(Spinoff poll) Do you enjoy colouring books?

[minkydog]

You know, I really want to like coloring. I love all the books and pencils! But every time I pick one up, imagining how much fun I would have with it, I realize that I would rather slit my wrist than spend my time coloring. Foo!

 

[jevs]

I prefer to doodle and draw using greylead. Very, very occasionally i will sit with my 10 yr old daughter and colour with her - she prefers the adult colouring books to keep it on topic.

 

[bjscheel]

It's okay. I get these grand plans for a color scheme and then I get started and realize it's going to take forever to fill the thing clear in and I start to lose interest.

I do lead a craft for adult ladies at church camp each year and struggle to come up with something cheap that will fill up to 5 hours. Last year it came to me to just bring coloring books and supplies. So simple and they could do as much or little as they wanted. It worked great for that. Next year we're making felt ornaments but I will bring back the coloring supplies if anyone would rather.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I haven't done the adult coloring book thing yet, but I have used regular coloring books in my adult life. As far as the adult coloring book craze, I definitely have no problem with it, but haven't had an interest in it myself because I do lots of other arts and crafts projects, so haven't felt the need to spend time coloring.

Magpie, the story about your mom reminded me of an opposite experience I had in sixth grade. My sixth grade teacher was a big MATH guy, but since some sort of art instruction was required, one day he gave us printouts of this intricate geometric coloring page that we were supposed to spend the period coloring. I loved to draw when I was younger and had been working on this crazy drawing of what it would be like if I lived in the rainforest and had this big fancy treehouse and all of the exotic rainforest pets I would have. Anyway, I felt this was a better use of my time during 'art' class. My teacher saw me and wasn't too pleased.

Teacher: "What are you doing?"

Me: "Drawing."

Teacher: "Well put it away, you're supposed to be coloring that page. This is art class."

Me:

My DD12 has some artistic ability, and she has never liked to color, either. She has been sketching with pencil since she could hold a pencil, but her coloring books and crayons always went unused. Her drawings are usually pretty intricate and she feels that adding color ruins them. She needs to sketch a picture every week for art class in school and it must be in color, and she hates having to do it. It really just ends up that she doesn't really try very hard on the sketch since she feels she will be ruining it anyway once she adds the color. She still gets a A, but it's definitely NOT her best work! She also hated art class in elementary school - she would have to do the cookie-cutter assignment that the art teacher watered down for the whole class, but then she would start adding her own additions. Her teacher would actually stop her and tell her that she needs to do it like everyone else. At least her middle school art teacher gives her more leeway in what she is allowed to do.

To answer the OP's question, the adult coloring craze nearly put me over the edge this past year for various reasons, so no, I do NOT enjoy it! lol

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I was coloring last night. Treated myself to a Christmas themed Adult Color Book. My wrist was sore this morning so I came to the conclusion I need to do it more! I have the 132 Count Prismacolor Pencil set in my wishlist on Amazon. Right now I have the 48 set but seriously considered sneaking into DD's room to grab her 72 set last night.

I chose "occasionally" not because I don't enjoy it but because I enjoy it too much. I get wrapped up in what I'm doing and then I'm up way too late coloring. While it's on trend right now I don't think it's something that ever really went away. I have some of the mandala color books from the seventies my Uncle gave me. For awhile you could find reproductions of them at Michael's and Dick Blick. And remember the poster/marker sets in the 80s? Oh and color/paint by number.


I keep looking at that Dr. Suess one and have the Disney Thomas Kincade one on my wishlist.

Prismacolor Pencils are the best! My DD got some from my sister last year for Christmas and she loves how smooth they are and how vibrant the colors are, as well as the huge variety of colors available! She likes to pencil sketch, but when she has to color something, she prefers Prismacolor over the "kid" brands. They are pricey, but I did see that Prismacolor has a less-expensive line out too, at Target/etc. I think it's called PC Scholar or something like that.

 

[Magpie]

My DD12 has some artistic ability, and she has never liked to color, either. She has been sketching with pencil since she could hold a pencil, but her coloring books and crayons always went unused. Her drawings are usually pretty intricate and she feels that adding color ruins them. She needs to sketch a picture every week for art class in school and it must be in color, and she hates having to do it. It really just ends up that she doesn't really try very hard on the sketch since she feels she will be ruining it anyway once she adds the color. She still gets a A, but it's definitely NOT her best work! She also hated art class in elementary school - she would have to do the cookie-cutter assignment that the art teacher watered down for the whole class, but then she would start adding her own additions. Her teacher would actually stop her and tell her that she needs to do it like everyone else. At least her middle school art teacher gives her more leeway in what she is allowed to do.

