Color With the Best: My Top 5 Adult Coloring Books
If you've already read my other articles about adult coloring, you may well be well on your way to becoming a coloring pro by now! if so, I hope you are having as much fun as me. If not, check out the other articles about adult coloring on my blog to find out why it is such a satisfying hobby.
Adult coloring books have been a popular item for several years. Teens and adults enjoy using their creativity to choose the colors and bring the scenes to life. Users enjoy using different types of art supplies, like colored pencils or markers.
Coloring helps to relieve stress and anxiety by drawing the mind's focus away from repetitive, intrusive thoughts. For dedicated hobbyists, the benefits of coloring are similar to those of meditation. For the final article in this series, I thought I’d share some recommendations with you that I have found to be some of the best coloring books on the market.
Secret Garden by Johanna Basford
This is one of the first adult coloring books to become part of the phenomenon. Basford’s botanical designs are intricate and provide hours of coloring enjoyment. The book has been printed on thicker stock so that it can be used with ink, watercolor, or marker as well as the traditional colored pencils.
Some sections are left blank so that the artist can add his or her own details. Basford has also released a variety of other books like Lost Ocean and Enchanted Forest.
The Anatomy Coloring Book by Wynn Kapit
This is an early example of an adult coloring book, and it remains popular today. This coloring book is highly educational, teaching artists the names of all the bones in the body and the major systems as well. Teens and older children may find this book especially fascinating.
Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Animal Designs by Dan Morris
This book has a variety of animal designs ranging in complexity from beginner to expert level. Dolphins, cats, butterflies, and elephants are some of the charming characters included.
The animals are on a clear background, meaning that the artist can put all of his or her design work into the featured creature. The paper is thick enough for gel pens to be used with ease.
Coloring Book for Adults: Amazing Swirls by Happy Coloring, Elena Bogdanovych
This volume features swirling designs of various levels of complexity. None of the designs are so complex that a beginner could not enjoy them. The figures are mostly floral, although there are some animal pages.
This book is printed on one side of the paper so the artist does not need to worry about bleed-through.
Creative Haven Owls Coloring Book by Marjorie Sarnat
This coloring book features owl designs with other graphical elements. This book is less realistic than some others and provides a flight of fancy for the artist. Themes include royalty, peace, kites, and totem poles.
This book is from the Dover series Creative Haven, which features dozens of themes and topics. The pictures are printed on one side and perforated for easy removal.
As you can see, there are all sorts of interesting options and so much more to coloring than you may first have thought. You might want to immerse yourself in a fantasy land while you are coloring or perhaps you prefer to choose simple patterns with your focus being the mindfulness of the activity.
If you have older kids, the teen and young adult books can be really fun to work on together as a joint hobby. It can be hard to get your teenagers to join you in an activity, but this is real winner for when you both want some downtime and some quality time together. Whatever you choose to go with, happy coloring!
