It was early 2015 when I discovered this new trend in the crafting world: coloring books for adults. I'd like to say it's one of the highlights of 2015. I'm not sure who started it, but I think when Johanna Basford released "Secret Garden", it exploded into something big. I remember it was hard to get a hold of this book. I was lucky at the time to get a hold of the Secret Garden postcard edition at Joann's. I colored the first page last year with Copics, and I really liked it.
So just like any other, I started collecting these adult coloring books. I found lots of themes everywhere - from mystical, gothic, florals, animals, ocean, oriental, steam punk, Christmas, even movie-themed like Starwars. It came to a point in which they were everywhere - including Walmart. They have also released "magazine" type coloring books. Yeah, the ones that come out every month or so - the ones you can pay for a subscription to. I didn't go that far though. When I realized they were everywhere, I raised my standards. I wanted to make sure the quality is good, the designs are one of a kind, and the thickness of each page is vital. If the page is thin, and there are designs on both sides, I don't buy them. To me, they are just like regular kids' coloring books. I thought it was cool that some stamping companies jumped in the band wagon and released a coloring book edition of their stamp images. One perfect example is Unity Stamps. They already have 3 editions of their coloring books. I have one of them, and I think it's really awesome. The size is big and the quality is really good. Ann Griffin released her own version too, only available at HSN. I did get one of them also, and I thought the quality is really nice.
After "Secret Garden", my next coloring books were from Sam's Club. One of them was Dazzling Patterns by Barron's, which I really love! Both sides of each page have a design, so it's a bummer if you like them both because you have to pick one to color, especially if you're using markers which bleed through. I used Chromatix Alcohol Markers by American Crafts (I got them for a good price at TJ Maxx).
The other book is the Posh Coloring Book by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Each page has design on both sides too. For this one, I used Prismacolor pencils with the aid of Gamsol.
Design Originals released a bunch of coloring books as well. I got the Creative Coloring Animals. I thought the pages on this book is not as thick as the others, but I still bought it because there is only one design per page. The image below is colored with Chromatix Alcohol Markers as well.
I thought the colors are more brilliant when you color with markers. That's why for these coloring books, I try to avoid using my Copics as much as possible. I've been on the lookout for cheap marker sets, and those I use for coloring. I still have yet to try actual water color, pastels, gel pens and other mediums. I'm actually considering buying a good box of crayons too. But for now, I'm fine with cheap pencils and markers.
But it didn't stop there. Somebody was brilliant and came up with a coloring app. And of course a lot followed suit. I only use two of them. The first one I tried was Momi Coloring, which is a free app. I liked the interface, and it was easy to use. My favorite part is that all images are free. There are so many designs available - you won't have enough time to color them all.
Colorfy is another app I like. You can also get this for free. But what you can color is limited, and to widen your color pallet, you have to pay. I have bought a pallet, but to me it's really not worth it especially if you don't use the app often enough.
I stopped at these two apps. I don't see any point of downloading any more coloring apps. I'm sure there's a lot out there, maybe even better ones. But I'm good with Momi Coloring and Colorfy. Plus I think these two apps are trustworthy and I don't have to worry about security issues.
And just like I promised for 2016, I haven't bought another coloring book. I think I have enough to last me a long time.
'Til next blog!
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