Coloring Update #3

 I know I started tracking days but I honestly lost track of the days so we're doing it this way now.

And WOW have I done a lot of coloring since the last time I posted. I won't post all the photos but I want to discuss two different "categories" of images that I colored in the past few days. 

The first is something I've found very satisfying to do, which is using this website to find a random color palette, and then choosing an image to color using only those colors. I'll pick out two-ish pencils per color on the palette and then only use those pencils for the entire page. 

Here are a couple of those: 

Mein Frühlingsspaziergang by Rita Berman
Color Palette #213 (colorpalettes.net)

Nice Little Town by Tatiana Bogema (Stolova)
Color Palette #17 (colorpalettes.net)

The fun thing about that strategy is that it saves me the trouble of having to choose my own colors, plus the color palette is already for sure going to look good because that's how color palettes are designed. 

The other two pages I wanted to share are the two big pages I colored. These are from the books Mythographic: Animals by Joseph Catimbang and Beauty of Horror by Alan Robert. I bet you can guess which one is from which book. 

These were both very exciting accomplishments because looking at blank images as big as that zombie one is or as detailed as the frog one is, was extremely intimidating and I wasn't sure I was going to have the patience to finish something like that, but once I got started and the images started to come to life, it really wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. 

So there you have it, my latest coloring update featuring a few of my favorite completed pages from the past few days. I can't wait to see what's next! 

Coloring Day 2

 I started my day back in Karen Sue Chen's Secret Worlds  because there was a page in there that was a bowl of ramen and the way the ramen noodles were coming out of the steam clouds made me think of rainbows and I really wanted to make rainbow noodles. So I did.

And I thought it looked really cool, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with the rest of the page, so I did something I never imagined I would be able to do, and I put it aside, and colored something else instead. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but I am very proud of myself.

So then I colored another page in the same book that was a little circus scene inside of a cupcake, and I used wild and bright colors and it was really fun but it looks pretty crazy now that it's completed. I'm not going to include the photo because it's not that important because then, my colored pencils and my new coloring books arrived. 

I decided to test my colored pencils in a new book that I was particularly excited about, Mein Frühlingsspaziergang by Rita Berman. (That's German for "My Spring Walk/Stroll" if you were wondering). The art in this book really appealed to me and she also has the other seasons, as well as a few other books. I chose the Spring one because even though it's technically still Winter, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow which in Minnesota means "only six more weeks of Winter!" and I'd rather look ahead to Spring than focus on Winter. If this hyperfixation lasts, I do hope to get the other seasons books by this artist because I really like this one. But anyways.

I decided to test my colored pencils on this page in Rita Berman's book that had a bunch of beetles on it because it felt like the kind of page where I could use as many colors as possible. I ordered a set of 120 colored pencils by Kalour and the set came with a pre-labeled swatch sheet so I wanted to use as many colors as I could and swatch them as I went. 

I've always been resistant to adult coloring books in the past, partially just because I'm not a colored pencil person. I've never liked them, and definitely preferred coloring with crayons over any other medium, and the spaces in most adult coloring books are just too little for my crayons. I will say, that the experience of using a colored pencil that is of higher quality than the box of golf pencil sized Crayolas I had been using before is way more pleasant. So that's good. I do still prefer the markers though just because it's faster and I'm impatient, but some pages have too much detail even for the fine tip markers, and some of them (like this one) have double sided pages so if I used markers, the ink would bleed through. 

Also, this coloring book is smaller than I thought it would be at about 8''x8'', but honestly I like it more that way because it feels way more manageable than some of the larger detailed books that I will get to one of these days. 

So anyways, coloring day 2 was a success and I can't wait to see what day 3 brings! 

Rules That I WILL NOT Make During My Coloring Journey

 So I'm a colorist now, it's all very exciting, and as I mentioned in my first post about it, one of the reasons I'm trying to get into adult coloring books is to help myself create without expectation of perfection. And I wanted to elaborate a little bit on that.

