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You might have heard- coloring books for adults are HOT. (And not in the icky/pornographic way, but in the way it’s SUPER-popular!) It’s an international phenomena and it seems everyone is jumping on the coloring book train to promote creativity and destressing. But what are the best coloring books for adults? Well, let me show you a few!
While it’s not Art Therapy, I do love the idea of setting your mind free and maybe even trying out some new tips and techniques.
If you are just getting started, here are some of the books I showed you (affiliate links) and some products *I* love to get you started.

“Mandalas, Coloring for Everyone” started with Chameleon Markers.
- The Artful Mandala from Cher Kaufman
- Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford (and postcards, too.)
- Coloring Dream Mandalas by Wendy Piersall
- Color Me Happy by Lacy Mucklow, MA, ATR-BC, LPAT (Certified Art Therapist and counselor!)
- Mandalas: Coloring for Everyone and Mandalas: Coloring for Artists from Skyhorse Publishing
- Paisleys: Coloring for Everyone and Paisleys: Coloring for Artists from Skyhorse Publishing
- Artists’ Coloruring Book from Pepin; Arabian Patterns

“Coloring Dream Mandalas” using Zig Real Brush Markers
And if you need some supplies, I highly recommend these tools. Affiliate link is first, and then a link to the review after it if you’d like to know more about them or see them in action!
- Derwent Inktense Pencils; Review of Derwent Inktense Pencils
- Zig Clean Brush Markers; Review of Zig Clean Brush Markers
- Chameleon Markers; Review of Chameleon Markers
- Faber Castell Poly Chromos Pencils (review coming soon)
There are a ton of great other books and tools folks are using, too.
I hope you’ll weigh in with a comment and share WHY you like coloring and what tools and/or books you love!
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I have the Secret Garden coloring book and use Prisma color pencils. The pencils are great for shading and only complaint is the some of the lines are too small. But it has helped with stress in my life. My daughter just left home for college that is two hours away. I agree with you that this is not art therapy but can help people. Hate to see people post negative comments.
Thanks for the review on other books. Keep up the good work.
I haven’t purchased any books just for coloring. What I do is stamp a lot of images for my cards and get lost in the coloring of those images. The recent Birthday card I made for my Grandson took me several hours to color. So I get the de-stressing and provide a lovely card for someone I love. A win win situation. Love your blog and videos.
I have a book by Lisa Congdon called “Botanicals”. As I have right hand manipulative issues, I like the pictures and the coloring but do not find it easy to do. Then I discovered “Colorfy”, a free app for android. I don’t know if there is an Apple version yet. I have to dig out my stylus because some of the spaces are very small but I like this app very much. It is very addicting!! Some color palettes are free and others cost $2.99.