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The Reverse Coloring Book™: The Book Has the Colors, You Draw the Lines!
The book has the colors, you draw the the creative possibilities are endless!
Reverse coloring is a totally new idea in creativity and so simple, and so profoundly satisfying. Artist Kendra Norton created these beautiful and whimsical unfinished watercolors to provide a gentle visual guide for your own creativity and exploration.
Trace the shapes, draw in figures, doodle, shade, cover an area with dots. Each page is an invitation to slow down, let your mind drift, and be surprised by your own creativity. And because reverse coloring requires no “staying inside the lines,” it empowers your artistic self-confidence while it calms the mind.
The Reverse Coloring Book™ includes 50 original works of art, printed on sturdy paper that’s single-sided and perforated. All you need is a pen.
Reverse coloring is a totally new idea in creativity and so simple, and so profoundly satisfying. Artist Kendra Norton created these beautiful and whimsical unfinished watercolors to provide a gentle visual guide for your own creativity and exploration.
Trace the shapes, draw in figures, doodle, shade, cover an area with dots. Each page is an invitation to slow down, let your mind drift, and be surprised by your own creativity. And because reverse coloring requires no “staying inside the lines,” it empowers your artistic self-confidence while it calms the mind.
The Reverse Coloring Book™ includes 50 original works of art, printed on sturdy paper that’s single-sided and perforated. All you need is a pen.
104 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2021
7 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 6, 2021
WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER PROJECT!! it was hard for me to find my joy in this project, so i let it kinda crumble, but i hate failing, so i am going to finish it and IT WILL BE MAGNIFICENT!
i misjudged what this book was. i thought "reverse coloring book" meant that they would supply pages of interesting colors and shapes and the onus would be upon the user to rorschach the pictures up out of it like michelangelo setting the angel free from the marble. i thought it would be like that cloud sketching book i used for a long-ago project.
it is not.
the book does contain pages of colors and shapes, but they don't leave a lot up to interpretation.
you're just there to do the grunt-work of making it pop
imma do it my way anyway, and maybe it will work and maybe it won't.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN LET'S FIND OUT!
SEPTEMBER 1
in the tradition of the cluttered canvases of bosch or where's waldo?, here the artist has depicted a number of ghosts, both human and animal, descending several vines to mingle with the living, to their great distress. a fleeing centaur represents our discomfort with our own mortality while the ghost sneaking up on another ghost and startling it is a clear reference to the bard's famous "haunters gonna haunt" soliloquy. other notable figures are the puking ghost whose partner is holding back their ghost-hair as well as several birds and good riddance to them. the ghosts above and several of the terrestrial figures running away are kinda interchangeable and i'm sure there's some artsy reason for that and NOT a reflection on the artist's limited skills.
SEPTEMBER 2:
this piece is called MORNING COMMUTE, NYFC 2021. in it, i am depicted wearing my mask properly (nose and mouth BOTH covered, tyvm) whilst everyone around me ignores the MTA's rules and basic city-living courtesy; puppy-piling in and unleashing covid-spores all over the place. it's maybe not quite this bad, but this is how it feels. don't worry—i just renewed my artistic license so i'm not gonna get fined over stretching the truth for dramatic effect.
SEPTEMBER 3:
so, i didn't want to be some basic bitch horse led to a well to outline someone else's flowers, and when i saw all these little faces popping out at me,
instead of coming up with a plan to fine-tune them into a cohesive visual narrative, i yelled "FACES" like an unbright child and doodled them in, so here's...this. ta-daaa? i could bullshit and say they are shooting stars or the fairies that bring dreams to children all over the world, but real talk: this is probably how this project's gonna go—pages cluttered with heaps of unrelated nonsense; the artistic equivalent of hoarding, signifying nothing. to celebrate the uneasy relationship between wildly disparate things occupying the same space, please enjoy this oingo boingo song whose title i am borrowing for my masterpiece: REPTILES AND SAMURAI
woof.
SEPTEMBER 4
although this brings to mind the words of the great poet rockwell, "i always feel like somebody's watchin' me...and i got no privacy," there's no 'me' in 'reverse coloring book.' we're on this journey together, so instead i offer this more inclusive poem: eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. eyeballs everywhere! eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. floating through the air!
SEPTEMBER 5
i had to bake a million things last night and i didn't have time to post, so here's a belated rainbow salad. it would probably taste horrible, ingredient-wise, but rainbow-lovers can't be choosers.
SEPTEMBER 6
the sads came back and this is what they look like, so imma call this HASHTAGMOOD and go to bed sorry goodbye.
SEPTEMBER 7
i drank a bottle of wine with spooky trees on the label and then drawed this flock of me-gulls. this week has been terrible enjoy!
SEPTEMBER 8
here are a bunch of ballerina-fairies and some of them got smooshed by a steamroller. oops.