Because I am not a "perfectionist" by traditional standards. I have never been one to go back and correct mistakes until I have reached perfection. In school, I tended to write an essay, do a quick proof read for spelling and grammar purposes, and then just turn it in without further thought. I was not good about going back and making edits to the content itself. When I paint, I don't go back for a second layer or to touch up lines. I fill the canvas once over and then it's done. 

But I am a perfectionist in another way, if perfectionist is even the right word to describe it. I have a tendency to create arbitrary rules for myself in everything I do. I don't really know how else to explain that, so I'm just going to provide a list of rules that I would probably make for my coloring if I hadn't decided not to make rules for it, as well as what kind of pressure this puts on me in the process of creating and the result it would probably have.

1. Complete every coloring book in order. Color the first page first, and then make your way through the book. This is a kind of rule that comes up a lot, because I always want to do things in order. But what would probably happen in this scenario is that I would come across a picture that I didn't particularly want to color in that book, and instead of just picking a different picture to color, I would just stop coloring in that book. Because I wouldn't be able to bring myself to break the pattern, and break my own arbitrary rule. So instead, I will be coloring whichever picture I feel like it, in any order.
2. Use the same medium and/or color scheme throughout this entire book. I also love it when things match, and a couple of the books I bought are almost like a story, and it could be that it's the same characters throughout the book, so it is very likely that I would attempt to make it all a cohesive piece. But my attention span is very small, so it is very probable that I would get bored of using only the same colors every time, and once again, I would stop using that book. Because once again, I would rather stop using it than break my arbitrary rule. 
3. You must complete a page before beginning a new one. This will be very hard for me to not do, just subconsciously. The obvious downfall of this one is the same as the others. I would find myself coloring a picture that I'm not enjoying, and when I don't want to finish it, I won't start another one instead and leave that one not completed, so once again, coloring is over. I think I will make an active effort to avoid this by going into some drawings with the intention of not completing them. Maybe I will choose a page with lots of small elements and just color one of the small parts. Or maybe I will pick a page where I really only like one of the flowers, for example, but I don't care about the rest of the image and then just color that one flower. 

There are more rules I could come up with for sure, but I think you get the point. Essentially what happens is that once I do something twice, I've created a pattern. And once I've created a pattern, I have a very hard time breaking from that pattern.

A good example of that is that when I started high school, I went to lunch on the first day to find that they had run out of plates, so I used a bowl for my lunch instead. And then on the second day, they were out of plates again, so I used a bowl again. And then the next day, they did have plates available, but I had already used a bowl for my lunch twice, so I proceeded to eat my lunch out of a bowl for the next four years. 

And this time, I am determined to not form a pattern, and I am very curious to see what kind of impact that has on my hyperfixation experience. 

Coloring Day 1

 It's official! It's day one of my adult coloring hyperfixation. Well, it's day one of having actual supplies to pursue this particular hyperfixation, but don't worry, I have already spent plenty of time watching YouTube videos about coloring while I waited for my supplies to arrive. 

When I first decided to give adult coloring books a try, I first turned to Amazon, where I typed in something like "adult coloring books" to see what I could find that intrigued me. The first coloring books that caught my attention were two by the same artist, Karen Sue Chen. 

I was immediately drawn to the images in both of these books and it seemed like an obvious first choice. I think I found Enchanted first and from there was led to Secret Worlds. I love them both so, Karen Sue Chen, if you're reading this, I love your work.

Without giving it much more thought, I went ahead and ordered both of them, and found some dual-tip markers that seemed to be affordable but decent (according to the reviews) to add to the order. 

Now this was before I did any sort of research on the hobby, so did place another order shortly after this, but since this was the first wave I ordered, it's the first stuff that got here, so these two books with dual-tip markers is where my journey begins. 

I obviously opened up the books first and flipped through them to pick the perfect first page. I landed on one from Secret Worlds. Then I opened up the markers, and got to work! Here is how that turned out.

