coloring Group have trouble with small spaces. We have to strain our eyes to do it, and then by the time we get one little space done, we have a splitting headache. Also, our pencils and markers are way to big for most of the spaces since they are so tiny. I have also heard from a few of our groups members that Staedtler markers are bleeding through their pages. There's only maybe 10 pages I will probably color. I wish the book was more like the fold out page in the back. I was expecting way more types of fish and tens of different kinds of sea creatures. Don't get me wrong, the book is beautiful and Johanna has some really amazing talent, but I was definitely expecting more after such build up of the book.

Publisher should have learned from first release of "The Secret Garden" and continued to use higher quality paper. Otherwise, love the drawings as much as previous books!! There are detailed drawings as well as larger types and if you don't want to color in such detail, just color several smaller segments in with the same color ... You are an adult, you can color outside the lines if you want to!! ; )

The artwork is WAY too tiny to color and the quality of this book is much cheaper feeling than Enchanted Forest. The dust cover added a great quality to it that is missing and the pages just feel cheap. It's completely missing that "wow! I can't wait to color this!" experience. The drawings are beautiful to look at but unless you have itty bitty markers, rock solid, steady hands and absolutely perfect vision this is not going to be a zen coloring experience. I pre-ordered and I'm horribly disappointed.

This is the third & long awaited coloring book of Ms Basfod. Her fan base is huge all over the world with adult colorists patiently looking in stores & online for releases & orders. But does Ms Basford or her publisher think at all about her legion of fans?! Once again this is a book PRINTED ON BOTH SIDES...and the biggest kick...the paper is so absobant that even gel pens & water based markers bleed through. Forget the "Inky" adventure, this is a colored pencil adventure. But the detail is so tiny for pencils! I and others would certainly pay more for one sided, perforated, removable pages. There is a pull out at the back. But it is printed on both sides!! So because I like this artist & this book in particular, I have purchased 2 copies & will cut the pages out!! Ms Basford, with your next "inky" adventure, how about you think of your coloring fans!!