There are lots of things to love about coloring! Getting lost in a design, challenging yourself to improve your skills, and the satisfaction of finishing a complicated page are just a few things. But I’ve added 10 more reasons that we’ve chosen this path to express our creativity!
1. Express Your Creativity
With the wide variety of subjects and styles, coloring books can provide you with the framework for making your own special marks on the page. Once you start coloring, it becomes your unique piece of art and you get to decide how the final picture will look.
2. Coloring Calms a Monkey Mind—at least for a while, anyway.
Coloring has long been used as a part of art therapy and with only a coloring book and some colored pencils you too can calm you mind. Although not a substitute for counseling or therapy, coloring can be a piece of your self-care. Learn more here.
3. It’s portable
No need to tote a million art supplies with you when you travel or know you could be delayed. Just pull out a coloring book and a small pack of colored pencils and color away the boring bits of life like sitting in the DMV waiting for your number to be called. There are travel books available too which are so easy to tuck into your purse or bag (and by the way—everyone else will be jealous of you)!
4. It’s clean
One of the few crafts that doesn’t leave a mess behind or all over your hands! No need for water that can spill, sticky glue, or glitter that gets everywhere) to bring your colorful pages to life.
5. You can color and still watch Netflix!
Coloring takes “some” of your concentration, but not all of it! It’s a great way to work on your pages and still enjoy the next season of Schitt’s Creek or Outlander.
6. If you’re coloring, you can’t eat!
Cookie crumbs and potato chip stains can really wreck a beautiful picture! Mindless coloring is way healthier than mindless eating and you end up with a masterpiece to boot. (and the Oreos will be waiting for you when you’re ready for a break)
7. The decisions you make are not earth-shattering
For sure, we “make mistakes” when we color—wishing we’d chosen a different color, or we messed up a pattern, but we’re not being graded on our work, and most of the time you can fix what you don’t like by coloring over with a darker color or changing up the pattern. It’s not about perfection, but expression and relaxation. And if you really hate it, you can always tear it out of the book and start a new page!
8. Your Pages become Memories
Just like songs can bring us back to a time and place in our life, so can creativity. As you look back on the pages you colored you can remember how you felt at the time that you colored them. And like anything, we get better the more we do something so you can track your progress by looking back at your previous pages. Some colorists like to sign and date their pages, so they remember when they created them. What a colorful diary to look back on!
9. Color Alone or with Friends
Coloring is a perfect hobby to do just for (and with) yourself, but pull out some coloring books, pencils and a few snacks and watch your friends and family gather ‘round for coloring and conversation. It’s usually the ones that say “Really, you guys??? Coloring?” that are the ones that get into it the most!
10. Coloring = Happiness
Just watch how your mood changes when you open a book and start coloring. After a few strokes of pink, or yellow, or deep blue, did your shoulders relax? Did you let out a sigh? Do you feel just a little lighter? Blending colors that please you or finding new combinations you haven’t used before can make you smile, and when you smile, everything looks cleaner and brighter.