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Adult Coloring Books .What is the craze about? How can artists get in on this?

Michele Dobbs

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September 25th, 2015 - 08:10 PM

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Adult Coloring Books .What is the craze about? How can artists get in on this?

So if you haven’t heard, Adult coloring is the craze these days! As an artist, I am not surprised, that this method of expression is considered a way to relax! Creative expression can allow your mind to Flow Meditate! The Adult coloring pages can bring you to experience what some full-time artists experience as they create. Even left brain thinkers can color and gain the benefits. So what is it that is happening to our minds when we are being creative in this method?

People are right brain or left brain thinker. There is a dominance of one side of the other in each person on this earth. Some can balance this act at times! Being I am personally a right brain thinker, I can describe how it feels to switch on that mode. I can be walking down the street and an imagine pops in my head that I know I must paint. I see the lines, the colors, and the feeling. I see the lines that make up shapes. A left brain thinker, would see the hair, the eye, the lips and see the lines as a thing. I personally do not see it that way. So in my creating my brain slips easily into the flow meditation ability. I can paint or color and literally space out to the outside world. Someone could and have walked up on me and I never knew they were standing near me. This ability to dive into the mind space that will allow us to disappear is how I feel each time I paint or create. The only time I find my left side of my brain to kick in when it’s about art is when people want something specific. If they want to commission a piece as they see in the artists’ style. This is not the easiest for some artists. As it takes away from the flow meditation that we get into when we paint. We start to think of the elements being asked for by the client. The left starts to pull from the creative side a bit. So what is happening that coloring books become the new way to relax for Adults?

Amazon.com lists adult coloring books as one of their top sellers. Even Game of Throne creators decided to release a coloring book for the fans of GoT in the fall! With all the free download websites for coloring book pages, Coloring books at every checkout and Artists doing their designs as coloring pages it seems this will just grow! Coloring has always been around and we all have loved it as children but it seems in 2012 was the start of the Adult coloring book movement in a big way! As people focus on the coloring pages that appeal to them, they bringing themselves calm. They find comfort from the pain they may experience in their body. They are experiencing a deeper sleep when they color before bed. This is the right brain bringing the calmness that comes with being a right brain thinker. People who are left-brain thinkers are able to switch gears with this activity. We all can remember as kids coloring and being so focused on the page in front of us. We all had different methods to our madness. So as adults coloring away, we are open to those same “rules” of coloring.

Well technically, in creativity, there are no “rules” but perceived rules. So as adults color some will color a page with the expected color in the expected spot. Some shade to give depth to their coloring page. Others find staying in the lines to be less free feeling and go deep to their inner child to color as wildly as they want! Some pages are simple and some are very detailed to tell stories. All in all it’s about what flows from a person and the story they themselves have to tell. Will they frame the page after coloring them? Will they give them as gifts? It seems many reasons to color. Relaxing, Meditation, Fun, and as an escape! So as artists how can we take part in this new form of expression?

I personally love line art and in that love I have started creating coloring pages. Most artists I know create line drawings to inspire their paintings. So I have taken some of my drawings to create my pages to make a coloring book! Right now I have single pages available and as I build my clients I will offer more and more designs and ultimately create a coloring book! So artists…have you thought about getting your line work out there as a calling card for your art? I have created Mad Coloring Skills for my coloring pages! I also have an Etsy page to sell directly the coloring pages! Requests have started coming in to create pages of certain subjects and I look forward to creating those pages! So I encourage other artists to look into this expansion of your work. Make a connection with all the Facebook Adult coloring book pages. Such a great way to expose yourself to many people. One group I am in there are over 14,000 members of the group! And the groups are endless on Facebook dedicated to Adult coloring fans!

Give Mad coloring skills a like and tell me what you think! Also give Michele Dobbs creations a look and a like!

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