Grown-up colouring in pens

Or oil pastels?

I've been using copoured pencile but they are a bit paint and take a lot more effort than felt tips. The paper is quite thick so perhaps I will try the pens.

I've just experimented by colouring in a simple mandala I printed from the internet. Tried pencils but found them to be rather'subtle' so then went on to felt tips which I prefer.

I'm now looking for a better quality felt tip. Present ones are of the cheap children's variety.

DD bought me a set of Sharpie felt tips for Christmas, they have fine points, very good for fiddly bits before my eyes give up and everything merges into one.

I hated having to colour things in as a child. Nothing has changed.

Almost as bad as painting by numbers.

Staedtler make very good felt tips for drawing but they're pretty expensive. Berol is perhaps a cheaper option and you could use Sharpies for small areas as well (as Juliette has said)

If you do enjoy it, it is probably a relaxing and undemanding occupation, but sploshing real colours about and making your own picture is even more satisfying and relaxing, needing total involvement and blocking out intrusive and distressing thoughts. The result may not be as neat and "artistic" as the preprogrammed outline you could be colouring in, but it is your own unique creation and something to be proud of (even if you then hide it away)

The creating is the thing, not following a perfect and mass-produced design. It is no accident that those GNers who create something are also the ones who get least het up about the problems that beset them.

Staedtler do great fine tip coloured pens that are good for line drawing and detail work.
There is a good (but expensive) range of pens with a fine tip on one end and a broad tipped on the other, they are sold in colour groups, are alcohol based and non-toxic, they don't bleed and are fast drying. They are called Spectrum Noir and I got mine in hobbycraft.
Best value though are Berol colour pens, fine or broad tips, the children use these all the time and they last for ages.

Thanks for all these ideas.

I bought my DD one of these books along with a set of gel pens. Her talents lie in areas other than artistic creativity and I thought (correctly, as it happens) that she would enjoy doing a little colouring of her own while the DGDs were engrossed in theirs.

She gets to put her creations on the fridge alongside the children's, hers are signed BaublesDD age 34 1/2

That is lovely Baubles.

I bought one of the colouring books because of the front cover and found that the front cover is not one of the pictures inside! Still, it will give me something to do other than internet, tv, wallpaper, paint walls, read, write, housework, play with my doggie, shout at my noisy budgie, visit my dad, pay bills, sleep. I'm sure I have a minute somewhere?

I love these books, I was given two for Christmas. Colouring the pictures is such a peaceful and lovely thing to do. I found though that felt pen soaked through. I use coloured pencils but I wish they were brighter.

I joined an art class this year and I've never painted, only drawn in the past. I find the colouring books give me a chance to use colour and not to worry about the overall design but instead just to see what happens when I put colour down, mix colours together and so on. Maybe I also feel a little bit like a child so my internal critic takes a back seat too!

Elegran re your last sentence, how on earth do you know that?

Well, TBH I don't know that - but I do know several GNers who make or create things, and they appear less anxious than some other posters. I also know that if I can lose myself in something that takes concentration, I feel more relaxed for it.

I shouldn't generalise from a few examples, I know.

But that is the beauty of these colouring books, is that you don't have to think for a while. I am sure that. like others, I do enough thinking in a day and it is great that for ten minutes or so my mind can be at peace and I can just play with what I am creating. There should be no rules for whatever a person enjoys as long as they are getting something out of it.

I wasn't laying down rules, just saying what I find useful.

(but anyone who gets stressed about not going over the lines might find colouring-in could sneak one up one them! )

And of course, not frightening the horses!

Oh, that's an old sort of saying, by the way!

I have done a load of card making, and opne of my favourite things to dso is to stamp, and colour in. I use Promarker Pens for this, but there are several other "alcohol" pens aboit--But Promarkers are easy to get, affordable, loads of colours-I think I have about 200, and you can get great results. I was never into art or drawing at school, but I can get a great result with my stamps and pens.

You ned a non-alcohol inkpad--I use Memento, and a decent stamping card, that will let the ink go through the card instead of sitting on top. I use "Neenah" card.

Any more stampers out there---Or I may start another thread

Just got an adult colouring book for my birthday and used coloured pencils for the first pic but like others in this thread found them a bit pale. Good suggestions here. Thanks. I fancy trying the gel pens. Do they produce a vibrant result?

I am not in the least artistic so I need the outlines to help me. I did find it amazingly calming and absorbing though. A new hobby for me to counteract the stresses life brings!

The squeaky sound of felt-tip pens makes me shudder. I've just got myself a colouring book and some coloured pencils. I'm really looking forward to getting going.

There is a whole lot more choice in colouring pencils available now. try a craft site, re card making.

Crafters Companion is a good one to start with.

Joanna Sheen---no pp if you spend £9.00. Loads more out there--or ebay.

I used the felt pens but found they leaked through the paper, then I tried pencils, too pale and insipid, I am now using crayons which seem quite nice. They give shades of light and dark which I quite like.
I found some colouring books in the pound shop with some rather pretty patterns, rather like mandalas. A bargain at £1.

You can now buy fine tipped crayon like pens, think possibly Crayola, I bought some for GS they are better than the old fashioned chunky crayons and are more like a pen but with wax crayons at the tip, also pastels crayons are very good.

shame we cant have a "picture thread then you can show off some of your work, I'm sure it would inspire others"