/ic/, can any of you explain this adult coloring book trend??
It completely confounds me. People compare it to scrapbooking or knitting or other lightweight creative pursuits for stress relief, but at least those produce a product that you can use or show off. A complete coloring book is just a used coloring book. It's not like you can display it or do anything overly creative with it. It seems like a pure waste of time and energy.
Is it because I'm a creative person who can draw my own shit that makes it impossible for me to understand the value of this stuff?
/ic/, do you get it?
>>2488113
if they were selling because parents wanted to do something together with children it'd still make sense
instead it feels like some twisted form of nostalgia/borderline autism
>>2488113
It's useful for psychotherapy. People who are into it would just get stressed out from drawing thereby defeating the purpose of it.
>>2488113
i like to color my own graphite/ink drawings, its fun
but i wouldnt buy a faggy book with predrawn lines
>>2488113
I don't know if I'd assent to the idea that scrapbooking produces something you can show off. At least not without justifying a punch to the throat.
>>2488113
>doing something that you like is a waste of time and energy
so...just like everything that isn't work?
>Is it because I'm a creative person who can draw my own shit that makes it impossible for me to understand the value of this stuff?
probably more because you're an edgy teenager who thinks they've got it all figured out
>>2488113
Seems like a thing similar to popping bubble wraps to me
I work at an art supply shop, but i havent sold very many of them. It is popular in the sense that many people know about it but in terms of actually doing it i dont think its that popular.
My mother has adult colouring books and uses them occasionally. It gives her something relaxing to do and she likes playing with the colours.
This generation's paint by numbers
Apparently, the first person to put one out came from my uni, lecturers rave about her all the time. I don't get it, they aren't interesting
ITT: Autists
It's relaxing to numb out and fill a page. Requires some soft focus and keeps the mind just occupied enough. Like a crappy TV drama.
I don't know. I hated coloring books as a child because I was much more interested in creating my own artwork and found coloring someone else's work boring, tedious and stifling.
Now they're trying to sell it to me as an adult? I think not, Barnes and Noble.
Still, some of the designs and patterns are nice, so maybe if I was feeling spontaneous I'd buy one just to have the drawings.
>>2488113
creative training wheels, you can relax and do something vaguely positive and creative without any stress or risk of failure.
>>2488238
>I hated coloring books as a child
this
even when I was a kid, when almost anything is fun, couldn't enjoy those
Don't take it seriously, it's just some mindfulness zen bs and a gift to give to people you don't like.
It is fun, if it were my product they're buying :)
Actually if you're wise enough. Coloring that book can give you a skill. Specifically, It can help you practice your color aesthetics and your brush strokes using markers.
You can also improve your concentration.
>>2488223
But colouring is frustrating and tedious
All the pages are perforated so you can tear them out easily so I guess you could hang them up or something.
/ic/, can any of you explain this coloring book trend??
It completely confounds me. People compare it to pulling the cat's tail or picking your nose or other lightweight creative pursuits for stress relief, but at least those cause a scene that you can use to show off. A complete coloring book is just a used coloring book. It's not like you can play with it or do anything overly creative with it. It seems like a pure waste of time and energy.
Is it because I'm a creative person who can scribble on the walls that makes it impossible for me to understand the value of this stuff?
/ic/, do you get it?
I've considered trying to color some comic book lineart. There are actual jobs where all you do is color other peoples lines, but i don't know how you're supposed to go about it. I guess you just color it and put it up on DA or something and if they like it you get recognized. I know of one person that actually colors stuff for Marvel, DC, etc.
http://blondthecolorist.deviantart.com/gallery/
I like coloring books. I use them for media experimentation.
>>2488489
It can be if you have an understanding of color and want the exact result you have in your head. But honestly most of the people who use these things probably just do it for the fun/meditative effect and don't expect professional results from themselves.
One lady told me she just liked seeing the page filled by the end.
>>2488113
It's just mindless relaxing fun. You concentrate on filling in the picture with color so your elax and stop freaking out. I can draw my own stuff but I use these (usually printed out though for free but I have a couple people gave me as gifts) when i have anxiety attacks if i'm by myself because it gives me something to focus on.
i don't get why you guys are so mad about them.
