Sunday, September 27, 2015

Coloring

 

Coloring

     For years I've been a closet colorer.  I've loved to color ever since I was a kid.  For hours I would color and cut and paste. When I grew older coloring books and crayons were replaced by rubber stamps and a variety of colored pencils and pens. Once you become a grown up, coloring isn't one of those things you can admit to doing.  Until now.
    Adult coloring books are HOT.  Best sellers!  Amazon offers hundreds of them, from anatomy to zen and everything in between.  There's even a name for us adults who continue our childhood favorite.   We're "colorists".


    My newest adult coloring book--a gift from my husband--is Balance by Angie Grace.    It's a great book and the images are only on one side.   The other coloring books I have are printed on both sides, which doesn't work with Copic markers.  They bleed through thinner, softer paper.  Copics will still bleed through the paper used in Grace's books, but you don't lose any of the images.
 
    Because I use Copics, I cut the page out before I start to color.  But you could also put a piece of card stock between your image and the next page to soak up the excess ink.  On the little slip of yellow paper I write down which marker colors I've used.  I'm not sure if I'll keep this info, but it has come in handy when I've put my markers away and returned later.    
 

     There's a good video on Grace's website that gives tips for using Copic markers.  Of course you can use whatever markers or pencils you like best.  
     There's a range of difficulty in Balance, which I like.  I started with a medium one (in my opinion).   She has a LOT of books available, including ones with cats and flowers that looked really interesting.  On her web site she has some freebie images, too, that you can print out and color.  I haven't done that yet, but they look tempting.
      Right now I feel the need to re-balance and de-stress.  I'm going to color for a while.