SEPTEMBER 9
it's cirque de les écureuils! which is, in my poorly remembered french, a version of cirque du soleil for acrobat squirrels, who descend their twirling ropes with athleticism and grace; all twitchy tails and twitching noses.
SEPTEMBER 10
all of your imaginary friends, all at once!
SEPTEMBER 11
an assortment of lizards, dinosaurs, and sticky-salamander-type things
SEPTEMBER 12
i figured, before the end of the month, i should do ONE the way they wanted me to. still sick - back to bed for meeeee and all apologies. again. for sucking.
i haven't done today's drawing yet, but i'm here to backfill the ones i didn't post when i was busy being a glum-bum.
SEPTEMBER 13
this photo is trash, but i've already altered the page, so it's here to stay, sorry!
i decided to spruce this one up using my glitter markers, only to find that they don't really photograph as glittery, so i guess i'm the only one who is going to enjoy it. trust me, it's magnificent.
SEPTEMBER 14
WHERE'S WALDO?? and why do i draw so many things throwing up? what's wrong with me?
SEPTEMBER 15
self-portrait of me being a big fat baby these past few days. i'm going to try to be better and get tonight's done...tonight. ugh, this life is a garbage fire...
SEPTEMBER 16
this is, of course, my inexpertly-rendered homage to the feline-predator in Panther, who changes form on nearly every page of the book, but is always, ALWAYS, very creepy.
ugh, i got way behind. i'm dropping a bunch now, with apologies for my failure to keep up this month. this book was NOT as much fun as i thought it would be.
SEPTEMBER 17
this is a congregation of alligators baited with corn, waiting for birds. i love it when gators high-five
SEPTEMBER 18
this one's the flipside of september 10: all of your nightmares, all at once. so many snouts here. i'm sorry i'm so bad at this and just end up drawing a bunch of ugly little things crammed together. i don't have an artist's creative eye; i prefer to be told what to draw, and even then it's a mixed bag.
SEPTEMBER 19
this is the s.s. helminth—an ark of pestilence carrying various intestinal parasites not wanted on the journey on that other ark and when they arrive, only dr webber will be happy to see them.
tapeworms and roundworms and hookworms oh my!
SEPTEMBER 20
this was meant to be another covid drawing—all these little faces, masked and socially distant in their little boxes while the danger-red of pandemic rages beyond their protective walls. instead it looks like a bunch of jolly smiling folk, so maybe it’s all over now?
SEPTEMBER 21
more self-portraits. i had to fudge a few of these but it's far from the worst gaffe i've committed w/r/t this project...
SEPTEMBER 22
these are three doozers playing hide-and-seek and one of them is about to be found.
SEPTEMBER 23
what will this become today? (hopefully today)
turns out, it will be an UNDERSEA ADVENTURE! and i came in under deadline.
SEPTEMBER 24
ok, this picture is blurry AF, and tomorrow i will take a better one, but i'm pleased enough that i managed to bang this out and post it. prettying it up can wait until tomorrow, right? anyway, it's a bunch of evil birds in varying stages of concealment. watch yer backs.
i misjudged what this book was. i thought "reverse coloring book" meant that they would supply pages of interesting colors and shapes and the onus would be upon the user to rorschach the pictures up out of it like michelangelo setting the angel free from the marble. i thought it would be like that cloud sketching book i used for a long-ago project.
it is not.
the book does contain pages of colors and shapes, but they don't leave a lot up to interpretation.
you're just there to do the grunt-work of making it pop
imma do it my way anyway, and maybe it will work and maybe it won't.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN LET'S FIND OUT!
SEPTEMBER 1
in the tradition of the cluttered canvases of bosch or where's waldo?, here the artist has depicted a number of ghosts, both human and animal, descending several vines to mingle with the living, to their great distress. a fleeing centaur represents our discomfort with our own mortality while the ghost sneaking up on another ghost and startling it is a clear reference to the bard's famous "haunters gonna haunt" soliloquy. other notable figures are the puking ghost whose partner is holding back their ghost-hair as well as several birds and good riddance to them. the ghosts above and several of the terrestrial figures running away are kinda interchangeable and i'm sure there's some artsy reason for that and NOT a reflection on the artist's limited skills.
SEPTEMBER 2:
this piece is called MORNING COMMUTE, NYFC 2021. in it, i am depicted wearing my mask properly (nose and mouth BOTH covered, tyvm) whilst everyone around me ignores the MTA's rules and basic city-living courtesy; puppy-piling in and unleashing covid-spores all over the place. it's maybe not quite this bad, but this is how it feels. don't worry—i just renewed my artistic license so i'm not gonna get fined over stretching the truth for dramatic effect.
