Adult Coloring Books

Adult Coloring Books

This post will only further convince you that I am really a twelve year old girl instead of a thirty year old professional.

A few months ago, one of my co-workers who enjoys art as a hobby mentioned a fairly new phenomenon she was enjoying called adult coloring. No, these are not coloring books with “Mature” content (although a quick google search will let you know that these exist as well), but instead artists who are creating incredibly detailed line drawings full of patterns.

I shelved this information in my “cool things for the future” brain pocket, and with a little extra spending money this month and extra time from all the rain, I figured I’d order a book and a new set of colored pencils.

I picked up that beauty from Amazon, and eagerly awaited its shipment. Part of my coloring experiment was to see if I slept better at night with coloring before bed instead of playing on my iPad. The blue light from screens isn’t good for sleeping, and sometimes I think I stay up way later from YouTube and instagram binging than I would from something else.

Yesterday the book arrived, and I immediately began looking for ponies. I was not disappointed.

16941451603_efae3f84f7

17375448479_97b7b3ce8d

17561671371_e44bb48104_z

Besides ponies, the book had a ton of other animals. Some of my favorites were the dog, fox and big cats… but there’s something for everyone. There were only two pages that I pretty much hated and would never color.

After flipping through the book, I settled on this guy.

17373987948_ced5bd15a0_z

And started coloring.

And coloring.

And coloring some more.

16939212854_f62e221b99_z

I may or may not have colored for almost three hours until my arm and elbow hurt. Art is painful folks! I had forgotten.

In the end, I have this amazing rainbow pony which I’m super happy with.

17559472922_7e4737f4fe_z

I also slept like a baby last night, so that’s a win. The book brags that coloring is stress relieving and relaxing. While I won’t make any scientific claims, I enjoyed this activity on a non-barn night while doing laundry.

There are tons of options on Amazon, but if you want the same selection to make your own rainbow pony you can get the book I used by clicking here – Adult Coloring Book: Stress Relieving Animal Designs

51 thoughts on “Adult Coloring Books

  1. I’ve heard of this phenomenon, very cool! Also, I had to laugh at the “adult” coloring books – bet you’ll get some funny SEO hits out of this post!

  2. Um… you can’t just say something like “that I would never ever color” and not tell us what it is!!!!!! Speculating wildly….

      1. Go ahead and give the bottom of this list pictures a try. Nothing in ‘the rules’ (ha) says you have to keep them. Somewhere there is someone who likes that particular animal/critter.
        Your coloring skills are fab. Just post them as a giveaway on FB or maybe earn a few stash-bucks on ebay.

        In the meantime, enjoy the horses! I’ve noticed that I’m sleeping better lately … I wonder if its the needlepoint kit I purchased last week?

        M in NC

  3. This is how I started putting my horses onto canvas when I was painting my mind was “still” it wasn’t “racing” I noticed it right away, beats expensive therapy hahaha.
    Marti

  4. Full disclosure: my senior year of college my friend and I brought coloring books and crayons with us to the library during finals week and we’d whip them out and just start coloring right then and there whenever we needed a 15 minute break from serious studying. I swear it was the most brilliant idea I ever had so I am not surprised to see that this is a thing!

    Your rainbow pony came out amazing! I really should start drawing again…it’s one of those things that totally at the bottom of my priority list but I should really make time for because I’m sure it would do wonders for my sanity

  5. Just went to Amazon to add these to my wish list! I love the idea, probably much better for my stressed out brain than staring at my iPad!

  6. Coloring (in the lines) is good for your soul. True story, I just read a study on it. Also, my friends and I used to color Disney books all the time in college.

  7. Love these! I have on my to do list to get some. Haven’t checked that off yet though 😉
    When I was a kid I had a book of patterns that was similar to this, but I like how these patterns are within an animal (or whatever).

  8. I love to color. Of course I have small children who ask me to color so I haven’t felt the need for an “adult” coloring book yet.

  9. You might be interested in the type of art I’m working on. http://4rranch.blogspot.com/2015/05/wangler-painting-horse.html I’ve been teaching my horse to paint. He has his own facebook page too. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wrangler-Can-Paint/1564066673842790 I always enjoy reading your blog and surprisingly found another local blogger that had commented on something. I recognized the location of her picture. Had to go to Texas to find a neighbor in Virginia, small world.

  10. I just added one to my amazon cart yesterday! I didn’t see the animal one, I just found a cool pattern one. Now I’ll have to decide…..and find my colored pencils…

  11. That coloring is OUTSTANDING.

    I just bought a copy of this for myself and my best friend in California. I LOVE the idea of doing this before bed!!!! Outstanding, thank you!

  12. Definitely not my cup of tea for relaxing – I draw and color all day long in my classroom. The kids think I am a FABULOUS artist. :0) Much of what I teach involves drawings, sketches, and illustrations. Just today I drew what Boone had drawn in Indian in the Cupboard. I also colored the borders of our four figures of speech cards. It’s something different every day. I do much better with my Kindle before bed. :0)

  13. I love coloring! It’s one of my favorite activities with the two year old I babysit haha.

    I color at home too. Have you heard of Zentangling? That’s what I do. Those patterns remind me of Zentangle. I do the pattern and then color in my own. Butterflies are a lot of fun! I need to share some on my blog. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.