Stained Glass Flowers 2: 50 Simple Flower Windows To Test Your Coloring And Shading Skills (PDF)

It is frequently said that adult coloring books must contain detailed outlines, to set them apart them from the “simple” coloring books created for children. This is not in fact the case and, in this particular book, you have some quite simple stained glass window flower outlines, which you may well find are more than a little challenging. Here the skill in not merely in using color to create a picture, but in using shading and gradients in each window to get that classic look of light shining through a stained glass window. This shading skill, using both pencils and an eraser, is more difficult than you might imagine.

Why has 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 allows your mind to rest. In fact, Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, is known to have given his patients mandalas to color over 100 years ago. In today’s hectic world the stress reducing properties of coloring are perhaps more valuable than ever.

Coloring Trains Your Brain To Focus

Remaining inside the lines as you color a simple black and white line drawing takes focus and, while you are concentrating on this stress-free and relaxing activity, you can forget about your worries. Coloring is a mental exercise that lets you put aside everything for the time you spend doing it, and this is very important in our increasingly demanding world.

Coloring Helps To Develop Fine Motor Skills And Vision

Coloring forces the two sides of the brain to communicate and involves the use of logic (necessary for coloring forms) and creativity (as we mix and match colors). This, in turn, brings the areas of the brain responsible for fine motor skills and vision 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 in the medical profession believe that it can delay, or even prevent, the onset of dementia.

Coloring Gives You The Chance To Be Social

Although you might feel that coloring would be a solo occupation, its increasing popularity is rapidly turning it into a social one. Friends, families, colleagues and others are now getting together to enjoy something to eat and drink and the opportunity to socialize, through their common interest in coloring books. Without doubt, this is a great excuse for a party, as coloring requires only a minimum of concentration and can easily be done in a group setting.

Coloring Lets You Express Yourself

There are no rules when it comes to coloring and your coloring book is your coloring book. If you mistakenly make the dog’s rear leg green because you mistook it for part of the grass, who cares? Should you feel like making the sky pink, does it really matter? You may be as creative and experimental as you like because this is your project, and yours alone. When it comes to choosing colors remember that the American artist James Whistler once famously said, “Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.”

You may already be a convert to adult coloring, in which case you will already appreciate its value. This may however be a new project for you and one that you are thinking about for any one of several different reasons. If this is something new for you then I encourage you to try it out. There is a reason why so many people are fired up about the world of adult coloring, so join in and start to enjoy the benefits for yourself today.