To celebrate the first-year Book Birthday of my debut novel, I thought I’d share a little something that I’ve enjoyed during these past several months. Adult coloring.
How it Started
I received my first adult coloring book and a few colored pencils as a gift that I thought was sweet if not a little strange. I put them aside, but the longer the book sat there on the coffee table, taunting me with its line drawings of beautiful city-scapes…or what could be beautiful city-scapes if only they had a little color in them…the more intrigued I became.
The first pencil I picked up was brick red and I’ve been hooked ever since, so much so that I started devouring Youtube videos dedicated to teaching adult coloring techniques. I happen to be hooked on how-to videos from Color My World. I’ve since started setting aside time each day to put away my day-job work and color. That was huge because, since I work from home, I can easily work into the late-night hours. This gives me a reason to take a break. I’ve even joined an adult coloring Facebook group and signed up for a colored-pencil course for newbies like me.
Stay in the Lines
Oh, I can stay in the lines and all that, and I do know color, I’ve been in the photography business for decades, after all. But I’m not an artist so this course will be a fun indulgence.
The best part of this? Coloring in these books has not only released a whole lot of stress from the past year, emotionally as well as physically, but it’s also roused my sluggish muse. Plot holes have started to fill in, my characters have started speaking to me again…
The freedom to doodle, to color, doesn’t feel silly to me anymore. It feels like a tiny gift, a moment of time to simply be and have fun.
I confess, I did splurge on one book with 80 pages of drawings from an artist whose work I love. It’s There She Is by Long Island artist, LisaMaria Maya. I’ve colored a few pages in this book but will now hold off on more until I’ve completed the adult coloring course so I can, hopefully, color these with the vibrancy and mood they deserve.
Book Birthday Adult Coloring Pages
This week, because it’s my Book Birthday Celebration Week, I decided to share some of the fun. I selected three photographs from the cover of my book that seemed to lend themselves to coloring. Like this one:
This was a quick coloring project I intend to put aside then color again once I’ve completed the course. Such fun.
My Gift to You
These pages are yours to play with as you will. A Book Birthday gift from me to you. Simply click the image below to download a PDF (free of charge), then either use the cover of Surrender at Canyon Road as a coloring guide or let your muse have at it as s/he sees fit. Either way, I would LOVE to see what you’ve done with these images so please share them with me on Twitter or Facebook.
Happy Coloring!
