This might also be helpful for autism related overload or even stimming, but I figure it's general enough to go in here. A while back a friend linked me to some awesome high detail pattern coloring books her mom colors in to de-stress and to manage her anxiety. I had some spare cash so I ordered a couple off Amazon the other day, and they're actually very fun to color. It requires a fair amount of focus so they end up distracting me from whatever set my anxiety or panic off in the first place. These are the ones I bought: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1494214075/ http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0486493105/ http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1502406896/ There are a LOT of different ones if none of the above really tickle your fancy. While I can only vouch for the ones I purchased and I assume any others by the same company/author will be the same, it seems like most of them have images on only one side of the page and are made of relatively thick paper so they are safe to color in with markers. You will need something like thin point markers or colored pencils (I went for the pencils) because some of the details may be too fine to easily color in with crayons, though no harm in trying. If anybody wants more pictures than what are available on Amazon I can take pics of them, but not until tomorrow because it's late and dark in here right now.
I'm actually kinda working on drawing some coloring pages if that is a thing people are interested in.
ohhhh @Aniseed thank you for reminding me that's a thing that exists i used to love doing that and then i just sort of... forgot about it and i know the local art store has some grownup coloring books, iirc cathedral windows, kimono patterns, and sailing ships were some i saw when i was there last but i was all focused on getting fountain pen ink so it didn't even cross my mind to get them
I love coloring! My mom never grew out of it and as a kid my sister and I would always collaborate with her: We'd pick a page in a coloring book to work on and she'd do the one next to it. When I got older and started following artists online she'd ask me to print out lineart for stuff I like that had it available when she came by so she'd have stuff to color that had a connection to me. (Mom is WAY sentimental. It's sweet.) When my little sis was still a kid I'd do the same each-do-a-page thing with her, and mom got us a huge coloring book with only a few pages but they were BIG and we'd work on those together.
I love coloring but a big thing that was keeping me from getting coloring books is I felt like most of the ones I saw didn't encourage creativity much? Like if it's all cartoon characters you end up coloring them like the character is supposed to look, or all animals you give them realistic colors.. but books like this I just go nuts with whatever colors I like and it generally always comes out looking good.
^Weirdly, for me I really like colouring the characters they way they are supposed to look. I am not a creative person and I really don't like having to chose colours for colouring :P
Thank you for this thread, my mom was looking for more coloring books and she's tickled pink that I was able to give her recs.
Just chiming in that I fucking love coloring books. I am a huge dork and prefer the ones for small children, though, silly "activity" pages and all. And of course the experience is inauthentic without crayons. (Others are permitted to feel otherwise, I will just continue to believe I am right.)
i colored a mandala with crayons and colored pencils, and while it looked fantastic (i love how you can blend crayon with colored pencil and get a slightly altered shade) it was hard on my hand and wrist. so i went to the art store and got some fine point markers. i don't press hard with markers, so they don't hurt my hand. i discovered that i can sit at the table and color while seebs and lory are working on miniatures and chatting, and i end up not feeling nearly as socialed-out as i would've been if i'd been knitting. i guess coloring takes a bit more focus? honestly not sure why it works better, but apparently it does.
Well I mean I use both adult colouring books and also like, Avengers and My Little Pony colouring books. Some of the adult colouring pages I have are cool, they're like, linearts of famous/classical paintings. and then I have a colouring book of incredibly detailed stylized insects. They're really relaxing, but unfortunately the days I notice I need relaxing the most are the days my fibromyalgia spikes so my hands can only colour for short periods of time.
For personal reference: I really want some of these !!!!!!! But also: there is an adult coloring book called FAT LADIES IN SPAAAAAAAACE.
