{"id":49388,"date":"2015-04-15T02:15:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T06:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/?p=49388"},"modified":"2015-04-15T12:37:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T16:37:04","slug":"coloring-books-adults-really-want-color-within-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2015\/04\/15\/coloring-books-adults-really-want-color-within-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Coloring Books for Adults: Do You REALLY Want to Color Within the Lines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were surprised to learn to that some of the most popular books on Amazon these days are coloring books for adults, with titles like
\nEnchanted Forest: An Inky Quest & Coloring Book<\/a> and Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book<\/a>.\u00a0One bills itself as Balance (Angie’s Extreme Stress Menders Volume 1)<\/a>\u00a0. All feature mandala-like patterns and storybook\u00a0imagery to color in. “Stress menders<\/em>“? \u00a0Ahhh, we see\u00a0why they are so popular.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Johanna
Johanna Basford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We remember our momentary childhood delight at Venus Paradise Paint-by-Number Coloring Sets \u2014 numbered colored pencils which you’d use to fill in the corresponding numbers on the template: et voila: A nice, somewhat-stilted artwork, exactly like hundreds of thousands around the country.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"foundinithaca.com\"
foundinithaca.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They were incredibly satisfying to complete. We could lose ourselves in their simple, very literal\u00a0imagery, and the colors. But we\u00a0don’t think we learned a thing about drawing or art or seeing. We WISH someone had said: Here, take this and figure out a way to change it, mess it up, MAKE IT YOURS, or better yet: here’s a blank piece of paper. MAKE\u00a0SOMETHING!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Johanna
Johanna Basford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A review<\/a> of one of Johanna Basford’s popular coloring books raves:<\/p>\n

Elaborate and challenging, Basford\u2019s fans have found that completing one of her pages is as rewarding as it was filling in a coloring book as a child…This implicit satisfaction has awakened the nostalgia for childhood coloring<\/strong> in well over a million adults, who have reconnected with their youth, and creative side…”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Johanna
Johanna Basford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so we wonder, HOW these adults are connecting with their creative side<\/em>? Or are they simply losing themselves in a very safe childlike view of life, where there are directions and limits, and orderly boundaries? \u00a0There’s nothing wrong with that. But for sure…<\/p>\n

…It is much easier to color within<\/em> the lines than it is to create our own designs<\/strong>. THAT can be incredibly scary and difficult, and we show us the limits of our talent, and open paths we never knew about.<\/p>\n

What if<\/strong> you just started seeing what you doodle, draw, write, photograph, look at…<\/p>\n

…What would happen if<\/strong> you wandered OFF the path…?<\/p>\n

Note: The most illuminating part of this article is the Comments, which we recommend reading, for a much bigger view of this subject…(with \u00a0thanks to our very thoughtful\u00a0readers).<\/p>\n

via Kottke\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were surprised to learn to that some of the most popular books on Amazon these days are coloring books for adults, with titles like Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest & Coloring Book and Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book.\u00a0One bills itself as Balance (Angie’s Extreme Stress Menders Volume 1)\u00a0. All feature…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":49520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[458,6549],"tags":[8386,8385],"yoast_head":"\nColoring Books for Adults: Do You REALLY Want to Color Within the Lines? - Improvised Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We were surprised to learn to that some of the most popular books on Amazon these days are coloring books for adults, with titles like Enchanted Forest:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2015\/04\/15\/coloring-books-adults-really-want-color-within-lines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coloring Books for Adults: Do You REALLY Want to Color Within the Lines? 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