Precisely what is an Adult Coloring Book?

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 just how is it that they’re currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases such as E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?


Adult coloring books are, very simply, coloring in magazines for grown ups. Like children’s coloring books, they’re filled with outline illustrations made to be completed with colored pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever other media you intend to use.

What’s in the 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 fashoins. As an alternative to superheroes, barnyard animals, and tv characters, adult coloring in magazines tend to be more often filled with:

elements of all-natural world, such as 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 such as cars, steampunk designs, and Art Nouveau patterns.

Are they all very popular?

A Scottish illustrator named Johanna Basford published a japanese 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 a photo on Instagram of a ‘delicately colored-in floral pattern’ from Secret Garden. At that time, Ki-bum were built with a massive 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the fad.

The increase in interest in the books reportedly has much about adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults using the books are convinced that they discover the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring directly into be soothing, relaxing, as well as a means of de-stressing outside the pressures of life and work.

One of the other advantages of adult coloring in magazines, additionally they state they enjoy recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by engaging in an activity usually reserved for children. It takes people back to a less complicated time, which enable it to even be a method for fogeys to get in touch and bond using children by sitting down to color along with them. Obviously, many parents happen to be happily coloring in kids’ books for years, the good news is they have got choices which aren’t limited by Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.

In summary, coloring for adults appears to be an expanding past-time that permits adults to wind down and unplug in the stress of their lives, by engaging in a hands-on activity which involves minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
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