I like to draw, but sometimes I don’t want to think too hard about where all the lines go. That’s when I’m most grateful for the new coloring books for adults. I joined several coloring groups on Facebook to find out what people are coloring and what they are coloring with. It turns out that cats are almost as popular in coloring books as they are on the Web in general.

My newest coloring book is all about cats. It’s called Color Cats by Margaret Gates Root. Coloring books are a new venture for Margaret Gates Root, who founded the Feline Nutrition Society in 2008 and the Feline Nutrition Foundation in 2011. I was lucky to see a post in one of the coloring groups that the author would give free copies of the book to bloggers who were willing to review it. (I didn’t tell her that Cheshire actually owns the blog when I eagerly said I would love a copy. I hope she doesn’t mind!)

You can see how well she knows cats in the pictures in Color Cats, which are true to life both in the look of the cats and the behaviors she depicts in the coloring pages. You can see all the images in the book on the companion website,  where you can also order a few sample pages to try out. The level of complexity in the scenes varies from simple to quite challenging, so the book will appeal to a range of skill levels. The book lists for $9.95 on Amazon and is currently on sale for $8.96.

Although the cover is vertical, all 32 scenes for coloring are horizontal. The colorist doesn’t have to maneuver around the spine of the book to get a comfortable coloring angle.

The pictures are printed on one side of the paper, which makes it easy to avoid problems from bleed-through. The paper is nicer than a lot of the coloring books I have, although I do need to put a few sheets of blotting paper under the image I am coloring to protect the page underneath when I’m coloring with markers.

I finished one scene with Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils. The pencils cover and blend well. Of course, the tabby cat on the fridge had to be orange and the one on the counter black. I use violets, reds, and blues to convey shades of black. This one looks OK in the photo but better in person. I colored this kitchen Retro, with a harvest gold refrigerator, because all the appliances I see now are either white or stainless steel. The ’70s color scheme was more fun for the pencils.

I started another page to see how my Copic markers work on this paper. They bleed through, as I expected. They also blend well, which I had doubted. This is a detail of one of the more complex images in the book, whereas the kitchen scene has fewer tiny areas to color.

I’m looking forward to finishing this Christmas scene. Before Christmas, I hope!

There’s lots of room for creativity in coloring the scenes in this book. I’m interested to follow Color Cats Coloring Books on Facebook to post my completed images and see how other colorists approach these inviting scenes.

This is Color Cats BOOK ONE. I’m already looking forward to the next book.