Animal Querkles: A puzzling colour-by-numbers book Paperback – 2 Jun. 2016

This is one of my favourite colouring in books. First off it's big - A3 size, and the paper is excellent quality. Each picture is given its own page so there's no chance of drawings being ruined should the medium you use bleed through. The concept of each picture is that they're made up of lots of different circles. There are numbers in the shapes the circles make ranging from 1 to 5; 5 is the lightest colour and 1 the darkest. You then choose your colours (could be a gradient of the same colour or a rainbow of different colours in varying shades) and start to colour in. I find working from lightest to darkest works best. It's fun seeing the animals reveal themselves as you go along. You can however sneak a peek at the back of the book to see what the final images should look like. Each images takes a while to colour in (if you're careful like me!), hours at least. I've still got a few more to do in this book and look forward to trying the other books in this range.

Having SOO much fun doing these. It works a treat for social colouring - the pages are big enough for two people to work on at once, and of course you don't know what you're colouring until it's almost done. (I like to try not to see until the end, so as to keep the suspense. It's surprisingly easy to not see what you're colouring - some pictures more so than others - but if you're working upside down, for example, you honestly can't tell until the last circle is done!) They're the right degree of complexity and size, too - much more than this and we'd get bored, but two of us can do it in an hour. Funny though, it can be hard to choose 5 pencils in increasing shades, that will actually go together!Fine work is required. Suitable for adults. (Not that it's UNsuitable for kids, but it's aimed at adults and needs accuracy and a bit of patience.

love this book, so relaxing and great quality

I had never heard of Querkles before but I love adult colouring books so when I was offered this for review on Amazon Vine I put in my request immediately. I have to admit I was a little sceptical about a colour-by-numbers book, sure I loved paint-by-numbers pictures as a child but I was worried it would be far too boring for an adult to colour in. Rest assured this is in no way boring and I'm absolutely loving this colouring book so far!This book contains 20 different images to colour, all printed on a single sheet of A3 paper that is thick enough to colour with sharpie pens without damaging the next picture in the book. The pages are also perforated to make it easy to tear out the designs you're finished with in case you want to frame and display them. Each image is made up of hundreds of interconnected circles of all different sizes and they're all designed to be coloured in using five different colours or five shades of a single colour. Because of the way the images are created it's actually very difficult to tell before starting what animal you're actually going to be creating but there is a page showing black & grey thumbnails of each finished design at the back if you want to take a sneaky peak. Personally I prefer to be surprised as I start colouring.So before you get started you'll need to choose 5 colours for your image. They can be shades of the same colour or contrasting colours but you need to line them up from dark to light, 1 being the darkest and 5 being the lightest. I'd personally recommend using pens to colour the image since the area you'll be colouring is on the large side and pen also has the best chance of hiding the numbers once you're complete. I'm not going to lie you can still see the numbers even through my sharpies but from a slight distance they're not really noticeable and they don't detract from the finished image.I think the hardest part of this colouring book is actually selecting the colours you want to use but it's also a lot of fun. I'd recommend having some scrap paper on hand to try out different combinations before you start colouring the actual book, especially if you're planning on using bold or unusual colour combinations, so that you can get a better idea of what works and what doesn't. Half the fun of this book is going to be experimenting though so don't be afraid to take risks or try something new.I've attached a few pictures to this review:1. Shows an uncoloured image to give you an idea of what the pages look like2. A collage showing how the Giraffe picture slowly comes to life as you add each colour3. A larger pic of the finished Giraffe4. A collage showing the progress I made on the Camel (the second pic in the book)That should be enough to help you decide whether you want to buy this book or not (trust me you DO!) without giving you spoilers for most of the images in the book (there are 18 other designs I've not even coloured in yet!).

it looks amazing and very good quality but I was very surprised it was an A3 not an A4

I'm a big fan of the adult colouring books and drawing, so thought I would try this as it was half price. Really easy to get into, you pick 5 colours from dark to light and colour the circles with the corresponding colour. Very simple and addictive. Often you can tell what the picture is going to be until you have finished. The pages are perforated so they can be removed if wanted. Also the pages are very thick. I used pens for mine, and am going to try sharpies to see if they go through but I don't think they will. The pictures are one sided. The book is larger than I expected, it's A3 but I think this makes the outcome look even better. Definitely recommend and I will be buying the other ones!

Lovely pictures, each one a surprise use any colour or paints for an abstract art piece. Large sizes which you could even frame. I am disabled and a chronic pain sufferer, this helps occupy me, calm my anxiety and take my mind of my pain and I always love the end result, everyone comments on the finished pieces. Recommend for adults and older children for hours of relaxation. Hope they add to their range

I love the Querkles colouring books. They are on individual pages (not another one on the other side of the same paper) and the edges are perforated so you can easily take them out of the book and frame them (which I did as a present!). When you first open the book and look at the drawings, it looks very daunting and you think "Where do I begin?!" But once you start and the pictures begin to appear, it is a great feeling! I personally do one colour at a time rather then swapping back and forth. Will be buying more from the Querkles series when they become available.