Coloring books for adults
 

My sister will be in the hospital for over a month due to an infection in her leg. I've noticed coloring books for adults in Barns and noble and thought it might be something for her to do. Does any one have suggestions on good "colors" to use? The designs are too fine for crayons -I think.

She he is not the crafty kind, but I think this would be something different. Any suggestion is welcome.

I don't know about the coloring books but I love doing Zentangles to pass the time. Google them and you will see that you only need your imagination and plain pens with paper to do them. I keep mine in a sketch book and try to do one a day. Sometimes they are very simple, others take time to complete. Good luck to your sister.

I use colored pencils with mine. A set of 24 gives a good selection of colors. I keep a pencil sharpener in an Altoids (or similar) tin that can be used to collect the shavings.

Colored pencils with a sharpener are good.

Some brands of colored pencils are MUCH better than others. (Sorry - don't know the brands off hand, but there is a big difference in brands.)

Also, get an eraser and an eraser guard. An eraser guard is a thin piece of metal with holes in it, so one only erases what one wants and the rest is protected.)

An article from a Washington DC TV station discussing this just came over my Facebook newsfeed this morning! Adult coloring books are becoming very popular, and adults are finding coloring to be very calming. Unfortunately, the article just talked about the benefits of coloring, and did not discuss what pencils/crayons to use.

I also agree with getting good quality pencils. I bought some at Michaels. I checked at an art supply store, and they carried the same brand as Michaels, so I went to Michaels with a coupon.

I use Prismacolor pencils and I think you can find them at Michaels. I also use them when designing quilts on graph paper. Amazon has a good selection for the coloring books.

Also be sure to get a good sharpener that you can find with the art supplies. The inexpensive ones I tried didn't have a sharp blade and I couldn't get a nice point.

Is the paper heavy enough for fine line markers? My sister has adult dot to dots. They have about 1000 dots on the designs. She loves doing them.

I would pick up a couple sharpeners and even erasers. Hope it makes your sister's time go fast in the hospital. Maybe put it all into a binder like they have for the school kids. Also sending prayers for her fast recovery!!

I have bought several coloring books and both fine line markers and colored pencils. If the pages of the book are a bit heavier and only printed on 1 side then markers work great. It the pages are printed on both sides then get pencils otherwise the marker goes through to the backside just a bit. I have bought my makers online on Amazon and also in Target and Joanns. A couple of my favorite coloring books are:SecretGarden ( heavy pages…great for markers and they leave space on the pages toadd to their designs) and Creative Cats (paper is thinner so markers do bleedto the back but the backs are blank so nothing is ruined.I put a blank sheet of paper behind the pageI’m working, on just in case, and that also gives me a place to “try out” themarker color w/o messing up the page I’m working on…have I mentioned I’m a bitOCD about this?).I got both of thesebooks off Amazon.I have several otherbooks as well but am currently happy working on the Creative Cats one.

The markers I’ve bought are:PINKRISE MNM-01Colored Drawing Pen Fine Liner 0.4MM Sketch Drawing Pen, Point Paint MarkerPen,pack of 24 Assorted Colors from Amazon for about $20.My local Target had some that are basicallythe same but I can’t remember the name of them and I think they cost just alittle more than the ones from Amazon.Ipicked up some sets of markers that are for scrapbooking from Joann’s using my40-50% off coupons that have both fine tipped and brush tips and I’ve alsobought kids markers from Joanns and they work too but bleed a bit more.Hubby got me some fine tipped Sharpies but Ihaven’t opened the package yet.
I’mpretty sure I’ve told you more than you wanted to know, haha.
As youcan see I’ve invested a nice chunk of change in this new hobby of mine!Yes, I loved coloring as a child, yes I lovedcoloring w/my kids when they were little, yes I love coloring w/my grandkidsand YES I love coloring when I’m by myself!I had to make myself put them away for a while and get back tosewing/quilting…lol.

An elderly friend of mine uses both colored pencils and fine tip markers. . Her vision has improved-she is more focused when doing other tasks. She has anxiety attacks and the Doctor has decreased her dosage to half of what she was taking and she is enjoying going out to restaurants and WalMart. She rediscovered her love of coloring with her great great GS. And the benefits are miraculous. She's a lot happier than she's been in years. My son says the only reason I took up quilting is so I don't look silly coloring quilt patterns-little does he know I have stacks of coloring books of my own. : )