Before writing this article (August 2015), a quarter of Amazon’s top twenty best-selling books are coloring in magazines. So what is an adult coloring book, and exactly how one thing these are currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases including E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?
Adult coloring books are, plain and simply, coloring in magazines for older people. Like children’s coloring books, these are full of outline illustrations meant to be completed with colored pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever other media you would like to use.
What’s in an adult coloring in book?
The real difference between adults’ and kids’ color books could be that the matured versions generally feature less juvenile images and designs. Instead of superheroes, barnyard animals, and television characters, adult coloring in magazines tend to be often filled up with:
components 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 so popular?
A Scottish illustrator named Johanna Basford published a architecture adult coloring books called Secret Garden in 2013, featuring pages of beautifully hand-illustrated ink drawings. The modern 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. Back then, Ki-bum stood a massive 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the trend.
The expansion in interest in the books reportedly has much about adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults who use the books report that they find the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring into be soothing, relaxing, plus a means of de-stressing away from the pressures of life and work.
One of the other benefits of adult coloring in magazines, additionally they state they enjoy recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by participating in a pursuit usually available children. It will take people returning to a less complicated time, and will even be a way for fogeys to get in touch and bond using their children by sitting as a result of color in with them. Needless to say, many parents have already been happily coloring in kids’ books for decades, however they’ve got choices that are not restricted to Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.
In conclusion, coloring for adults is apparently a growing past-time that permits adults to relax and unplug from the stress inside their lives, by participating in a hands-on activity which involves minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
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