One fourth of Amazon's top twenty best-selling books are coloring in books. Just what exactly is a grownup coloring book, and how will it be that they are currently outselling top fiction authors with new releases such as E.L. James and Paula Hawkins?
Adult coloring books are, very simply, coloring in books for grown ups. Like children's coloring books, they are packed with outline illustrations built to be filled in with colored pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever other media you intend to use.
What is in an adult coloring in book?
The primary distinction between adults' and kids' color books is the fact that grown up versions generally feature less juvenile images and styles. Instead of superheroes, barnyard animals, and television characters, adult coloring in books tend to be more often filled with:
aspects of the natural world, such as for instance 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.
What makes they so popular?
A Scottish illustrator named Johanna Basford published a coloring book called Secret Garden in 2013, featuring pages of beautifully hand-illustrated ink drawings. The brand new York Times reported in March that a Korean pop star named Kim Ki-bum posted an image on Instagram of a 'delicately colored-in floral pattern' from Secret Garden. At that time, Ki-bum had an enormous 1.8 million Instagram followers. The post went viral and helped to ignite the craze.
The rise in rise in popularity of the books reportedly has much to complete with adult relaxation and stress release. Many adults who make use of the books report that they discover the repetitive, low-stress nature of coloring in to be soothing, relaxing, and a means of de-stressing away from the pressures of life and work.
Among the other benefits of adult coloring in books, additionally they claim to savor recapturing the nostalgia of childhood by participating in an action usually reserved for kids. It requires people back into a less complicated time, and can also be a means for parents to connect and bond with regards to children by sitting yourself down to color in using them. Needless to say, many parents have been happily coloring in kids' books for years, nevertheless now they have choices that aren't restricted to Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants.
To sum up, coloring for adults is apparently an evergrowing past-time that enables adults to relax and unplug through the stress within their lives, by engaging in a hands-on activity that involves minimal commitment and maximum nostalgia.
