Coloring Books were FUN to do as children.
Selecting the never ending colors of crayons, deciding which colors went where and trying to stay in the lines with generally happy results. Of course there were disappointments: broken crayons, missing favorite colors, scribbles and the not uncommon dreaded gash of color outside the boundaries caused by an uncertain young hand or an over enthusiastic application of color.
Later coloring books gave way to sketch books and painting and the DIY world of art.
Make your own and make it your own way.
Coloring books were set aside on the way to adulthood becoming the provenance only of the very young.
Personally, I did miss coloring books. Sometimes I would look at the ones offered up for children remembering hunting for that periwinkle crayon or lamenting the stubs of broken crayons that never seemed to color as well as the unbroken ones. Sketch pads were not quite the same.
Someone in marketing must have noticed.
The makers of coloring books realized there was a ginormous market of untapped coloring book artists just waiting for a chance to color: this time as adults. They recognized that the large block cartoons offered to children would not satisfy the inner coloring desires of an adult and embarked on the possibly hazardous path of offering coloring books for adults.
They built upon the last vestige of time when young people colored between the lines, doing complicated posters that often grace the rooms of high school students and college dormitories.
Building upon the complicated designs of the posters they returned to a book format. Something that would fit in a briefcase or could be carried easily and perhaps sheltered from disapproving eyes. The secret coloring book artist would not be betrayed by a garish cover trolling:
LOOK! SHE'S COLORING!
Suddenly, the inner coloring book genie escaped and an explosion of coloring books for adults are now available. Stacks and stacks of all sorts of books. Hard designs, easy designs, books that include the colored pencils, color by number books, books of favorite characters or movies, books with holiday themes. Colored pencils, gel pens, watercolor felt pens, crayons and every sort of media from ink to glitter are available. No more laments for the missing periwinkle as assorted packs of pencils and pens offer hundreds of colors with duplicates of the favorites.
MrsB has become an enthusiastic coloring book artist. She's passed her enthusiasm to everyone around her. She's taken the challenge of merging DIY art with a fixed format. Her selection of media for any piece ranges from colored pencils to gel pens to well, anything she thinks will be interesting. She mixes gel pen colors: coloring one color on top of another while the ink is wet to obtain unusual and distinct colors.
Of her work she said:
Well, it's not Fine Art.
I countered:
It IS Fine Art because we have FINE TIME doing it!
Thus, our Fine Time Art selection was created.
Look for examples of the art produced by MrsB, myself and perhaps other intrepid secret coloring book artists. The designs will be posted on Mondays. We already have quite a few ready to show.
Our current recurring topics are:
| Recurring Topics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Fine Time Art | |
| Wednesday | Ripples Episodes | |
We hope that spring will bring back some Gardening Competition... that is if the rain ever stops. And perhaps a few new recipes will make their way on to a page here and there.
And we want to thank all the readers of MrsB blog. We know that people from all over the world visit her pages and we hope they feel welcome here. We hope you enjoy the stories we tell.
No matter where you are: We are all family.
KimB Editor
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