Several months ago, I started seeing these new coloring books popping up on the coloring book groups I’m in on Facebook. People were coloring simply GORGEOUS images with long, wavy hair, and whimsical landscapes.
Upon further inspection, I discovered that these images were colored pages from books by Swedish artist and designer Hanna Karlzon. Her work is drawn by hand with pen and ink. Her subjects include people, forest creatures, flowers, insects, crystals, and houses, all with an added touch of whimsy: a towering palace on top of a snail; a girl surrounded by her own hair with her eyes covered by a butterfly; a spread of beautifully patterned birds.
Colorists have done incredible things with her drawings — here is a quick selection from Instagram:
Simply beautiful. I had to have them!
But as I started digging in to how to get my hands on her coloring books, I was dismayed to find that the books were only available in Sweden.
Cue the ultimate sadness.
But, I don’t have to be sad any longer… because Hanna’s books are coming out for U.S. audiences tomorrow!
Available Coloring Books by Hanna Karlzon
Two coloring books will be released tomorrow (both reviewed in detail below):
Daydreams
Summer Nights
There will also be two sets of 20 coloring postcards:
Daydreams Coloring Postcards
Winter Dreams Coloring Postcards
And an “artist’s edition” of Daydreams, featuring 20 illustrations from the original Daydreams coloring book blown up larger and printed on just one side of heavy cardstock:
Daydreams Artist’s Edition Coloring Book
Click the images above to explore the books on Amazon, and keep reading for a detailed review of Daydreams and Summer Nights.
Thank you to Gibbs Smith, who provided me with free advance copies of Hanna’s books for this review. Also, this page contains some affiliate links. That means that if you buy anything, at no extra cost to you, you’ll be helping support my coloring book addiction. I appreciate it!
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Overview: Daydreams & Summer Nights
For this review, I’ll be taking a look at Daydreams and Summer Nights, the newly-available coloring books by the Swedish artist and designer Hanna Karlzon.
First things first, these books themselves are simply gorgeous. They are hardcover with nice, thick covers and a fabric covered spine. The cover and spine of both books are accented with beautiful gold foil. You can see the foil in the image above, in the title and flowers on Daydreams, and in the design on Summer Nights. They feel incredibly sturdy and they are absolutely beautiful to look at.
Once you crack open the book, the luxury does not stop. Both coloring books open with a “This book belongs to:” page a la Secret Garden, with a space for your name and a border of flora and fauna to color. Both books are 96 pages long.
The paper is a creamy white with just the slightest warmth to it. The pages themselves are satisfyingly thick, and in fact, when I was coloring with my Tombow dual-ended brush pens and Staedtler triplus fineliners, neither one bled at all through. That’s good news, since the designs are printed on both sides, straight up to the edge of the page. The texture is a really crisp, pleasant one for both colored pencils and markers.
I’m not lying when I say the artwork in these coloring books is some of my favorite in any coloring book I’ve tried, and as you may have guessed I have colored in a LOT of coloring books. I love the subject matter and the beautiful surrealism to a lot of the designs, which you will see in the sample spreads below. There is a good mix of contained, single-page designs and two-page spreads.
The lines are thicker than in a lot of coloring books. This is something I personally appreciate — it means that I don’t need to be quite as exact with my pencils or markers when I’m filling in the spaces, and they also accommodate for shaky hands! The line thickness also gives the finished drawing a designy, “illustrated” feel that I really like. The drawings have the “suggestion” of shading in certain places — often, using extra black dots — but nothing that prevents you from doing your own shading, which is definitely an issue I have with some coloring books.
As I was coloring, I came across two cons, both having to do with the binding. First and most immediately obvious is that the book does not lay open flat. It can be a little tricky when you first start coloring to get the book to lay open on its own, and I ended up lightly cracking the spine to get it to stay put. (Fortunately, you can’t tell from looking at the spine!) As I colored, I noticed the second con: the design dips into the spine, and it can be difficult to color in the very center of the book on those two-page spreads.
However, neither of those two slight issues detracted greatly from my enjoyment of the book. I spent about 2-4 hours per page coloring while listening to audiobooks for work on my Audible account. It was so relaxing I really wanted to just keep coloring and not stop to write this review, which I’ll take as a good sign!!
Now, on to a detailed look at each book…
Daydreams
I fell in love with this book the moment I saw it. Even the cover design is perfect — I love that kitschy shade of green as a backdrop for the bird and flower design, and of course the foil stamping is lovely.
Flipping through the book, here are some of the subjects you will see:
- Patterned and floral forest animals
- Insects, especially butterflies
- Locks and keys
- Birds, including peacocks and owls
- Flowers
- Houses and palaces
- Mushrooms and toadstools
- Nautical themes: fish, ships, octopi
- Women with long flowing hair, and sometimes pretty patterned tattoos
- Crystals, jewels, and jewelry
Often these things will be in unexpectedly whimsical or surreal combinations: a city interspersed with toadstools, animals collecting jewels and jewelry, girls riding or holding giant patterned birds.
