Stained Glass Flowers 1: 50 Simple Flower Windows To Test Your Coloring And Shading Skills (PDF)

It is often said that coloring books for adults need to contain complex and detailed outlines, to separate them from those “simple” coloring books designed for children. This is not however the case and, in this book, you will find some reasonably simple stained glass window flower outlines, which you might find surprisingly challenging. Here the skill lies in not simply using color to build a picture, but in using color in gradients and creating shading across each window to mimic that classic effect of light shining through a stained glass window. The skill of shading, with both pencils and an eraser, is not as simple as you might imagine.

Why is adult coloring so popular today?

Coloring Reduces Stress And Anxiety

Psychiatrists have known for a long time that coloring relaxes the fear center of the brain and permits your mind to get some rest. In fact, Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, gave his patients mandalas to color more than 100 years ago. In the hectic world we inhabit today the stress reducing properties of coloring are probably more valuable than ever.

Coloring Trains Your Brain To Focus

Staying inside the lines as you color takes focus and, while you concentrate on this stress-free and relaxing activity, you can forget about your worries. Coloring is a mind exercise that lets you set aside everything else for the time you spend doing it, and this is extremely important in our stressful world.

Coloring Helps In The Development Of Fine Motor Skills And Vision

Coloring forces the two sides of your brain to communicate and involves the use of logic (used for coloring forms) and creativity (as we mix and match colors). In turn, this brings those areas of the brain concerned with vision and fine motor skills into play, and helps to keep these active and develop them further. It is this aspect of coloring that is being seen more and more as especially valuable for older individuals, as many professionals believe that it can delay, or possibly even prevent, the onset of dementia.

Coloring Gives You The Opportunity To Be Social

Although you may think that coloring would be a purely solo activity, its growing popularity is fast turning it into a social one. Friends, families, colleagues and others are now getting together to eat, drink and enjoy the opportunity to socialize, through their shared interest in coloring books. Without doubt, this is a wonderful excuse for partying, as coloring requires only minimal concentration and can be done easily in a group.

Coloring Allows You To Express Yourself

When it comes to coloring there are no rules and your coloring book is just that – your coloring book. If you accidentally color the dog’s hind leg green because you mistook it for part of the grass, who cares? Should you decide to make the sky pink, what does it matter? You may be as creative as you like because this is your project, and yours alone. When it comes to picking colors remember that the British-based, but American-born, artist James Whistler once remarked, “Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.”

You may of course already be a fan of adult coloring, in which case you will already appreciate its value. Alternatively, this may be a new enterprise for you and one which you are looking at for any one of several different reasons. If this is something new for you then I encourage you to give it a try. It is no accident that so many people are excited about the world of adult coloring, so join in and start to enjoy the benefits for yourself today.