In terms of hobbies, coloring is a relatively low-cost hobby with a litany of benefits and comparably few drawbacks. Yes, hobbies like rock climbing may sound fun; however, not only is spending upwards of a thousand dollars on climbing gear a steep entry price, but the risk of crushing your hands or feet bones during a fall might not be the hobby for everyone. Even nude modeling can come with the crushing self-defeatism of a long look in the mirror.
One of the most enticing factors for adults to start coloring is the stress reduction benefits. With regular coloring, many adults who chose to color report feelings of lowered stress when compared to coming home and watching TV or drinking… though no one says you can’t get any version of black-out drunk midway through a mandala. Part of the stress reduction associated with adult coloring ties into building stronger focus, another benefit many colorists reap from regular practice. Because coloring forces you to slow down and focus on a self-creating visual stimulus, your mind isn’t allowed to wander or ruminate as often or intensely as compared to watching a movie or playing video games.
Similarly, adult coloring lights up your creative thinking because of the demands involved with coloring. Coloring allows us to make mistakes and try new ideas without repercussions. Dying in a video game, sitting through a boring episode, or being disappointed by a movie adaptation don’t contribute to us feeling good about ourselves. However, creating visually brilliant colors and deeply enriching textures is pay off worth more than the selling price of gold.
Why Coloring?
Stress reduction, stronger focus, and creative thinking are all a part of the mindfulness umbrella that coloring encapsulates. Though coloring may not be as physically active as a game of pick-up basketball or doubles tennis on Sunday morning, it is active on your mind forcing you to be present without the pressure of consequences. Coloring keeps adults engaged and present in a way that focuses less on physical stress and stimulus and more on creative expression and mindful exploration.
When it comes to the physical side of coloring, don’t expect to be burning the same calories as you would taking a cross-fit class. That said, coloring isn’t without its physical requirements. Coloring is a wonderful hobby for building fine motor skills over time in your hands, eyes, and larger muscle groups in your back, shoulders, and abdomen when practicing with a healthy posture.
Coloring is also a portable hobby and doesn’t require much beyond a level coloring surface, coloring utensils, and a comfortable chair, though standing is always an available option to colorists as well. This is great because that means when you want to meet up with other colorists and create a community of creative individuals, you can host from just about anywhere! Your home, your friend’s home, the bar, a library, a strip club, the nearest Costco Food Court… anywhere so long as there are tables, chairs, and colorists!
Lastly, though higher-end coloring costs can be expensive, by and large, getting into coloring is a low-cost hobby. If you don’t have any leftover colored pencils, crayons, markers, or watercolors around, rudimentary art supplies are not hard to find for less than $20.00 to $30.00. As you progress and practice regularly with coloring, you may want to invest in better quality art supplies that can be anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00 for intermediate art supplies such as Derwent Colorsoft colored pencils or a pack of Blick Art Studio Brush Markers. However, if cost isn’t an issue for you or you’re passionate, elite art supplies such as Prismacolor Primmer Colored Pencils, Faber-Castell Polychromos, or full sets of Copic Markers can cost anywhere from $120.00 to $400.00.
Getting Started
At the basic level, coloring requires something to color and something to color with. When it comes to something to color a bit, you’ve got two choices: coloring books and coloring pages. Coloring books are great for their abundance of content to color. Most often, you’ll get a full 20 pages worth of coloring as opposed to a single one-off picture. Additionally, books come with a lot of variety. Coloring books can specialize in mandalas, tattoo art, nature scapes from just about every corner and biome in the world, cityscapes from every major city around the globe, and some not-so-major. In other words, if you can think of it, there’s a coloring book for it, even for the weirdest of thoughts.
On the other hand, there are a lot of bad coloring books out there, and it doesn’t feel great to color 20 pages of something you’re not thrilled with. So what’s the next movie? Get a different book? Maybe, you could go the route of coloring pages that offer a one-off image to color. Sure, you’re not getting as much content overall, but you also don’t have to deal with tearing the pages out of the book if you want to hang up your coloring; you get more choice freedom since you don’t have to stick with a central theme for 20+ pages, and most of all, a majority of quality coloring pages come in larger size paper than what most books print out as.
