My Colouring Addiction

Hey guys!

Now I’m one of those people, who once I find something I like, I approach it with a ‘go big or go home’ mentality. I don’t always mean to, it just more often than not turns out that way. A good example of this is my current addiction with colouring books. Over the past year this became a big thing particularly for adults, and was advertised as a good stress relief. Personally I don’t find it that relaxing , I’m a massive perfectionist so maybe I put too much concentration into it, however I do find it super fun and rewarding!

I first brought a book from the works ‘Creative Colouring for Grown-Ups – Beautiful Patterns’ and I did get pencils to use with it. However I personally prefer to use pens, to make my creations a little bit more vibrant. We then had ‘the book people’ visit work and from here I brought another colouring book ‘Millie Marotta’s Tropical Wonderland’ . It can’t be just me who flicks through all the colouring books and just gets drawn in by all the amazing patterns right? I also have a problem whereby if anything is on offer, I feel 110% more justified to buy it.

Top left is from Creative Colouring for Grown-Ups, the two on the right are from Tropical Wonderland

Around Christmas I was in the works again and I noticed another colouring book, a Christmas themed one called ‘I Heart Colouring Christmas‘! Me and my sister both bought one so we could do it together and compare. My family noticed I was developing a bit of a collection, so took this as inspiration for Christmas presents. So low and behold a few months later I am now the proud owner of EIGHT colouring books. Yep. Judging by how long it takes me to complete one page, I’d probably have to take up a full time career in colouring for me to ever complete these books, but at least I’ll never be stuck for choice!

Top two are from I Heart Colouring Christmas, the other two from I Heart Colouring

A few I haven’t start are the ‘Sherlock The Mind Palace’ one and the ‘Optical Illusions’ ones. The Sherlock book is one of those style colouring books that focuses on more realistic images, so is a bit more complex and wouldn’t look good with pens. Similarly the optical illusions one is also more suited to pencils since you can add more dimension and gradients with pencils, and can blend things easily to create those illusions, pens are suited more for patterns and block colours. I’m also yet to start ‘Colour Therapy An Anti – Stress Colouring Book‘.

Bottom left is from Sherlock The Mind Palace , and right is from the Anti-Stress Colouring Book

My favourite ones are actually the I Heart Colouring books. My sister got me the original one as a present which I loved, and like the christmas ones, she got one too! It’s fun to see how different we colour the same designs. The fact they are smaller than your average colouring book means that you aren’t stuck on the same page for long, you can progress through pretty quickly, which I love as I get bored very easily! The designs are also well varied, plus I like the idea of having a Christmas one! The ‘Colour me Mindful Underwater’ book is pretty similar in size and is pretty thin so is a good little one to take for a weekend away, as something to do.

Bottom left is from Colour me Mindful Underwater and the right is from Optical Illusions

The Millie Marotta’s Tropical Wonderland is visually my favourite book, each page is so beautiful I almost don’t want to colour it in, in case I ruin it! The designs are just so stunning and intricate, and Millie Marotta’s books are very similar to the style of the well-known Secret Garden colouring books. I totally have my eyes on the Enchanted Forest book by Johanna Basford but I really don’t need more colouring books * sad face * . I also really like the looks of the colouring book postcards, where once you have finished colouring it in, you pull it out of the book and use it as a postcard, I’d personally use them to decorate my wall!

A favourite design of mine from Tropical Wonderland

I use a mixture of pens when I colour , I have a set of 20 Stabilo pens which include 5 neon colours which are point 88 (0.4 mm)  , these are my thinner ones. Then I have a set of 20 Stabilo pens of point 68 (1mm) which are thicker, and I also have a set of 30 pens from scribblicious with a 0.4mm point. I find the Stabilo pens to be better quality and the colours on the caps are a lot easier to distinguish from one another. However they are a lot more expensive that the Scribblicious ones which only cost me £6 from the works.

Let me know your favourite colouring books, or any you’d love to try!

-A