Grown-Up Colouring In

I was very proud at my ability to stay within the lines when colouring in as a kid.  Just like my skills at the three-legged and wheelbarrow races, no-one told me that these endeavours had very limited shelf-lives.  I was hankering after getting one of these new grown-up colouring books for a long time, but was too embarrassed.  Then, on a holiday in France, I popped into the tabac and there were whole shelves devoted to zen colouring, labelled as anti-stress and art therapy.  Apparently French women have en masse adopted this trend and lead the world in terms of sales.  Well, when in Rome (or France) and all that ...

So I bought myself a wee book and some basic pencils, I happily skipped back to the villa for many hours of happy colouring.  I pinched Robbie's mum Jeanie's watercolours for the next page and bought me some Derwent Inktense pencils when I got home.

First foray into colouring in France

Colouring using watercolours

Colouring using inktense pencils

Mille Marotta's Animal Kingdom

Having kicked my embarrassment truly to touch, I decided to buy Animal Kingdom by Millie Marotta.  This is Amazon's best seller in 'Adult Colouring', a category title that I think sounds a bit dubious!  It's worth noting that this book has two versions, one with white pages and the other cream.  There is no way to distinguish the two, so it's a matter of luck as to which you get.  I was lucky and have received white every time I've ordered (I've bought lots as pressies in my attempt to spread the colouring love).

Owl from Millie Marsotta's Animal Kingdom

Elephant from Millie Marsotta's Animal Kingdom

Colouring Supplies

Some folks have no appreciation of  beautiful stationery and scoff at those whose hearts flutter when near Paperchase.  You can probably tell that this post and indeed this entire blog,  is not for them.  My jeweller pal Di and I joke that our real hobby is actually shopping for lovely tools and supplies rather than crafting, so colouring has allowed me to indulge in my stationery fetish!

Colouring Supplies - Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, Fibre tip pens and ergo soft pencils. Asda gel pens and Derwent Inktense pencils

Geometric pencil case from Asda

Staedtler Fineliners or Stabilo 88 pens

I scored a bargain deal in Sainsbury's a while back and got a roll of 25 stabilo pens for 70% off.  My collection had suffered quite sever pilferage from work colleagues, but I still had a decent colour range.  I assumed that this was the best range of fine pens, so was surprised to  read  recommendations for Staedtler instead.  I hunted out a fineliner from my stash and did a little comparison - Staedtler actually did perform better for shading.  I exuberantly decided on a 30 pack of fineliners for £18.15!

Bargain find - asda gel pens

This is a great pack of gel pens from Asda.  They colour without leaving lines and can be layered - see the gold glitter over orange and brown on the owl piccie above.  They have been on sale for many months at £2, but the price has gone back up to £2.75 just now :(

Not only can they be used for colouring but I've discovered an easy hack to use them as a  Silhouette sketch pen.  The official Silhouette metallic pen pack is £9 for 4.  The hack is an especially good saving as the Asda pens are full length and so have at least twice as much ink.  You can see the silver pen in action in my last blog post - An Introduction to Silhouette Cameo 

Coloured with Staedtler fineliner and Asda silver gel pen

Coloured with Staedtler fineliners and Asda gold metallic and glitter gel pens

Staedler Ergo soft and Derwent inktense pencils

Pencils are great for colouring as they don't bleed through the page and can be used for lovely shading effects.  I've not really used my pencils much, but I'm keen to do some more with them. 

I am really impressed by how vivid the Inktense colours become when water is added.  I think however that they might be better suited to other projects using watercolour paper as the colouring books can't handle much water before buckling.

Shading Animal Kingdom drawing using Staedtler Ergo Soft pencils

Using Derwent Inktense pencils on my first French colouring book

I tried to suggest a little colouring competition at work, but they weren't up for it.  I vainly thought that this is because I'm too good, but in reality it is probably due to the fall out when I didn't win the baking competition 4 years ago!

If you are still resisting, I urge you not to, bring out those pens and pencils, print off a nice design and get to business :)

Recommendations

Colour With Clare Blog - Great reviews of books and supplies
Johanna Basford Blog - Creator of Secret Garden
Fantastic Cities Colouring - From The Guardian
Mathematical patterns - Maths + colouring, I'm in heaven!