Review – The Art Therapy Colouring Book

Posted September 9, 2015 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Cover of The Art Therapy Colouring BookThe Art Therapy Colouring Book, Richard Merritt, Hannah Davies, Cindy Wilde

This book has high quality pages, so you can definitely use pens, and there are some lovely designs. They tend to be more finicky — lots of little sections to pen in, rather than big areas to colour — which may or may not suit you. The thing I think is most offputting about this book is that most of the pages are already partly coloured. I’m doing the fox from the front cover, for instance, and it comes with a coloured background and some sections of the head already coloured. Normally, I’m one of those creatures who prefers to colour in the lines and with the colours of nature, so I was a little hesitant about my rainbow fox. On the other hand, sometimes it’s nice to just colour something in differently, and see what it looks like as a complete picture — you might consider the already coloured parts of the pictures to be a sort of challenge to get really creative!

The last third of the book is for ‘doodling’, though there’s some scope for colouring, too. I was less interested in this stuff, and don’t know if I’ll really make use of it. The whole point of colouring books, for me, is that my dubious drawing skills don’t come into it.

Still, high quality book, and some of the multicolour designs come out looking surprisingly good, if you want to try something different.

Rating: 3/5

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4 responses to “Review – The Art Therapy Colouring Book

  1. Dunno about this renewed fad for grown-up colouring books; I’d rather draw the pictures myself, but I can see there might be an attraction if one has a few idle moments. But do I? And do you? Perhaps it’s a form of art therapy without the need for a therapist?

    • I’m terrible at drawing, and tend to beat myself up about it, so it’s nice to just work on colouring. It’s pretty good as mindfulness meditation, staying in the moment, etc. It’s not so much an idle moment thing — it’s an active thing which I can concentrate on so my mind doesn’t race, in the way that minds are wont to do, especially for people with anxiety disorders.

      • I didn’t mean to diss colouring-in, only the current push by publishers and bookshops. We’re all particular about the colouring in we prefer — I’ve been into interlace, for example, and mandalas in the past — but as a diversion from stress I now prefer thousand-piece jigsaws. And of course if one’s not confident about drawing they’re perfect; but don’t beat yourself up about your drawing skills, I’m happy to draw but rubbish at so much else. So glad you find these helpful.

        • At least it means there’s lots and lots of options available for me to choose from! Mandalas are one of my favourite things to do so far, but I have a Japanese patterns one (which… isn’t very Japanese, but never mind) that I’m enjoying too.

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