Delightful. I'm delighted. It was a delight to make and I'm delighted to have this one page completed. Delightful! 

New Year, New Hyperfixation! (Coloring Day 0)

I have a bit of a hyperfixation problem, and every time I find myself with a new hobby, I think, "I should really document this somehow", so this is me, documenting it somehow. 

Hyperfixation of the (undetermined but probably short amount of time) is adult coloring books! 

So here's what happened: 

For a long time now I've been fascinated by the Yoto Player, which is essentially a little speaker for kids that has cards you put into it to make it play different audio books. I've always wanted one, even though I'm an adult who can just use any audiobook platform and listen to audiobooks on my phone, but still, there is just something very appealing about it being screen-free and having those little cards to pick from. 

So I bought one. 

And then I got to thinking that I really needed a hobby to do while listening to my new Yoto Player, and I did some searching, and adult coloring books kept coming up. 

Now I've been hesitant in the past about adult coloring books. I remember when they first became popular thinking they were too hard and the spaces were too small for me to use my crayons, so I wasn't interested. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE coloring and always have, but I've been using my Crayola crayons in kids coloring books very happily for my entire life. 

But despite my past resistance, here are a few reasons why I think adult coloring books will be a good hobby choice. 

1. I've been trying to work on my focus this year so far, and while I love kids coloring pages, they only take a few minutes to complete. I think it will be really good for my ability to focus to have projects that take a little bit longer to complete and I maybe don't even finish in one sitting. 

2. Another thing I've been working on recently is creating without expectation, or really doing anything at all without expectation. I have a tendency to get too bogged down by the details of something and making sure it's just right, which makes creating very challenging, so I've been trying to let go of that because creating in any capacity is really good for my anxiety. 

(To be clear, adult coloring is actually a for real art form apparently, like check out this video by Fesselfee88 on YouTube and Instagram to see what I mean, but my intention is not to create masterpieces, but rather just to add color to cool drawings.)

3. One can collect art supplies and coloring books, and anything where I can collect stuff is a promising hobby in my book. 

So I did what I always do when beginning a new hobby and turned to YouTube for advice on what to buy, and then Amazon to buy it. 

I will write more about the things I bought once they arrive, but for now while I was waiting, I decided to get a head start with supplies I already had at home. I pulled out my box of 12 washable markers and my box of 64 mini colored pencils, (and left my crayons in their bowl to give other mediums a chance to shine), and I googled "free printable adult coloring pages" and picked out a few to try my hand at. 

I (clearly) used colored pencils for one, and markers for the other, and you know what? I had a great time doing it. 

Stay tuned to see how long this hyperfixation lasts, but it seems promising! 

Goosebumps book 20: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight - It’s a field of screams!

WOW. It has been awhile. But don't worry, I have still been keeping up on my reading, I just lacked internet access for the past month.

Brief Summary: 

Jodie and Mark are visiting Grandma and Grandpa on their farm, but things are weird. Grandma won’t make pancakes and Grandpa won’t tell scary stories and resident farmhand Stanley won’t stop talking about his “superstition book”, which is never described beyond that. The kids start seeing things, it’s as if the 12 new scarecrows are coming alive! But that couldn’t be, Jodie thinks it’s Stanley’s teenage son, “Sticks”, playing tricks on them. And as expected, things get wildly out of control from there. 

Spoilers and Review:

This is pretty standard Goosebumps, but I have some questions. Almost immediately we meet Stanley the farmhand who is described as “weird” and “not very smart” and we are clearly being led to believe that he has some mental differences, and I’ll be honest, I was pretty unsettled by the way Stanley was portrayed, because he is also presented as “the bad guy” or at least the root of the problem, and his entire character development is inconsistent because most of the time he is entirely sweet and well-meaning but also for some reason is blackmailing his bosses to do everything his way or else he’ll send the scarecrows after them? It didn’t make a lot of sense and I didn’t care for it, it made me uncomfortable.

