20150725 - antistress

Anti-Stress Coloring Book – 

all ages can enjoy this old-school, 

unplugged activity

My girlfriend squeed when I pulled this book out of my bag. Apparently, this coloring-books-for-adults craze is the real thing! Adult coloring books have been around for some time now, and art has been providing comfort since there has been art. But who suspected there would be a giant, grown-up coloring fad in the year 2015? What’s behind this new trend? Are we simply so overwhelmed with the hustle of our lives that we crave more forms of meditation? Perhaps it’s merely a collective deep-seated need to make something beautiful.
At first I was skeptical and thought that the adult coloring books might be a gateway product for people who have the desire to create but don’t yet have the skills. Then I opened it up, grabbed some colored pencils, and sunk in. The House of Pain lyric, “Stay between the lines and I won’t get pulled over,” repeated in my head for a while, but I soon dropped everything from my mind and focused on which color should go in which tiny space in my psychedelic sea turtle.
There are many such books on the market now and booksellers are having problems keeping them in stock. This one is divided into two sections: Coloring and Doodling. At first I disliked that there was so much color already on many of the pages, but that also gives you a bit of a head start with a nice background. There are many large pages to play with. And the book is hefty with very thick boards holding in the pages. Undoubtedly, there is something refreshing about such an old-school, unplugged activity. It’s nice to know that the kid inside you is still in there scribbling away, and that some of us have never really outgrown the joy of coloring. – Aaron Downey

 http://boingboing.net/2015/07/07/anti-stress-coloring-book.html