To answer the OP's question, the adult coloring craze nearly put me over the edge this past year for various reasons, so no, I do NOT enjoy it! lol

I don't think the presence or absence of artistic ability really impacts how much a person enjoys colouring. I occasionally do quick portraits at 10 dollars each, using coloured pencils. And back in the 90's, I was charging 100 dollars to paint dragons and elves and such on the backs of people's jean jackets. I'm reasonably good at this sort of thing.

However the one thing that kept me from progressing in art (in a professional or commercial sense) was the fact that I cannot see colour quite the same as everyone else. This cause significant problems in painting classes and means that I've never really mastered the use of colour in my art. Which is fine, as I'm far more interested in crafting anyway. I have no desire to be a fine artist.

If your daughter is serious about developing her artistic skills further, she should start taking some chances with colour. Perfection is a lot less important than stretching your abilities and fine tuning them. Also, if she's overly focussed on small intricate drawings, it's good to occasionally try expanding into larger scale projects.

FWIW, I think her elementary art teacher was absolutely wrong. But her middle school teacher sounds like she's actually trying to encourage her to develop a more complete set of skills, which will stand her in good stead in the future.

And I do like colouring books because there's something very soothing about scribbling little tiny circles of colour to fill in large spaces while watching TV. It's an alternative to knitting, for me, and requires much, much less concentration than drawing. (I simply can't just sit and watch a movie... I get entirely too restless and bored. I even bring my knitting to church services!)

 

[Magpie]

Prismacolor Pencils are the best! My DD got some from my sister last year for Christmas and she loves how smooth they are and how vibrant the colors are, as well as the huge variety of colors available! She likes to pencil sketch, but when she has to color something, she prefers Prismacolor over the "kid" brands. They are pricey, but I did see that Prismacolor has a less-expensive line out too, at Target/etc. I think it's called PC Scholar or something like that.

I'm very fond of fine tipped markers, myself. They're easier on my hand and great for tiny details (no sharpening!).

That said, you can't do solid blocks of colour with them without a lot of bleed through. What I generally do instead is scribble tiny spirals to fill in large blank areas. It looks nicer than the usual back-and-forth thing people do, and doesn't wreck the paper.

 

[L&Lfan]

Never was a big fan (too impatient) and I having colored since before junior high, probably not even since middle school. I did love the big 64 crayon Crayola boxes, but it was more the thought of them than actually using them.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I don't think the presence or absence of artistic ability really impacts how much a person enjoys colouring. I occasionally do quick portraits at 10 dollars each, using coloured pencils. And back in the 90's, I was charging 100 dollars to paint dragons and elves and such on the backs of people's jean jackets. I'm reasonably good at this sort of thing.

However the one thing that kept me from progressing in art (in a professional or commercial sense) was the fact that I cannot see colour quite the same as everyone else. This cause significant problems in painting classes and means that I've never really mastered the use of colour in my art. Which is fine, as I'm far more interested in crafting anyway. I have no desire to be a fine artist.

If your daughter is serious about developing her artistic skills further, she should start taking some chances with colour. Perfection is a lot less important than stretching your abilities and fine tuning them. Also, if she's overly focussed on small intricate drawings, it's good to occasionally try expanding into larger scale projects.

FWIW, I think her elementary art teacher was absolutely wrong. But her middle school teacher sounds like she's actually trying to encourage her to develop a more complete set of skills, which will stand her in good stead in the future.

And I do like colouring books because there's something very soothing about scribbling little tiny circles of colour to fill in large spaces while watching TV. It's an alternative to knitting, for me, and requires much, much less concentration than drawing. (I simply can't just sit and watch a movie... I get entirely too restless and bored.)

Oh, I totally agree. I was just saying that, for DD, that at a very young age, she has always leaned toward pencil sketching than color - I always thought it was funny because she was so little, like 3-4 years old, and would grab a pencil and sketch a drawing of two tigers fighting while the other girls would color in a book. I guess that I had always just assumed that all little girls that had any interest in doing anything "arts and crafts" would like coloring books, but DD never used the ones I bought her. I loved to color when I was growing up.

