During the time of scripting this article (August 2015), 1 / 4 of Amazon’s top twenty best-selling books are coloring in gossip columns. So what is a grown-up coloring book, and just how is it that these are currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases including E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?
Adult coloring books are, plain and simple, coloring in gossip columns for grown ups. Like children’s coloring books, these are filled with outline illustrations meant to be filled in 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 grown up versions generally feature less juvenile images and designs. As an alternative to superheroes, barnyard animals, and television characters, adult coloring in gossip columns are more often filled with:
elements of the natural world, including 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 including cars, steampunk designs, and Art Nouveau patterns.
Why are they very 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 a Korean pop star named Kim Ki-bum posted an image on Instagram of an ‘delicately colored-in floral pattern’ from Secret Garden. During the time, Ki-bum had a massive 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the trend.
The expansion in rise in popularity of the books reportedly has much related to adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults using the books claim that they get the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring directly into be soothing, relaxing, and a means of de-stressing outside the pressures of life and work.
One of many other advantages of adult coloring in gossip columns, additionally, they state they enjoy recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by starting an activity usually available to children. It requires people returning to a less complicated time, and may be also a means for folks to connect and bond with their children to stay into color in with them. Obviously, many parents happen to be happily coloring in kids’ books for many years, the good news is they have choices that are not limited by Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.
To conclude, coloring for adults seems to be an evergrowing past-time that enables adults to wind down and unplug through the stress inside their lives, by starting a hands-on activity that needs minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
For additional information about history adult coloring books go to this website: here