At the time of penning this article (August 2015), a quarter of Amazon’s top twenty best-selling books are coloring in books. So what is a grown-up coloring book, and how is it that they’re currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases like E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?
Adult coloring books are, plain and simple, coloring in books for grown ups. Like children’s coloring books, they’re full of outline illustrations made to be completed with colored pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever other media you wish to use.
What’s in a adult coloring in book?
The main difference between adults’ and kids’ color books is the developed versions generally feature less juvenile images and styles. As opposed to superheroes, barnyard animals, and television characters, adult coloring in books are more often stuffed with:
components of the natural world, like trees, flowers, leaves, gardens, animals and insects;
geometric designs;
psychedelic patterns;
repetitive ‘wallpaper’ type patterns;
cities and buildings;
anatomical drawings;
goddesses, angels, and mermaids;
mandalas; and
celtic designs.
Additionally, there are many ‘theme’ specific books available, featuring diverse subjects like cars, steampunk designs, and Art Nouveau patterns.
Why are they so popular?
A Scottish illustrator named Johanna Basford published a history adult coloring books called Secret Garden in 2013, featuring pages of beautifully hand-illustrated ink drawings. The New York Times reported in March that the Korean pop star named Kim Ki-bum posted a picture on Instagram of an ‘delicately colored-in floral pattern’ from Secret Garden. At that time, Ki-bum a massive 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the trend.
The increase in availability of the books reportedly has much about adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults using the books are convinced that they obtain the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring in to be soothing, relaxing, as well as a strategy for de-stressing out of the pressures of life and work.
Among the other great things about adult coloring in books, additionally, they state they enjoy recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by doing a task usually available to children. It takes people back to a less complicated time, and can be a means for parents in order to connect and bond with their children to take a seat into color within them. Needless to say, many parents are already happily coloring in kids’ books for decades, the good news is they’ve choices which aren’t restricted to Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.
To conclude, coloring for adults appears to be an expanding past-time that allows adults to wind down and unplug through the stress within their lives, by doing a hands-on activity that needs minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
To learn more about history adult coloring books browse the best website: read this