Coloring Books for Grownups – How to Get Started

The last time I colored in a coloring book was maybe ten years ago when my daughter Katie was little. A few years ago, my friend Joanne Fink shared with me her new Zenspirations® coloring book line that was being published. Since then, “coloring books for grownups” have really taken off! At Alt Summit last month, I met Jenean Morrison, another artist who has been turning her art into coloring books for the last few years. When Tombow issued a coloring book challenge to the design team this month, I knew exactly what I was going to do: color pages from each of their books! Please note this post contains affiliate links for which Just JP receives a small commission when you click and make a purchase.

While I was in Florida last month, I was able to go visit Joanne at her home near Orlando. It was alot of fun to see her office and her house and she gave me some amazing lettering lessons. She's been a calligrapher for over 30 years I believe! She also sent me home with more copies of her line of coloring books, available at Michaels stores. I had copies of them before this but the kids were using them and when I told Joanne about the challenge with Tombow, she was more than happy to give me some books. She always more than happy to give me some books, actually. She is a fabulously warm and generous person and I am honored to call her my friend. I think that is what made coloring her pages for this project even more special to me.

I used Tombow's Recycled Colored Pencils to color this image from Joanne's Zenspirations® Inspirations Designs to Feed Your Spirit coloring book. You can see the full reveal and an instagram video of the process over on the Tombow Blog.

Jenean Morrison's style is very different from Joanne's.  I received a copy of one of her many coloring books, Flower Designs Coloring Book Volume 1, while at Alt Summit.  I love the very precise and delicate look of Jenean's coloring book but it was really hard to color for a couple of the reasons. The black lines are thin so it is hard to stay in them. The paper also liked to really drink up the ink from the Tombow Dual Brush Pens I was using, causing the coloring the bleed under the lines at times. I got the best results when using the Tombow Blender to watercolor the image, as you can see on the leaves here:

I think Jenean's book would be much better for watercoloring and colored pencils than the markers I had used for it. The watercolor effect I got by using the Tombow Blending Palette and the Blender was really nice. I could totally see myself doing that again. I think I might cut this out and decoupage it onto a notebook or something…

Getting started with coloring books for grownups:

Here are some essential things to know when venturing into the world of coloring books for grownups:

• Say “Coloring Books for GROWNUPS” not “Adult Coloring Books”. “Adult” sounds creepy.
• Check the paper – if you are in a store, feel the paper before you buy the coloring book to check the roughness of the paper and the paper thickness. You want to look for books with thick, smooth pages. The prices of the books and quality of the paper vary wildly from publisher to publisher.
• Experiment – there are no rules so try things out and see how they work.
• Use a piece of cardstock behind the pages as you color to avoid bleeding through to the next page. Leave pages open to dry if using markers or other wet media like watercolors.
• Get a Tombow Sand Eraser. If you make a mistake with just about anything, the Sand Eraser can erase it unless the paper is too thin. The Sand Eraser works by taking off a thin layer of the paper.
• Be careful not to set your hand in wet ink. If you look close at the page above, you can see pink speckles where I laid my hand in pink ink and then it soaked into the paper as I continued coloring.

Want to get started with coloring? Here are some of the supplies I recommend:

Tombow Irojiten Color Pencils Tombow Recycled Color Pencil, 24 Piece Set (51626) Tombow MONO Sand Eraser (57304) American Tombow Dual Brush Pen Set, 10 Pack, Bright Colors, Assorted (56185) Tombow Dual Brush Pen Set, 10-Pack, Primary Colors (56167) Tombow Blending Kit for Dual Brush Pens, includes Blending Palette, Colorless Blender, Spray Mister Zenspirations(TM) Coloring Book Flowers: Create, Color, Pattern, Play! Joanne Fink Zenspirations(TM) Coloring Book Inspirations Designs to Feed Your Spirit: Create, Color, Pattern, Pl Zenspirations(TM) Coloring Book Abstract & Geometric Designs: Create, Color, Pattern, Play! Joanne Flower Designs Coloring Book (Volume 1) Jenean Morrison Dream Catcher: a soul bird's journey: A beautiful and inspiring colouring book for all ages Christi

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Looking for more coloring book pages?

Check out this post I wrote about the best places to find free coloring book pages here: BEST Free Coloring Book Pages

Did you know that you can use coloring book pages as templates for making window clings and puffy paint doilies? Check out how I made puffy paint doilies by using free printable mandala coloring book pages I found online: Puffy Paint Doilies

Have you tried any coloring books for grownups?

I'd love to hear about them in the comments section!!

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I created this post as a Tombow Design Team member and Zenspirations® supporter. We appreciate our sponsors for helping Just JP spread smart creativity everywhere!