How YouTube Saved and Evolved My Coloring

Until quite recently, I was in a coloring rut. Some of this could have been part of my own personal life issues (a harsh breakup and a job search seeming to go nowhere). However, overall, I just wasn’t motivated to color. I wasn’t proud of the little coloring that I could make myself do, and I wasn’t inspired by anything around me.

This all changed when I decided to go on YouTube to watch videos. I originally just went on to learn skills that could maybe improve my coloring, but it ended up paying back in dividends. With every day and with every video I watch, I get more inspired to color and to try new techniques on my coloring pages. This has honestly been one of the best things I’ve done for my coloring!

I want to list here some of the things I gained from the videos I watch on YouTube:

1. A welcoming and supportive community of very amazing people
2. New techniques such as shading, blending, etc.
3. Ideas on places to find inspiration or color palettes
4. Recommendations on new supplies, coloring books, etc.
5. Motivation to pick up your own pencils, pens, markers, etc and color

I hope that I can inspire a few other people to look up coloring videos on YouTube. It is such a great tool and place for colorists! In a future post, I will list and talk about some of my favorite YouTube channels about coloring that I subscribe to!

Look How I’ve Grown

I started this blog back in 2015 as part of a class that I was taking at the time, but I really wanted to continue this blog well after I had finished that class. However… I struggled with finding the time to do that while juggling my junior and senior years of college. This being said, I recently graduated from college back in May and I want to begin posting to this blog consistently again. For my first post, I want to talk about all I have learned about my coloring and where I want to take this blog. Here we go…

I have not had a whole lot of time to dedicate to coloring over the past couple years. Due to this, I still consider myself to be quite the novice colorist. However, in the time that I have dedicated to adult coloring, I have learned a lot and am slowly beginning to improve my skills. Since I am still a beginner in my eyes, I want to share on my blog the skills, tips, and tricks that I have been using to boost my coloring. My first few new posts on this blog will be about those tips and tricks that I have learned. In addition to posts such as these, I want to document the pictures that I am working on, share reviews of the coloring books and coloring mediums that I have, and contribute to the adult coloring community. I find that the adult coloring community is so positive and so welcoming. I can’t wait to be a part of it once again.

That’s all for this post, but please keep your eyes open for my new content coming soon!

Colored Pencils and Markers and Pens…Oh My!

No two colorists are exactly the same…

We all have our preferences. Our likes. Our dislikes. Some prefer to use colored pencils, others prefer to use markers, gel pens, or paints. Some even like to dabble in everything! Recently, I’ve felt like I’m not branching out enough with my coloring mediums. This inspired me to start researching different options.

So…

Below is what I’ve found and what I have used before. I hope you keep reading and get some coloring inspiration yourself.

A Colorist’s Snapshot: Coloring, Struggles, and Advice

Sometimes you look at a coloring page, you have instant inspiration as to how you want to color it, and it comes out just how you wanted it to…other times not so much.

I am currently attempting to color a really cool snake coloring page in my “Tropical World” coloring book, but it’s just not coming out the way I had hoped and I keep getting the urge to give up on it altogether.

Here is the picture:

 

As you can see, I am about halfway done with it.

I really like the design and I like my idea to color it rainbow since it’s a rainbow boa. What I don’t like is that the colors aren’t running together as smoothly as I wanted them to especially at the very beginning of the snake’s body. No matter what though, I am trying not to give up on finishing the picture.

My friends gave me the following advice when they heard I had the urge to give up:

Take a break from the picture you are working on and come back to it later. Look at it with new eyes once you get back because maybe you will see it in a different light, see ways you can improve it, and even try to work it in a way that makes you like it better. 

I want to encourage anyone to take that advice if they ever get into a situation similar to my own because this advice has worked for me.

Once I get frustrated, I just take a step back, work on a different coloring page, or even just go do something else for however long I need to. Every time I come back, I end up working on the picture a little more.

I have a feeling that once I finish this coloring page, I will like the way it came out even if I keep getting frustrated along the way. And even if I don’t like it, I will appreciate the effort I put into it and the peace of mind that the coloring itself gave me.

I also give the advice that sometimes it’s more about the process than the product so don’t fret if what you’re working on isn’t how you want it to look.

In any event, I would love to hear from others who have been in the same position as me before. Do you have any different advice to share? Or do you have some inspiring words for people who are struggling?

It’s always great to teach others and to learn something new yourself so feel free to leave advice, encouraging words, or anything else you’d like to share in the comments!

Intricacy vs. Simplicity

I read a really interesting post earlier today.

The post talked about if adults really need adult coloring books to color or if they don’t. The author leaned more towards the stance that adult coloring books are kind of unnecessary and that adult coloring books seemed more overwhelming with the intricate designs than relaxing like they’re supposed to be. If I am going to be honest, it annoyed me a little bit at first as an avid adult colorist yet once I started thinking about it more, the post opened my eyes and taught me a lot. The author wanted feedback and input on this topic so here is mine:

At first, I think what got to me about the view the author seemed to have was that I personally love the intricacy and the complicated-ness of the designs because I get a greater sense of accomplishment after finishing a more intricate design than one that is more aimed towards children. I believe that the intricacy is the whole point of adult coloring, and that is what distinguishes it from regular coloring or an adult coloring in a children’s coloring book.

BUT…after thinking this through a lot more, I actually got really mad at myself!

I believe that my initial view was extremely narrow-minded when it comes to the adult coloring trend. I have a feeling that maybe I jumped on the mainstream adult coloring trend “bandwagon” too hard. I previously thought that the intricacate designs were the whole point of coloring as an adult, but I see now that it doesn’t have to be that way. The point of adult coloring is an adult being able to color, not how complex what they are coloring is.