SEPTEMBER 3:
so, i didn't want to be some basic bitch horse led to a well to outline someone else's flowers, and when i saw all these little faces popping out at me,
instead of coming up with a plan to fine-tune them into a cohesive visual narrative, i yelled "FACES" like an unbright child and doodled them in, so here's...this. ta-daaa? i could bullshit and say they are shooting stars or the fairies that bring dreams to children all over the world, but real talk: this is probably how this project's gonna go—pages cluttered with heaps of unrelated nonsense; the artistic equivalent of hoarding, signifying nothing. to celebrate the uneasy relationship between wildly disparate things occupying the same space, please enjoy this oingo boingo song whose title i am borrowing for my masterpiece: REPTILES AND SAMURAI
woof.
SEPTEMBER 4
although this brings to mind the words of the great poet rockwell, "i always feel like somebody's watchin' me...and i got no privacy," there's no 'me' in 'reverse coloring book.' we're on this journey together, so instead i offer this more inclusive poem: eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. eyeballs everywhere! eyeballs, eyeballs, eyeballs. floating through the air!
SEPTEMBER 5
i had to bake a million things last night and i didn't have time to post, so here's a belated rainbow salad. it would probably taste horrible, ingredient-wise, but rainbow-lovers can't be choosers.
SEPTEMBER 6
the sads came back and this is what they look like, so imma call this HASHTAGMOOD and go to bed sorry goodbye.
SEPTEMBER 7
i drank a bottle of wine with spooky trees on the label and then drawed this flock of me-gulls. this week has been terrible enjoy!
SEPTEMBER 8
here are a bunch of ballerina-fairies and some of them got smooshed by a steamroller. oops.
SEPTEMBER 9
it's cirque de les écureuils! which is, in my poorly remembered french, a version of cirque du soleil for acrobat squirrels, who descend their twirling ropes with athleticism and grace; all twitchy tails and twitching noses.
SEPTEMBER 10
all of your imaginary friends, all at once!
SEPTEMBER 11
an assortment of lizards, dinosaurs, and sticky-salamander-type things
SEPTEMBER 12
i figured, before the end of the month, i should do ONE the way they wanted me to. still sick - back to bed for meeeee and all apologies. again. for sucking.
i haven't done today's drawing yet, but i'm here to backfill the ones i didn't post when i was busy being a glum-bum.
SEPTEMBER 13
this photo is trash, but i've already altered the page, so it's here to stay, sorry!
i decided to spruce this one up using my glitter markers, only to find that they don't really photograph as glittery, so i guess i'm the only one who is going to enjoy it. trust me, it's magnificent.
SEPTEMBER 14
WHERE'S WALDO?? and why do i draw so many things throwing up? what's wrong with me?
SEPTEMBER 15
self-portrait of me being a big fat baby these past few days. i'm going to try to be better and get tonight's done...tonight. ugh, this life is a garbage fire...
SEPTEMBER 16
this is, of course, my inexpertly-rendered homage to the feline-predator in Panther, who changes form on nearly every page of the book, but is always, ALWAYS, very creepy.
ugh, i got way behind. i'm dropping a bunch now, with apologies for my failure to keep up this month. this book was NOT as much fun as i thought it would be.
SEPTEMBER 17
this is a congregation of alligators baited with corn, waiting for birds. i love it when gators high-five
SEPTEMBER 18
this one's the flipside of september 10: all of your nightmares, all at once. so many snouts here. i'm sorry i'm so bad at this and just end up drawing a bunch of ugly little things crammed together. i don't have an artist's creative eye; i prefer to be told what to draw, and even then it's a mixed bag.
SEPTEMBER 19
this is the s.s. helminth—an ark of pestilence carrying various intestinal parasites not wanted on the journey on that other ark and when they arrive, only dr webber will be happy to see them.
tapeworms and roundworms and hookworms oh my!
SEPTEMBER 20
this was meant to be another covid drawing—all these little faces, masked and socially distant in their little boxes while the danger-red of pandemic rages beyond their protective walls. instead it looks like a bunch of jolly smiling folk, so maybe it’s all over now?
SEPTEMBER 21
more self-portraits. i had to fudge a few of these but it's far from the worst gaffe i've committed w/r/t this project...
SEPTEMBER 22
these are three doozers playing hide-and-seek and one of them is about to be found.
SEPTEMBER 23
what will this become today? (hopefully today)
turns out, it will be an UNDERSEA ADVENTURE! and i came in under deadline.
SEPTEMBER 24
ok, this picture is blurry AF, and tomorrow i will take a better one, but i'm pleased enough that i managed to bang this out and post it. prettying it up can wait until tomorrow, right? anyway, it's a bunch of evil birds in varying stages of concealment. watch yer backs.
