My Very First Coloring Books

If you know me in real life – and possibly even if you don’t – you probably know that I draw. And draw. And draw.

It’s something I’ve done all my life. I draw on shopping lists. I draw on church bulletins. I even draw in the margins of my Sudoku pages as I complete each puzzle.

So, when I saw an opportunity to share my drawings with others, I jumped on it.

I’m talking about coloring books… coloring books for adult, not just children.

This is kind of “how I spent my summer vacation.”

HOW THESE BOOKS STARTED

Since somewhere around the middle of July, I’ve been assembling my latest drawings and creating new ones for coloring books.

When I started out, I thought, “Sure, this looks easy.”

Boy oh boy, was I wrong. Coloring books…? Not so easy, after all.

Not if you’re a perfectionist like me, anyway.

• I want every drawing to look “just so.”
• I want every book to be available in right-handed and left-handed versions. (I’m still working on the left-hand editions.)
• I want each book to be the perfect size for the illustrations. And so on.

I put together five coloring books before I felt like I was finally ready to publish one.

Things I learned:

• If my one-year-old granddaughter likes a design well enough to grab a crayon and start coloring it… it’s a good design.
• Testing some of my designs with adults: some people like big lines. Others like fine lines. Some like big coloring areas. Some like super-intricate designs. And so on. It’s best to focus on books that will make many people happy, but expect criticism. And some one-star reviews.
• I’m far more finicky about how my books look than the pre-press guy assembling them for publication. Sometimes, my requests drive him crazy. (In this case, that “pre-press guy” is my husband. He does this kind of work for a living.)

But finally (cue the drumroll), I have books to talk about. Each is for a different kind of coloring enthusiast.

They are designed for adults, even though – as I’m writing this – Amazon only has a category “Coloring Books for Children.” So, you may have to search for these books by name.

My current favorite is a coloring book that fits in my purse. At 5 1/4″ x 8″, it’s just a little larger than a standard paperback book.

It’s A Small Coloring Book: Coloring Hippie-Style, and it contains 50 kinda-sorta hippie coloring pages.

I had a lot of fun with this book because I’ve been drawing these kinds of pictures since my early teens.

They make me happy, and I’ve always liked coloring them myself.

I hope you’ll feel the same way.

This coloring book offers a lot of variety… simple drawings (like on the cover), mandalas, and repeating patterns.

Some can be colored quickly, while others might take a few hours (depending on the number of colors and the detail you like).

Each design is printed on just one side of the page. (I still recommend putting a sheet of paper underneath the page you’re coloring, just in case the ink seeps through.)

Buy it here: A Small Coloring Book – Coloring, Hippie-Style

My next coloring book was Bold and Easy Coloring Pages. It’s a collection of coloring designs with bigger-than-average coloring spaces and bolder-than-usual lines.

I created it when my daughter & I realized my granddaughter really liked easy-to-color pages.

Then, as we talked about it, we thought of other situations where bold, easy coloring pages might be really helpful.

Like when you really want to color in the middle of the night, but don’t want to turn on a bright light.

Or for people who don’t like to wear their reading glasses while they color.

And for use in therapy settings. And so on.

So, it became a book.

It was the very first “bold and easy” coloring book ever published.

And yes, I thought that phrase was funny.

Of course, I explained that it wasn’t a trashy book, it had bold lines and it was easy to color. LOL

And that’s what I’ve been working on during Summer 2015.

Click here for a free sample page from “Bold and Easy Coloring Pages 1”

Here’s my coloring book info:

Looking for free coloring pages to download? Click on the link below…

Coloring Books and Samples