Guest post by Cindy Howard
Dan Cin Art Studio

Coloring books for adults have become a huge trend over the past year. It is no surprise, since coloring is a great stress reliever and allows for you to be creative while doing something enjoyable. Here are some tips for new colorists just stepping into the adult coloring world.

Buy books one at a time to see what ones you really like and what styles from the artists. A lot of people buy too many books at once and half of them they find they aren’t even interested in the drawings that are inside.

Sharpen your pencil more than you think you need to.

Always test markers or gel pens on a page in the back of the book before using them on your image you are going to color to see rather or not they are going to bleed thru onto the next page or not.

Slip a piece of card stock or a couple pieces of paper behind your picture especially if you have a heavy hand to prevent dents in the next image or for any mediums that do bleed thru.
If you color in public make sure to bring an extra book with you or some extra pages for when that friend sees you and wants to join in what you are doing.

Buy the biggest selection of colors you can afford because it’s cheaper than buying a box of 12 or 24 and than filling it in with singles.

Print out free pages to color from different artists so you can decide rather you like their style or not. Join one or several of the coloring/colouring facebook groups or pages for insight on mediums and artists and support. You can also get some great tips from the advanced colorists in the groups.

Look up tutorials on youtube for blending, shading, etc…there are thousands of them.

And lastly, have fun and color outside the lines—–it’s ok!