Today’s interview is with Cindy Howard. Her husband is an adult coloring book artist and she puts the books together and cleans up the images, vectorizing them to get them ready for publishing. She also creates product and book reviews on her youtube channel.

What got you into coloring?

About a year ago I stumbled across a Johanna Basford advertisement on facebook…clicked it to see what it was about. I thought…wow…I need one of those, so I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought my first book, Johanna Basford’s Enchanted Forest, and now I’m addicted! LOL

What inspires you?

Seeing others beautifully colored pictures, colorful pictures, some color palettes.

Who are your favorite coloring book artists?

I have quite a few of them, but my favorite of all is my husband, Daniel Howard. Also on my favorite list of artists would be Rick St Dennis, Karlon Douglas, Johanna Basford. Their are many more, I could give you a list a mile long…lol

What are your favorite coloring supplies?

Colored pencils are my favorite medium. Staedtler and Mapped fineliners are a close 2^nd. My sharpies, and my gel pens…all are my favorites but the colored pencils are the ones I use the most.

What type of books do you look for?

Out of all the coloring books on the market I think I look for the ones that are fantasy themed, whimsical ones, Holiday ones, and animal ones the most. I have all types in my collection, some of them I just wanted to see what they were like and ended up pushing them way back towards the end of the ones I color in the most. My least favorite books out there are the hottest new trend, the grayscale ones. I have tried a couple times different designers. I just don’t like coloring grayscale. I would rather color line art.

How many books do you have in your collection?

Since I started coloring a year and a half ago I have come to have many books to choose from when coloring. I have over 100 adult coloring books and 2 of the pocket type folders filled with pages printed of the internet. I could start my own coloring club if I knew more people from here would be interested!

Why do you color?

I color to help with my anxiety and depression. It’s also a great way to get your mind off pain. I’ve found it to be relaxing and a great stress reliever. I think everyone has specific reasons as to why they color rather it be for fun, a way to deal with their pain, or they find it stress free and relaxing and helps to get their mind of stressful issues.

Do you have any interesting stories about coloring? For example, has it helped you or someone you know?

Well, the biggest story I have would be…a little over a year ago my husband was out of work due to back issues. He has always played around with drawing and doodling, so one day I told him he should draw me a couple of his images to color. I told him he should go in the adult coloring book business because others would enjoy seeing his artwork and coloring it as well. So he sat down and drew up his first Adult coloring book and since than he now has 15 of them published.

What is the effect of coloring on a persons mental state?

In art therapy, color can effect a persons mental state as well as their physical state. Color usually relates to two main categories- warm and cool. Some warm colors, red, yellow and orange for example can trigger a variety of emotions such as comfort and warmth to hostility and anger. Cool colors, purple, blue and green trigger emotions of calmness and sadness. When I am coloring I find that I feel a great sense of calmness. Almost a meditative state. Depending on the mood that I’m feeling is usually how I pick the colors I’m going to use.

Where do you get the best coloring books?

I find the majority of the  books I buy from Amazon. They have the best selection of what’s out there.

Check out Cindy’s coloring book group – Dan Cin Art Studio – and her Youtube channel.