What’s an Adult Coloring Book?

During the time of writing this article (August 2015), 25 % of Amazon’s top twenty best-selling books are coloring in magazines. So what exactly is a grownup coloring book, and how do they are currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases such as E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?


Adult coloring books are, plain and simple, coloring in magazines for grownups. Like children’s coloring books, they are packed with outline illustrations built to be filled in with colored pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever other media you would like to use.

What’s in a adult coloring in book?

The real difference between adults’ and kids’ color books is that the matured versions generally feature less juvenile images and fashions. Instead of superheroes, barnyard animals, and television characters, adult coloring in magazines tend to be often filled with:

components of all-natural world, such as 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 such as cars, steampunk designs, and Art Nouveau patterns.

Why are they quite 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 newest York Times reported in March which a Korean pop star named Kim Ki-bum posted a photograph on Instagram of the ‘delicately colored-in floral pattern’ from Secret Garden. During the time, Ki-bum stood a massive 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the fad.

The expansion in availability of the books reportedly has much to do with adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults who use the books claim that they get the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring in to be soothing, relaxing, as well as a strategy for de-stressing away from the pressures of life and work.

Among the other benefits of adult coloring in magazines, they also claim they can enjoy recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by engaging in an activity usually reserved for children. It will require people returning to an easier time, which enable it to also be a way for parents for connecting and bond making use of their children to take a seat as a result of color within them. Needless to say, many parents are already happily coloring in kids’ books for decades, these days they have choices which are not tied to Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.

In summary, coloring for adults is apparently an expanding past-time that allows adults to chill and unplug from your stress in their lives, by engaging in a hands-on activity which involves minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
For more details about history adult coloring books view our site: read

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