The Flower Year: A Colouring Book Hardcover – Coloring Book, 13 Mar. 2017

The Flower Year is the second colouring book by Leila Duly, following up on the success of the beautiful Floribunda. Again this features Leila's stunning drawings of birds, insects, woodland animals and of course her beautiful flowers.The book is hard-backed with a beautiful pale pink cover and the pages are a beautiful creamy colour and lovely smooth quality. The pages are double-sided so it is not suitable for alcohol markers, but the designs are so delicate I don't think most would want to use them on these illustrations anyway. The book was smaller than I imagined it to be at just 23cm x 18cm so it a lot smaller than Floribunda but it is also smaller than other hardback colouring books like those by Hanna Karlzon, Klara Markova and Maria Trolle which was what I imagined it to be. Some of the pictures are very detailed and a few may prove a little difficult to colour as some of the details are very small, luckily for the majority the size means that the illustrations are less daunting to colour.The inside covers of the book are a beautiful green paper and there is also a ribbon bookmark. The format of the book is that it is broken down by month and the illustrations for each show what plants and flowers are in bloom in that particular month. Drawings of individual flowers are named and it is very reminiscent of "A Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" by Edith Holden on these pages in particular. There is also the occasional rabbit, bird or butterfly amongst the flowers.It is a beautiful book and will probably appeal most as a colouring book to more experienced colourists; however it is such a beautiful book this would be a lovely book just to own and look through as a coffee table book. There are a lot of illustrations in this book and it will take a time to colour, but I do hope someone colours it from start to finish as it really will look spectacular.I received a complimentary copy from the publisher however all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This is an absolutely beautiful colouring book. Everything about it is pure quality. It feels like a treat and is worth every penny of the price.It is beautifully bound in a luxury soft pink hardcover, and the paper is smooth, thick and a creamy colour. There's even a ribbon page marker. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous - some single plants in the style of botanical plates, some wreaths, some whole page designs.There's an index at the back naming each plant featured, so you can check online for colour reference. The book is arranged month by month (with the seasonal plants), so you could even colour month-by-month too, using real live plants as reference and creating a beautiful finished book over a year.I would use coloured pencils on this book, as I wouldn't want to risk any bleeding/buckling etc, and the subject lends itself to coloured pencils beautifully.My only criticism is that the lines are black (thin, but black). I don't understand why black is ever used in adult colouring books. It's OK for kids, but grey should be the norm for adult colouring, especially for artwork of this calibre. However, that doesn't stop this being the loveliest colouring book I've ever seen!I would use coloured pencils on this book, as I wouldn't want any bleeding/buckling etc.

This is a very beautiful book filled from cover to cover with detailed images of delicate flowers.Although the description says paperback it's actually a lovely hardcover book, complete with ribbon page marker. The paper is quite thick and cream in colour. It is worth experimenting with what types of pencil works best because I did notice that my Polychromos did not like the paper. The colours looked patchy and the didn't blend very well, but my regular Faber-Castell coloured pencils worked just fine.The book is divided into 12 sections, showing each month. Each month gives you a title page and seven other pages full of the flowers that bloom during that time, which I think is wonderful. Every page is different, it never feels like you're colouring the same picture twice because there is so much variety. There are single page drawings, pages with a collection of single flowers along with their names and larger pictures that cover a double page. I particularly liked the index pages at the back of the book which gives you the names of all of the plants used in the pictures.I would definitely recommend, it's my new favourite.

All of the previous reviewers have said everything good there is to say - but it is a glorious book and every bit as detailled as her Floribunda book. Purchasers who are more mature in years may require their magnifying glasses though as because of books A5 size the detail can be hard to follow, and working under a lamp may also assist. But is is worth every penny if you like fine and intricate detail. You are likely to spend days on working on each illustration, as there is so much small detail, You get lots of colouring satisfaction for your money. Very satisfying. However,t if you like to knock out your illustrations quickly it may not be the book for you as it demands the patience of the colourist. Sublime!