And I completely agree with you about expanding. DD12 has been told that before as well. And she will, I'm sure, but she's...well, 12 going on 13, and thinks she knows everything lol I think she is starting to want to branch out a little more. She won a small cash award last spring for a drawing she submitted for an art contest at her school and did express interest in using the money take a painting class - it's very hard to find art classes (within a reasonable price range) for her age group - she is beyond the 6-12 year old classes but most adult classes don't want a 12 year old in attendance. I have talked to someone about maybe doing a few private lessons, we will see.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I'm very fond of fine tipped markers, myself. They're easier on my hand and great for tiny details (no sharpening!).

That said, you can't do solid blocks of colour with them without a lot of bleed through. What I generally do instead is scribble tiny spirals to fill in large blank areas. It looks nicer than the usual back-and-forth thing people do, and doesn't wreck the paper.

Prismacolor makes those too! lol I saw them at Michael's last time DD and I were there. She wanted to buy some, but didn't have her money with her. They are expensive too!

 

[wenrob]

Prismacolor Pencils are the best! My DD got some from my sister last year for Christmas and she loves how smooth they are and how vibrant the colors are, as well as the huge variety of colors available! She likes to pencil sketch, but when she has to color something, she prefers Prismacolor over the "kid" brands. They are pricey, but I did see that Prismacolor has a less-expensive line out too, at Target/etc. I think it's called PC Scholar or something like that.

They are like a prized possession to me. Kind of like the oil pastels my grandma bought me when I was 12. There's just something special about them.

 

[scrhsa]

I don't like the new adult coloring books. They are too stressful for me. Too many small spaces to color. I would need a gazillion colors. I like the actual kids ones---young kid ones Lots of big spaces to fill in.

 

[kamik86]

Oh, I totally agree. I was just saying that, for DD, that at a very young age, she has always leaned toward pencil sketching than color - I always thought it was funny because she was so little, like 3-4 years old, and would grab a pencil and sketch a drawing of two tigers fighting while the other girls would color in a book. I guess that I had always just assumed that all little girls that had any interest in doing anything "arts and crafts" would like coloring books, but DD never used the ones I bought her. I loved to color when I was growing up.

And I completely agree with you about expanding. DD12 has been told that before as well. And she will, I'm sure, but she's...well, 12 going on 13, and thinks she knows everything lol I think she is starting to want to branch out a little more. She won a small cash award last spring for a drawing she submitted for an art contest at her school and did express interest in using the money take a painting class - it's very hard to find art classes (within a reasonable price range) for her age group - she is beyond the 6-12 year old classes but most adult classes don't want a 12 year old in attendance. I have talked to someone about maybe doing a few private lessons, we will see.

Paint might be good for her.

When I draw I draw in pencil too. I can paint in color just fine but never really got good at colored pencils and getting the color the way I want to. Color does tend to ruin my pencil drawings they go from looking textured and realistic to looking like a cartoon.

So maybe paint is her color of choice.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I like them. I can't draw at all so coloring is just about the most artistic thing I can do.

 

[kinntj]

I don't like to color, but I do like jigsaw puzzles to help de stress.

 

[Magpie]

I don't like to color, but I do like jigsaw puzzles to help de stress.

I'm working one right now! It's a Puzz-3D of Notre Dame Cathedral. My students get to help, if they finish their lesson early.

 

[FLCyndi]

Nope

 

[here757]

I was coloring last night. Treated myself to a Christmas themed Adult Color Book. My wrist was sore this morning so I came to the conclusion I need to do it more! I have the 132 Count Prismacolor Pencil set in my wishlist on Amazon. Right now I have the 48 set but seriously considered sneaking into DD's room to grab her 72 set last night.

I chose "occasionally" not because I don't enjoy it but because I enjoy it too much. I get wrapped up in what I'm doing and then I'm up way too late coloring. While it's on trend right now I don't think it's something that ever really went away. I have some of the mandala color books from the seventies my Uncle gave me. For awhile you could find reproductions of them at Michael's and Dick Blick. And remember the poster/marker sets in the 80s? Oh and color/paint by number.


I keep looking at that Dr. Suess one and have the Disney Thomas Kincade one on my wishlist.

Dr suess is at Costco and target. Only seen in Walmart once

 

[dotfurio]

I do enjoy coloring occasionally. I don't really like the new adult coloring books, though. Too tedious.

 

[mummabear]

The cheeky part of me wants to say no because I am not a toddler.
But in reality I do enjoying colouring in with the kids, I also like to doodle.
My artistic abilities would be on or to a toddler though