But other than that, the scarecrows are actually pretty scary, even though their intentions are never clear, like when all the scarecrows rip their own heads off and keep attacking SO THEY SET THEM ON FIRE was such crazy imagery and I LOVED IT. But seriously, someone’s gotta get that superstition book away from Stanley because the “twist ending” involves Stanley bringing a full sized taxidermy BEAR to life. Nope.

The Rating: 

Definitely not the best story but a fun scary monster. 

1. One Day at HorrorLand (#16)
2. Welcome to Camp Nightmare (#9)
3. Why I’m Afraid of Bees (#17)
4. Stay Out of the Basement (#2)
5. Deep Trouble (#19)
6. Night of the Living Dummy (#7)
7. The Haunted Mask (#11)
8. The Girl Who Cried Monster (#8)
9. Piano Lessons Can Be Murder (#13)
10. Welcome to Dead House (#1)
11. Say Cheese and Die! (#4)
12. Let’s Get Invisible! (#6)
13. The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight (#20)
14. The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (#14)
15. The Ghost Next Door (#10)
16. Monster Blood (#3)
17. Be Careful What You Wish For… (#12)
18. You Can’t Scare Me! (#15)
19. The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (#5)
20. Monster Blood II (#18)

Next is Go Eat Worms which I imagine is a pretty self-explanatory title. 

Goosebumps book 19: Deep Trouble - Just when you thought it was safe...

Brief Summary: 

Betcha didn't think this book would be about mermaids, because I certainly did not. Billy is staying with his scientist uncle Dr. D on a boat where he's studying some sea life or something. When some people from a zoo show up and convince Dr. D to find a mermaid for their zoo, Billy wants to be a part of the expedition, and what do you know, he finds a mermaid, but he feels a little weird when they lock his new mermaid friend up in a tank! And then she gets kidnapped! And the kidnappers try to drown Billy and his family! Yikes! 

Spoilers and Review:

The ocean both fascinates and terrifies me. I panicked every time Billy went swimming in the ocean in the middle of the night. The cover is misleading because there is not a lot of shark action, and Billy keeps mentioning a sea monster that I would like to know more about, but honestly it was such a dramatic tale! 

Let me just say that one time I was babysitting a five-year-old and the game she made up for us to play was one where we were mermaids kidnapped from our homes by humans who sold us to the circus. Replace the circus with the zoo and tell it from the perspective of the humans who kidnapped us and you have this book.

Except in this book the humans change their minds about the morality of their decisions once the mermaid is re-kidnapped from them, and almost drown (too scary) and then free the mermaid back into the ocean. 

Oh and the betrayal! Alexander, Dr. D's assistant who can't cook, turns on them all and tries to kill them to make money off a mermaid! The drama! I maybe should've seen that coming but I did not. 

But again, why the sea monster? Hopefully the sea monster makes an appearance in Deep Trouble II.

The Rating: 

I don't know how to rate this one because it's such a different vibe, but I loved it for that. I had to do some other rearranging to accommodate ranking this one. 

1. One Day At HorrorLand (#16)
2. Welcome to Camp Nightmare (#9)
3. Why I'm Afraid of Bees (#17)
4. Stay Out of the Basement (#2)
5. Deep Trouble (#19)
6. Night of the Living Dummy (#7)
7. The Haunted Mask (#11)
8. The Girl Who Cried Monster (#8)
9. Piano Lessons Can Be Murder (#13)
10. Welcome to Dead House (#1)
11. Say Cheese and Die! (#4)
12. Let's Get Invisible! (#6)
13. The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (#14)
14. The Ghost Next Door (#10)
15. Monster Blood (#3)
16. Be Careful What You Wish For... (#12)
17. You Can't Scare Me! (#15)
18. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (#5)
19. Monster Blood II (#18)

Coming up next is The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, another one I know nothing about.