During scripting this article (August 2015), a quarter of Amazon’s top twenty best-selling books are coloring in books. So what exactly is an adult coloring book, and how is it that they’re currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases including E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?


Adult coloring books are, plain and simple, coloring in books for adults. Like children’s coloring books, they’re full of outline illustrations made to be filled in with colored pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever other media you intend to use.

What’s in an adult coloring in book?

The visible difference between adults’ and kids’ color books is the adult versions generally feature less juvenile images and designs. As opposed to superheroes, barnyard animals, and television characters, adult coloring in books tend to be often stuffed with:

elements of 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.
There’s also many ‘theme’ specific books available, featuring diverse subjects including cars, steampunk designs, and Art Nouveau patterns.

What makes them so popular?

A Scottish illustrator named Johanna Basford published a science adult coloring books called Secret Garden in 2013, featuring pages of beautifully hand-illustrated ink drawings. The modern York Times reported in March which a Korean pop star named Kim Ki-bum posted a photo on Instagram of the ‘delicately colored-in floral pattern’ from Secret Garden. At the time, Ki-bum stood a massive 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the trend.

The development in rise in popularity of the books reportedly has much about adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults who use the books report that they discover the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring directly into be soothing, relaxing, as well as a means of de-stressing out of the pressures of life and work.

One of the other benefits of adult coloring in books, additionally, they claim that they can enjoy recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by starting an action usually reserved for children. It takes people to a less strenuous time, and can even be a method for folks for connecting and bond using children to stay down to color along with them. Obviously, many parents have already been happily coloring in kids’ books for a long time, the good news is they have choices that aren’t tied to Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.

In summary, coloring for adults appears to be an evergrowing past-time which allows adults to wind down and unplug from the stress of their lives, by starting a hands-on activity that needs minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
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