Whether you decide to go with coloring pages or commit to a coloring book, you’ll want to make sure the paper quality is closer to a cardstock-like thickness. This is because most standard copier paper doesn’t come with enough teeth to hold onto or absorb all the layers of color and pigment that will be pressed into the page when coloring. Thankfully most adult coloring-specific coloring books and coloring pages are already made with this in mind. Additionally, some coloring books and coloring pages are made with a specific finish. A coloring book or coloring page with a matte style finish is intended for dry mediums such as colored pencil, crayons, or oil pastels, whereas coloring books or coloring pages with a gloss style finish are intended for wet mediums such as watercolor, markers, gel pens, and paints.
When it comes to choosing specific pictures or patterns in a coloring book, there isn’t anyone’s recommendation over the other. The only real beginner’s tip is to try a little bit of everything. It may be a little on the nose, but Coloring Books for Adult Relaxation and Adult Coloring Books Good Vibes are two really good options with quality paper, tons of different designs with excellent artwork, and at an extremely affordable cost… less than $5.00!
Unlike paper, you can’t buy a book of markers or colored pencils. However, similarly to paper, coloring utensils come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, and with a variety of price tags. One of the most common and accessible coloring utensils is colored pencils. Colored pencils are considered a dry medium and great for blending many color layers and pigments to create bold visual colors and rich textures. Colored pencils are not so great for long-lasting pieces with extremely saturated colors like markers or gel pens. On the high end, both Prismacolor Premier and Faber Castel Polychromos have a solid hold on the market. Prismacolor Priemer’s are known to be the best in wax-bound colored pencils, and Faber-Castell Polychromos are known to have the best in oil-bound colored pencils. However, this is not to say that alternatives don’t exist because brands such as Caran D’Ache, Derwent, and even Crayola make wonderful colored pencils in multiple series that come at much more affordable prices.
Another dry medium, crayons, are excellent at covering large areas with a base color that mixes well in creating highly textured and glossy colors because of all the waxy blooms. Faber Castell, Caran D’Ache, and Stockmar all make high-end crayons that make your elementary Crayolas look like washed-up sidewalk chalk. The downside of crayons is that their physically harder to leverage given their relatively short stature, and the picture will need to be kept out of direct UV light to help prevent excess waxy bloom.
Check out our recommended supplies HERE.
Stepping into the world of wet mediums, alcohol markers are a wonderful option for adult colorists who want highly saturated colors and the feeling of coloring with markers. Though water-based markers exist, most adult colorists will recommend alcohol markers because the color saturation is far better, avoiding the opaque mess that sometimes comes with the nature of water-based markers. Makers can come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and prices as well, with the high end of markers being up to $421.00 for a set of 72 Copic Markers or $41.00 for a 24 set of Blick Studio Brush Markers. Regardless of what markers you choose, just make sure you have a glossy paper finish to allow the ink to pool before settling into the paper.
Another great option for medium wet coloring is a gel pen. I could talk to you all day about how much I love the Sakura Gelly Roll gel pens, but honestly, it’s something you have to try and see for yourself. Gel pens produce amazingly saturated pictures with extremely satisfying gradient blends. I couldn’t tell you which is smoother, the blends from good gel pen art or the feeling of rolling smooth gel ink over the paper while coloring. Unfortunately, like most wet mediums, gel pens can be messy. Not only can it leave smudges all over your skin or the page if you’re getting reckless, but dropping a gel pen or letting one roll off the table could be a disaster for both you, the pen, and the floor.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Some Good Online Resources For Adult Coloring?
Well, if you haven’t checked us out already, Adult Coloring Masterpiece is worth exploring for both the guides on coloring techniques and the reviews on coloring products. Top Coloring Pages is also a great site to dig into for free coloring pages!
Is Adult Coloring Immature?
Let me ask you this, is it immature to play hours of video games well into your thirties or forties? Regardless of other people’s judgments, the only difference between a kid coloring or playing video games and an adult doing the same thing is age… well adults are generally better at things than small, weak, dumb, human children. Age, both physically and developmentally. If you’re immature while playing video games or coloring, then you are immature, but by the nature of the activity, no.
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