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- Coloring is an enjoyable activity that can alleviate anxiety, promote better sleep, and provide a relaxing outlet during stressful times.
- Adult coloring books designed for adults feature complex, engaging patterns that are a satisfying challenge to complete and that require enough focus to help tune out the background chatter in the mind.
- We have picked out 12 great coloring books for adults that range in theme from flowers and cityscapes to Disney characters and '90s nostalgia with Nickelodeon characters.
Coloring can be an enjoyable, relaxing, and even therapeutic activity, with multiple clinical studies finding people experience reduced anxiety and depression and an increase in positive feelings after a period spent coloring. With 20 or 30 minutes spent enjoying an adult coloring book daily, these positive effects can last well after each coloring session is over.
Also, coloring is just good clean fun, and we could all use a bit more fun along with stress relief these days. And they are a great way to pass some time with your eyes not on a screen for once. Most are quite affordable, so it's worth trying the hobby out even if you're on the fence. You might just find yourself falling to sleep more easily after a coloring session or even feeling refreshed after a near-meditative session that revives you for the rest of the day.
If you're new to adult coloring books, you're in the right place. Same story if you've been filling those alluring blank spaces with dazzling color for years. We have picked out coloring books suitable for all levels of artistic prowess and with subjects running the gamut from serene nature themes to wacky animals with cocktails to undersea tableaus. Now all you need are some great colored pencils. Don't worry, those tend to be pretty affordable too.
Here are the 12 best adult coloring books to help you relax and destress:
The Art of Mandala
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Product Name: The Art of Mandala Jason Hamilton
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Studies focused on the benefits of adult coloring books often reveal mandalas are the most effective designs for relaxation and induction of a meditative state. Their complex geometric patterns can be traced back to both ancient Buddhist and Hindu traditions. This affordable book contains 50 mandalas that vary in complexity and detail, so you can work your way up to the most challenging patterns slowly or you can work on a simple design when time is limited.
Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure and Coloring Book for Adults
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Product Name: Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure and Coloring Book for Adults Johanna Basford
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This book is great for coloring, of course, but it's also made it something of a treasure hunt. Hidden among the many seascapes created by noted coloring book author Johanna Basford are objects such as 10 crowns, eight goblets, and 34 anchors. As you while the hours away coloring, you also need to be on the lookout for these little gems. The paper used in this book is smooth and untextured, allowing for good color blending and shading with pencils and for precision coloring with pens.
Calm the F*ck Down: An Irreverent Adult Coloring Book
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Product Name: Calm the F*ck Down: An Irreverent Adult Coloring Book Sasha O'Hara
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Filled with drawings that are by turns moderately challenging to quite advanced, this coloring book offers plenty of opportunity for relaxing coloring sessions. Where it differs from other such books is in its decidedly adult material that might bring a smile to your lips even during stressful times. Each page contains a funny quip like "Home is where the vodka is" or "Dance like no one attractive is watching." You'll enjoy this book and you might just make it your go-to gag gift too.
In the Garden: Color & Frame
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Product Name: Color & Frame Coloring Book - In the Garden Lily Ashbury
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This coloring book has pages that are simple enough for kids and others that are advanced enough to challenge even the experienced adult artist. And those pages lay flat for comfort and steadiness as you color thanks to the spiral binding of the book. The paper is thick enough for you to bear down hard without indenting other pages and without ink bleeding through, and the book gets the "Frame" part of its name because the perforated pages can easily be torn out for hanging on the fridge or even framing for proper presentation.
Disney Dreams Collection: Thomas Kinkade Studios Coloring Book
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Product Name: Disney Dreams Collection Thomas Kinkade Studios Coloring Book Thomas Kinkade
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The pairing of Thomas Kinkade-style tableaus with beloved Disney characters is a perfect blend. Within the pages of this book, you'll find completed lavish paintings by Kinkaid from movies like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "The Little Mermaid" along with blank pages you can use to create your own version of the scenes. The skilled coloring artist can create genuine works of art with these templates in hand; the fact that they're Disney-themed only sweetens the deal.
Tattoo Coloring Book for Adults
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Product Name: Tattoo Coloring Book For Adults Tattoo Coloring Press
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You don't need to be a tattoo enthusiast to appreciate the stunning artwork in this book, but a love for ink will surely increase your enjoyment. The 30 designs in this book are inspired by classic tattoo flash and feature all the skulls, daggers, and flower blossoms you'd expect. Designs are printed only on one side of each page, so you can tear out and frame your favorites. The paper is perfect for use with pens, so your "tattoos" can be bright and vibrant.
Crayola City Escapes
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Product Name: Crayola City Escapes Coloring Pages Crayola
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With this coloring book, suitable for teens and adults, you can travel the world without ever leaving your house. It features tableaus inspired by the famous features of dozens of the world's great cities. On the Paris page, you have everything from the Eiffel Tower to the Mona Lisa to Notre Dame. London's page has a double-decker bus, a Tube train, the Eye, and more. The coloring is by and large pretty easy, so this book is a great choice for beginners.
Hummingbirds: Stress-Relieving Designs for Adult Relaxation
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Product Name: Hummingbirds: Stress Relieving Designs for Adults MantraCraft
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The gorgeous illustrations in this book feature hummingbirds and flowers, both of which beg for bright, playful colors that will help to uplift you in stressful times. The high-resolution, single-sided pages feature crisp, precise outlines so coloring even the most minute details of each image is easy when you focus. There are 50 images in all, so you can look forward to hours of coloring with this relaxing book.
Nickelodeon The Splat: Coloring the '90s
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Product Name: The Splat: Coloring the '90s Random House
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If you were a kid in the '90s, you're going to love this adult coloring book today. Its pages are filled with characters from the golden era of kids' TV when shows like "Rugrats,""Ren & Stimpy," and "Rocco's Modern Life" graced the small screen. You'll find pages with characters from those shows and many more in this nostalgic coloring book which beautifully captures the zeitgeist of cartoons from the era. Even if your time was a bit before or just after '90s Nick, you'll still enjoy the intricate artwork herein.
Coloring Books for Adults: Relaxation
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Product Name: Coloring Books for Adults Relaxation Tip Top Coloring Books
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When you close your eyes and picture an adult coloring book, it probably looks a lot like this one. There's no theme, really — the pages feature everything from a flower-filled vase to a squirrel nestled beneath a bush to a bird and bird's nest. What all the images share in common is a sense of tranquility and a low-to-modest challenge level, so as the rather on-the-nose name suggests, this really is a great choice for the adult-looking for a way to relax and destress through coloring.
Drinking Animals Coloring Book
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Product Name: Drinking Animals Coloring Book Caffeinestar Publishing
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This comical coloring book will help you unwind in two ways: First, there are the playful and relatively simple illustrations — such as a bear with a sweater, glasses, and cocktail glass, and a chicken sipping a mojito with a straw — that are satisfying to color. Then there's the fact that each page has a recipe for a cocktail on it. Pair the two and you have the makings of a great quiet evening at home. This coloring book will make a great gift for someone in need of a pick-me-up too.
Super Scratch Art Pads: Under the Sea
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Product Name: Super Scratch Art Pads: Under the Sea Sterling Children's
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A unique twist on the traditional coloring book, in this book you gently scratch away the black surface if the pages to reveal the multicolored layer below. Faint outlines show you where to scratch at the pages to reveal luminous designs, and you can always go off script and scratch in your own original artwork too. The book comes with a wooden stylus, but you might find some other tool to work even better, such as a fine screwdriver.