Here are two pages I was working on in my copy, one complete and one in-progress:
The first page, with the birds, I colored with Tombow dual-ended brush pens and Staedtler triplus fineliners. I started at the top left of the drawing with just a small set of 9 Tombow pens, but my 96 pack arrived midway through working on it so of course I broke out the new colors!! I had a really fun time brainstorming color combinations for each bird, though the effect is a little crazy. If I colored it again, I might pick just two or three color schemes to use across all the birds. That way I could also color in the background, which I feel like I can’t color now lest I make some of the birds look too similar to the background color!
The second page is not at all finished (hey, colored pencils take a long time!), but I used my Caran d’Ache Pablos. I’m really excited to get to the houses soon!
Like I said before, I had absolutely NO bleed through from any of my markers. Your results may vary depending on what you are using (alcohol-based markers, in particular, might be the type to bleed through a book like this), so use one of the earlier pages to test a swatch of color to see if it comes through. Of course, if you are using wet media that bleeds through, be sure to protect the pages below with a few extra sheets of paper!
Here is a flipthrough video of the Swedish edition of the book, which has all the same designs:
Overall, I really loved this book. There is honestly not a page I do not like in the entire thing, and I highly recommend you pick up a copy if you like the designs. You will not be disappointed!
Here are some more sample pages from the book. This image is pinnable — just scroll to the center and hover to get the “Pin It” button!
Summer Nights
Summer Nights is Hanna Karlzon’s second coloring book and every bit as beautiful as the one above.
Here are some of the things you will see, flipping through the book:
- Stars
- Locks and keys
- Flowers
- Frogs and toadstools
- Girls with long, flowing hair and tattoos
- Insects and spiders
- Forest animals, reptiles, fish, and birds
- Cats and mice
- Gems, crystals, jewelry, and feathers
- Houses and other buildings
Again, these are often in surprising combinations.
Here are two pages I colored. Neither one is quite done — had to finish this review! — but here they are:
For both, I used my new 96 pack of Tombow dual-ended brush pens, and it was total bliss. I loved coloring in the crystals, especially!
Take a look at the flipthrough video below:
Like Daydreams, I really enjoyed Summer Nights. I would definitely recommend it — it has a heavier emphasis on animals than the first book, and tons of gorgeous pages to really sink your teeth into.
Here are some more sample pages from the book. This image is pinnable — just scroll to the center and hover to get the “Pin It” button!
Which one should I get?
So, I’m sure you are thinking right now, okay, both these books are gorgeous, so how do I pick?! and in response I say… bummer! That is one TOUGH decision!
Both Daydreams and Summer Nights have an emphasis on beautiful, whimsical imagery. Daydreams is a little heavier on the florals, as far as I can tell, while Summer Nights definitely has more animals. Both have a few pages with gorgeous ladies and their long, flowing locks. Take a look at the sample pages and the flipthrough videos above, and you may see a few designs you just have to have, and that will help you make up your mind!
Or, why not just grab them both? They are both very similar, and by getting them both, you’ll have a matched set and TONS of choice for what to color next! At the moment, the preorder pricing has a nice drop from the list price, which makes right now an awesome time to pick up both copies.
Then again, maybe you’d prefer postcard sized? Don’t forget about Daydreams and Winter Dreams coloring postcards. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the oversized, beautiful artist’s edition of Daydreams to consider.
Honestly, these are all books I can see myself coloring cover to cover, I love all the designs that much, so any way you go is sure to be a winner. Enjoy!
Always enjoy reading your articles. Thanks so much…!
I’m so glad, Elizabeth! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment! :)
Love all these books. It is so difficult to choose! Your emails are always interesting!
Aww, thank you Nancy!! I absolutely adore these books… they’re some of my favorites! :)
Thanks so much for this awesome read. My Mom loves to color and I came across these books. Do you know where I can buy the 1st edition of these beautiful coloring books? I found them on Amazon, but they are the 2nd edition, and many people complained about the paper quality being so bad. Most comments said the 1st edition of these coloring books had the good, high quality paper.
Hi Renee, thanks for stopping by!
I’ve heard about the printing issues with the second edition and agree that it’s very disappointing! If you are a deadline (ie, Christmas) I would say the surest bet to make sure you get the first edition would be to purchase your copy at a brick and mortar store like B&N, though I would call ahead first to make sure they have it in stock! Then, you can see the book in person and it should be pretty easy to determine the quality of the paper. (I have the first edition and the pages are thick and smooth — I’ve heard the second edition is thin and too rough for pencils.)
If you do order online and you receive a copy with worse paper, I imagine you could exchange it for a better copy! I’ve contacted the publisher in case they have any other ideas, because I’ve gotten this question a few times now. I’ll let you know what they say!