>>2488113
because normies like to misues their time before they die and leave nothing but dept to their families
>>2488743
I'm OP, and I'm not mad, I'm just honestly confused about what people get out of them and who uses them. I've seen tons of them in stores the past couple months but I don't know who is buying them; most of my friends are creative professionals and when we discuss them they're also confused about why they've exploded and what demographics it appeals to. It honestly feels like manufacturers and artists who make the books are trying to create a trend, rather than a ton of people suddenly got into coloring. I could see how a small group of people with particular mindsets could find it appealing, in the way you say you use them, but I didn't think there were enough people who can use them like that to justify having them in every store. I saw them in a grocery store checkout line the other day. Huge stacks of them. Who is buying these huge stacks?? I don't know what's happening anymore.
I'm dumbfounded as to how it quickly became a thing. I mean coloring is relaxing I guess, but like almost overnight, two female friends, a female coworker and my sister were all suddenly coloring mandalas.
It's so oddly specific too. Why mandalas in particular? Why not landscapes? It's just so silly.
>>2488318
I only did the puzzles in them.
>>2488113
>>2489225
>Who is buying these huge stacks?
My mom has a friend who often brings one over with her when she visits. The girl is over 30 years old, lives with her parents, and has a chronic, and I do mean chronic, weed habit.
Now I'm not saying that this girl is representative of the demographic interested in adult coloring books, but maybe they share some common ground
Also I'd hazard 95% of all these things (and that is a conservative estimate) are bought by chicks or for chicks as gifts.
>>2489252
I've always figured coloring mandalas was more of a yuppie/office girl kind of thing.
>>2489252
My sister has one of those mandala coloring books as well. She also smokes seed.
I'm starting to see a correlation.
>>2488113
It's just a stress relief thing. Like knitting or crocheting really basic items, except those give you scarves and hats.
>>2489263
Weed*
My bad. Auto-correct fucked that one up, not me.
>>2489265
You could rip the mandalas and paste them on your bedroom wall.
>>2489267
You could. But then your walls would probably look tacky as hell.
>>2489268
>implying these people care about something being "tacky" or not
They're pot smokers, for Pete's sake.
>>2488158
I work in a bookstore and we sell a shitload. I'm incredibly weary of seeing them. Every day it feels like I need to restock like fifty of them, at least. Fuck.
I think the popularity of mandelas is because it's a lot harder to make something look 'wrong' when filling it in. But who knows. The fad is dying down pretty quickly. We're slowly relegating them further and further away from the hot selling promotional zones.
The brief explosion in number was likely because of the ease of production. There was a similar surge in BDSM romance books after Fifty Shades, with some authors even totally changing course on their style, but a mediocre romance novel takes a much longer period to write, edit, and market than a book with fifty varieties of circles. (Or Swedish folk symbols, or cats, or whatever.) Plus the price and commitment are lower. It's a fad item wet dream for publishers, and it neatly coincided with Christmas for easy super profits.
>>2489240
Kek
>>2488113
Boomers are lazy sacks of shit
>>2488113
shitty illustrators found a pop psych fad market to shill their mediocre designs.
just buy a kid's coloring book with that nice white paper and not the newspaper shit for fucks sake.
>>2488113
Fapping is a waste of time and energy but I still do it early and often for stress relief. At least the result of the coloring can be shown without getting a restraining order.
I'm as confounded by this trend as any of you. I figured it was a way for normies to trick themselves into thinking they're being creative.
I saw this in a local book shop. It says 'Colouring book for creative people'
I don't care if people want to waste what little free time they have in their busy career lives by reliving parts of their dull childhoods, I'm just concerned they'll actually think they're being artistic and equal the hard blood dripping work of actual artists to their infantile pasttime.
>>2494625
The people who copy photos in intricate detail using pencil and paper probably think they're being creative and they seem to be apt at tricking other normies to believe that too.
And they're making fewer creative decisions than someone playing with a colouring book (at least you can choose which colours to use with those and use shading if you can)
Don't be too salty, anon. It's just bored housewives who have nothing better to do.
Remember when paint by number canvases were popular? Same thing I guess.
