My Favourite Adult Colouring Books

Call it colouring therapy, anti-stress colouring, colouring relaxation, or just plain colouring...it looks like the trend is really picking up for adult colouring books! Which I think is wonderful, especially since so many of us are always busy and connected to screens. Colouring is truly a great way to slow down and relax. 

I am 43 years old and I love to colour! 

For years, I have coloured with my children during our homeschool time or just for fun. During our history lessons, we used lovely Dover colouring books to add to our studies. There are so many colouring books published by Dover, for a multitude of topics, all with detailed illustrations. Whenever I joined my children and coloured with them, I would always love it and often continue to colour after they were finished!

Why is colouring relaxing for us as adults? 

Colouring an already drawn design takes away the stress that might come from the blank page and worrying about drawing something that looks right or good in our eyes. 

Colouring involves choosing colours, which at least for me, is an enjoyable process and not a stressful one at all. There are no rules in colouring a page, you can choose to colour a tree purple if you want or brown! 

It takes time to colour a page but I think that is part of the beauty in the process, it encourages us to slow down. Making smooth marks on the page instead of rushed ones, which we might have done as a younger child... Because as an adult, if we colour, we are choosing to do this activity for our own pleasure, not because we have to.  

Today, there are many beautiful colouring books for adults available! Our local bookstore has currently a really nice display in its front window. 

Here are my favourites:

The Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford. This colouring book is filled with magical illustrations inviting us to get lost in and colour! The details are amazing and I particularly like the nature theme of this book. I have used watercolour pencils on the pages. The paper is thick enough to handle a little water. Check out this article about the artist and her next book The Lost Ocean (I can't wait for it!).

A few completed pages from Enchanted Forest  

Feel Good Colouring and the new Feel Inspired Colouring by Nadine Staff gives a wonderful flow-y doodle feel to her illustrations. I get completely relaxed while colouring in her books. I absolutely love playing with colours with her illustrations. With one illustration per page, it's perfect for using markers or sharpies, with a piece of paper behind to prevent bleeding on to the next page. I tend to use mostly colouring pencils, but it's nice to have that option. I also have coloured in the cover of the first book and covered it with packing tape to seal in the colours. Check out Feel Good Colouring   for more about these two books. 

Completed pages from Feel Good Colouring

Nadine lives on Prince Edward Island and I had the pleasure of meeting her a few weeks ago. We met during a fun evening of colouring together, with a few more local friends I met through social media. It was such a great time, talking and colouring together. We are all hoping to get together again soon!

Have you enjoyed colouring as an adult? Do you have a favourite colouring book? Leave me a comment and tell me!