Colouring for grown ups

Take time out, enjoy colouring and relax

Books aimed at adults who enjoy colouring are now to be found in most bookshops, craft shops and even supermarkets. This is a recent phenomenon, though. Until recently colouring was seen as something to be done only by children. Adults wanting to do something artistic would be expected to produce their own artwork from scratch, not spend time colouring in someone else's designs. However, quite recently someone realised how beneficial it can be to spend time colouring, artists started to design books aimed at adults and publishers started to market these. Now many adults have taken up this pleasant and relaxing pastime. It is not only an acceptable activity for adults but it is seen as something which promotes a person's well being. 

Compass patterns 2015

Doodle 2015

 As a child I loved colouring, though rarely in a colouring book. I used to draw patterns, often with a compass and pencil and then colour them with crayons. Felt tips were not available when I was a child! This and doodling designs to colour was something I found myself doing in an evening after attending our social art group. 

Christmas present 2014

As an adult, I have been lucky to have been able to spend time colouring with my children and grandchildren both in colouring books and in patterns we have designed ourselves. I was surprised though to receive a Christmas colouring book and a set of felt tips as a present for Christmas 2014. At that time I didn't realise that colouring books for adults were available and would never have thought of buying myself one. Soon afterwards I came across one on sale in a charity shop. The person donating this couldn't have had any idea then how popular these books would become in a very short time. This book plus a set of crayons and felt tips now sits in a cupboard in our caravan and last year I spent many pleasant hours colouring whilst sipping a glass of red wine before preparing dinner. 

A colouring book for adults

Last summer, whilst out buying art materials, I came across a range of colouring books published by Michael O'Hara Books that are promoting colouring as an aid to mindfulness. I bought The Art of Mindfulness: Peace and Calm Colouring and a new set of felt tips and have definitely found that spending time colouring the lovely designs in this book is not only a very enjoyable activity but it really does help me take time out from the stresses of everyday life. As it is much easier and quicker to pick up my colouring book and a packet of felt tips than to organise my painting materials, I now colour more frequently than I paint.  

I've found that I currently prefer to do my colouring in felt tips rather than crayons. Although this means that I am unable to blend or shade and only have a limited range of colours, I really like how vibrant the designs appear when done in felt tips. 

I decided to keep a photo record of the pages I completed so that I could add them to my portfolio of sketches and paintings that I have been putting together since retiring. Cropping the photos and adding frames to the cropped photos has helped turned them into cheerful works of art and I find myself smiling whenever I look at them. 

Gallery of completed designs

The designs are from The Art of Mindfulness: Peace and Calm Colouring and further information about this book and others in this series can be found at: http://www.mombooks.com/adult-colouring/ 

Learning to paint

Flowers in acrylic (Feb 2016)

Which medium to use?

Oils

Furry friends in oils

One of the things I wanted to do in my spare time on retiring was to take up painting again. Many years ago my husband bought me a set of oil paints and an easel in an effort to give me something to do that would de-stress me at the end of a working week.

On Friday evenings I set up my easel in the kitchen and spent many happy hours firstly copying a simple picture of two cats from a Christmas card and then copying a postcard of village houses in Provence. 

A village in France in oils

Although I didn't really have any idea of what I was doing with the oil paints as I'd never used oils before, I was very pleased with what I managed to produce but actually found it quite a stressful activity at the time. With family commitments, working full time and doing things that had to be done, there wasn't enough time to devote to painting in order to to finish something quickly. I found it frustrating that a painting seemed to take forever to complete so I packed away my paints and easel in the attic and decided that this was something to come back to later. 

Watercolours

Watercolour scene from a photo 2015

Time passed and I didn't even attempt to paint again whilst I was still working. After I retired I was invited to join a group of retirees at a social art group where a friend of the organiser took us through some of the basics. Although this group only met for five weeks I was inspired to continue on my own afterwards. Having bought watercolour paints and been shown how to stretch paper in the art group, I attempted to copy photographs in watercolour. This wasn't as easy as I expected, even after I took to reading up about techniques in books bought from local charity shops. Although I didn't frame any of these paintings I photographed them and used my IT skills and an app called Pic Collage to frame some of the photos as one of the things I did already know was that framing a picture always improves it. 

Over the years, I have found that as long as I have written instructions with illustrations I can teach myself most things. I wasn't sure about learning to paint though but decided to give it a try and bought a book that included graded tutorials on painting watercolour landscapes.

Watercolour landscape 2015

 I worked through several  of the tutorials, finding that these tutorials really helped me to produce paintings that looked much more like the given examples than the results of my previous attempts at copying photographs. These tutorials were especially helpful in showing me when and where to leave white areas of paper. 

Watercolour landscape 2015

Acrylics

Still life in acrylics 2015

Whilst tidying out the attics ready for redecorating last year, I came across the art materials I had put aside years ago. I was surprised but pleased to find an unopened box of acrylic paints which gave me an excuse to visit our local charity shops once again in search of 'how to paint' books but now looking for anything on painting with acrylics. I really enjoyed the first couple of acrylic tutorials and it felt much more natural to paint with the acrylics, especially as there was no need to leave white areas as these could be painted in later. I was so pleased with the results of completing the second tutorial that I framed it!

A teapot of flowers in acrylics 2015

Not fancying any of the remaining tutorials I decided to try out my new skills on copying a photo of a parrot. I was hoping to be able to make use of the vibrant nature of acrylics to produce a painting that would reflect the bright colours captured in the photo and I think I managed this. 

Parrot in acrylics 2015

It was weeks, actually several months, before I picked up my paints again. Even though I was busy with Christmas and birthdays during this time, it was mainly that I couldn't think of anything to paint. I've realised that I don't have much imagination regarding painting my own pictures. Perhaps this will come as my skills improve. For now I will continue to practise and seek inspiration in books and on the internet. 

Flowers in acrylics 2016

I have a online Pinterest account and have been using it to curate links to tutorials and examples inspirational art work. It's very pleasant to pass half an hour or more just following the suggested links and adding those I find useful to my Painting and Drawing board. 

Last week, whilst searching via Pinterest, I ended up on the Craftsy website and found a free mini class on painting flowers in acrylics. I enrolled, downloaded the videos and the painting here and at the top of the page is what I produced from following the videos on my iPad. I found it really useful to be able to see the tutor demonstrating how to mix and apply the paint as well as which areas to paint in each layer. Being able to replay the videos, when I hadn't understood or followed what was being demonstrated first time, proved to be essential. I will definitely be seeking out more painting and drawing video tutorials on the internet and can recommend this as an excellent way to learn at home.