Simplistic coloring pages can be equally as satisfying (and possibly even more relaxing!) than the mainstream complicated coloring pages. It really, I believe now, depends wholly on the person and what the person prefers.

This post actually ended up reminding me of the times when (just a couple years ago!) I was a freshman in college, and I was printing out coloring pages with my friends and coloring just to pass the time (…this was before adult coloring books even became popular!).

The best part was that we weren’t coloring intricate designs or anything; we were coloring pictures that you could find in any children’s coloring book.

I am dumbfounded that recently I have been so ignorant and so gung-ho for the mainstream adult coloring scene that I completely lost sight of just coloring something simple and coloring just to color, not make a masterpiece of art. I should’ve know better that I was being so obtuse because there most definitely have been times when I’ve been fed up with a complicated pattern I’m working on and yearned for a more simplistic picture.

I am so grateful for the reality check that I got from that post and I am gonna try to post a few of the more simplistic pictures I’ve colored from the past as well as possibly invest in a children’s coloring book as my next coloring book purchase!

There’s an App for That???

Adult coloring? Of course, there is an app for that now!

In a world where people constantly struggle to find time to “unplug” from their electronic devices, it was practically inevitable that the adult coloring trend would get digitized to accommodate everyone. There are a multitude of different adult coloring apps out there, many of them free apps, for all your digital coloring wants and desires. I have tried a few of these and can’t seem to put them down, but there are a lot that I haven’t tried which compelled me to do some research and share with you.

Coloring, Creativity, and Connecting

New creative ways of coloring are popping up everywhere.

The other day, I read this post on how to make DIY coloring sheets which was actually a completely innovative and awesome idea that I had never even thought of. The post gave a step by step process, with pictures, on how to complete this process. It was interesting, helpful, and very easy to understand. The post told you exactly what kind of programs to use and suggests that you choose any image from Project Gutenburg, which has over 50,000 free ebooks, to make a coloring page. I decided to share this cool project here for my readers because it was something new for people interested in coloring to try. While I haven’t personally tried this yet, I encourage you to check it out and try it for yourself! I’d love to hear the results!

While on the topic of interesting posts that I read recently, I was reading through a post from another person who just picked up the hobby of adult coloring. The post really stuck with me for some reason even though it brought up stuff I already realized about coloring.

It was a really sweet post highlighting the magic of coloring, and how the best magic came out the the time that they got to spend with their child. The magic of being able to bond with your family over something. I think this stuck with me so much because my sister and I (she is 14 years old compared to my 20) also enjoy connecting and bonding over coloring together. No matter how old you are or who you are coloring with be it family or friends, coloring can be fun and relaxing for all. And most of all, it can help you to bond. I suggest checking out the post, here.

A Taste of the Rainbow

48 different colors of the rainbow….that’s what greeted me as I opened my new pack of Marco Reffiné fine art colored pencils that I ordered on Amazon a couple weeks ago. I was beyond ecstatic to get them in the mail because I was getting tired of the same old, same old of using my Crayola colored pencils that I bought over the summer.

I fell in love the second I put my new colored pencils to the test because of the smoothness of the color going on the page and because of how vibrant and beautiful the colors are themselves. I can’t wait to finish my first picture using them and post it on here. I can so happily say that it was a successful $25 splurge spent on myself. I reccomend them to everyone although they are kind of expensive so if you want to color but not spend a ton of money then they probably aren’t your best option. To anyone who doesn’t mind spending the money though, they are fantastic.

I have been seeing a lot of people use gel pens to color, and I absolutely love the way that they make pictures look. I personally don’t like using markers to color, but I think gel pens would be my happy medium between markers and colored pencils which are my coloring utensil of choice.

Gel pens just might end up being my next guilty pleasure buy.

…maybe a Christmas present to myself once December rolls around.

A Colorist’s Snapshot

I recently finished a piece from my Mehndi Designs coloring book from Dover’s Creative Haven collection. It is one of my favorite coloring books that I own. It didn’t take me very long to decide that I wanted to use a very limited color selection by just using shades of green. I would love to hear what others think about the colors and the picture itself. I personally got a really great sense of accomplishment from this piece because it’s the first that I’ve completely finished since I moved back into my college dorm.

If you have any questions about what coloring utensils I used or where I bought my coloring book, feel free to leave a comment!

My Happy Place

Cozily nestled into the corner of my room, behind my closet and in front of my bed, is where I sit at my desk. Take a glance into the perpetually open doorway of my room and no matter how hard you look, you won’t be able to see me unless you physically walk inside. My desk’s location supplies me with my own personal bubble where I escape to…

A printer, an unplugged lamp, a clock, tissues, makeup, clothes, books, papers, pencils, pens, and more create an organized yet chaotic array of my college student essentials. All of which are readily available right on the top of my desk when I need them. I wouldn’t have this any other way. My organized chaos is comforting.

My desk has become my symbolic home base. It is my creative workspace. I do everything at my desk. I read there, I do my homework there, I watch Netflix there, and most of all, I color there.

The comforting aura of my desk makes it the perfect space for me to concentrate solely on one task, especially when that task is coloring. I clear adequate space, pull out my coloring books, find my colored pencils, and am on my way.

A blank, black and white canvas in front of me and a rainbow selection of colored pencils is all I need. I love the scratch of the pencils on paper as I work on my latest masterpiece. The sound of my pencil sharpener brings me confidence that I’ll be able to fill in the small intricate areas of my coloring page with precision. The slow progression of something blank turning into a colorful piece of art gives me an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

Once I finish a coloring page, I can place it on the cork-board backdrop of my desk.

And there you have it, my happy place complete.