November 10, 2021
I don't find any reasons to rate this reverse coloring book less than 5 stars because it magically calms me down for whatever reasons there is. I'm not an artsy person, and this is my very first encounter with such coloring book and the idea of drawing lines on top of bunch of colours instead of the traditional coloring books like mandala, abstracts, etc, is mind blowing. Coloring usually tires me up very quickly, and what a better decisions, to DRAW instead? Surprisingly, as you draw, you'll got to see what it has become. It could turned out looking like flowers, leaves, trees, clouds, even animals and human forms 🤯 Totally up to your creativity and imaginations.
It allows me to relax and practice my breathing. If it wasn't for the background music, you would hear me breathing like a rhino 🦏! 🤣 If you are looking for something simple to do as a mindful activity, I would highly recommend this.
A relax mom, a happy child!
It allows me to relax and practice my breathing. If it wasn't for the background music, you would hear me breathing like a rhino 🦏! 🤣 If you are looking for something simple to do as a mindful activity, I would highly recommend this.
A relax mom, a happy child!
November 18, 2021
This is such a creative idea! With all the swirling colors on the page, it will really spark your imagination in a new way when you have to put in the lines and bring clarity to the page. I am so impressed with this beautiful book!
This whole book is so bright and attractive! Most of the pages are just random swirls of color. Some of the pages are very obviously flowers, but it would be interesting to challenge yourself to make it look like something other than flowers, or add little details of animals and insects into the scene as well.
Each page is thick cardstock and they are perforated so that you can remove them from the book for easier drawing or for display. There are also some tips and instructions at the beginning to give you some ideas about using shading, rounded edges, tracing, dots, spirals, and what type of pen to use. But ultimately, it's up to you to use your imagination and create something unique!
This is such an inspiring book, and a great place to go if you are feeling some creative burn-out. A fresh new look at coloring might be just what you need to replenish those creative juices!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
This whole book is so bright and attractive! Most of the pages are just random swirls of color. Some of the pages are very obviously flowers, but it would be interesting to challenge yourself to make it look like something other than flowers, or add little details of animals and insects into the scene as well.
Each page is thick cardstock and they are perforated so that you can remove them from the book for easier drawing or for display. There are also some tips and instructions at the beginning to give you some ideas about using shading, rounded edges, tracing, dots, spirals, and what type of pen to use. But ultimately, it's up to you to use your imagination and create something unique!
This is such an inspiring book, and a great place to go if you are feeling some creative burn-out. A fresh new look at coloring might be just what you need to replenish those creative juices!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.
August 14, 2024
This is a fun take on a coloring book
January 3, 2022
This is the best idea for a coloring book, ever! I got this for Christmas and I've only done two, because I'm scared that I'll run out of pages to draw 🤦♀️! But don't worry, there's 50 pages!
https://pin.it/6V80U5D
This pin inspired me to be less strict about my art, and I ended up with a really cool page, full of lots of doodles and stuff. This is a great creative output, and it's 100% worth your money!
https://pin.it/6V80U5D
This pin inspired me to be less strict about my art, and I ended up with a really cool page, full of lots of doodles and stuff. This is a great creative output, and it's 100% worth your money!
June 7, 2023
Egal ob beim Telefonieren wenn man in Warteschlangen festhängt, zum Feierabend oder Abends zum runterkommen.
Es ist eine tolle art zu Doodln.
Dieses Malbuch macht mir so viel Spaß.
Und ich kann immer wieder zu Seiten zurück gehen, die ich an manchen Abenden schon als fertig empfunden hatte, und kann weiter malen.
Egal ob mal "künstlerisch begabt" ist oder nicht dieses Buch ist für jeden etwas.
Es ist eine tolle art zu Doodln.
Dieses Malbuch macht mir so viel Spaß.
Und ich kann immer wieder zu Seiten zurück gehen, die ich an manchen Abenden schon als fertig empfunden hatte, und kann weiter malen.
Egal ob mal "künstlerisch begabt" ist oder nicht dieses Buch ist für jeden etwas.
December 11, 2022
This book is marvelous for someone like me who has problems painting inside the lines! I enjoy playing with it so much. It was a gift from my husband, and since he gave it to me, I've been spending time with it. The images bring out a lot of creativity and calm in me. Beautiful.
August 19, 2022
Not as great as i was expecting.
December 25, 2024
The most creative idea unfinished watercolor paintings that you can finish yourself!! Plus, it’s very calming! 😌
December 10, 2024
I HAD TO GIVE THIS COLORING BOOK FIVE STARS......
I hardly EVER give a book five stars...
The Reverse Coloring Book Deserves every star of these five because the idea behind this coloring book is so wonderfully unique & I loved that I was able to create something out of the box...
Really fun and enjoyable!
I hardly EVER give a book five stars...
The Reverse Coloring Book Deserves every star of these five because the idea behind this coloring book is so wonderfully unique & I loved that I was able to create something out of the box...
Really fun and enjoyable!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews