You want to color because you are currently stressed out and heard that coloring can relieve stress and also that it is relaxing and fun. However, you don’t know where or how to begin. There is no “right” way to begin, meaning that you can just start from whatever makes you feel comfortable. To give you an idea, read on to find out how I got started.

Step One–Buy a Coloring Book and Choose a Picture

Once I decided that I wanted to get into adult coloring, I wanted to buy a coloring book that specified that it was for adults. I did not want to buy a coloring book for children because I am not a child. The pictures in adult coloring books are more detailed and intricate than the pictures in children’s books.

There are hundreds of adult coloring books to choose from. You can purchase them either online through Amazon.com or buy from a drugstore that sells books and magazines. As I looked at several different books that dealt with different subjects, such as animals and flowers, I chose to start with something simple like flowers.

Step Two–Decide How You Want to Color Your Picture and Choose Your Colors

Once I had my picture of a flower that I wanted to color, I had to decide if I wanted to color it with crayons, pencils, or markers. I thought that crayons would be the easiest to start with, so I chose to color my picture with crayons. The next decision I had to make was what colors I wanted to use for my picture. This is where you can let your imagination run wild; you can use any color you want. You can also definitely use several colors. I personally do not like to use more than 6 colors for one picture because that just makes things more complicated than they have to be. However, if you want to use more than 6 colors, that’s perfectly fine. Remember there are no set “rules” as to how many colors you must use.

Which colors go well together? Again, you can use your imagination with this. I tend to like certain color combinations such as blue and yellow, orange and brown. A rule of thumb that may help you is to know the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow; then secondary colors of green, orange, and purple. Tertiary colors can be made by mixing any primary color with a secondary color.  For my picture, I decided to stick with 3 basic colors using Crayola© crayons–orange, green, and brown.

Step Three–Set Aside Some Time and Eliminate Distractions

Once I had my picture and coloring material, I was ready to get started.  I decided that I was going to give myself an hour to do this. During this time, I made sure that my TV was off, and I was not going to answer any phone calls if my phone should ring. I would also suggest that you are seated comfortably at a desk with sufficient lighting.

Step Four–Start Coloring

Imagine how your picture will look when it is finished. Pick a starting point on your picture and start coloring from there. You can basically start from anywhere in the picture, from either top to bottom or from left to right. How I decide to start coloring a picture depends on how detailed the picture is. In other words, if the picture has a lot of detail, I will pick a corner and start there. For pictures with less detail, I tend to color the largest areas first and then work my way to the smaller areas. If you get tired coloring, just stop and take a break; you can always come back to it later.

Finished Product

I started coloring the largest areas on the bottom with brown and the top with orange. You should also keep in mind that white is also a color; you do not have to color every nook and cranny of the picture. When I finished coloring the outer area of the picture, I used the green crayon to color some of the inner part of the picture. To add a finishing touch to the picture, I decided to use a gold color gel pen to give it a metallic look.

Well I hope that I have shown you how easy it is to start coloring. If you make a mistake by using the wrong color, that’s okay. Just keep going. Chances are that no one will notice you used the wrong color except you.

Please share your thoughts and comments below; I would love to hear from you. Have a great and colorful day!