Currently, there are studies that coloring books can relieve anxiety and other stress related disorders. Sometimes normal people who wanted to get away from everyday work stress choose coloring or art related recreational activities to meditate to calm themselves down. Some people practice meditation not just by being in a quiet place and hum “ohm” over and over till they cleared their minds. For others this method just doesn’t work due to some distractions around them. Coloring books are a great and inexpensive way of relieving stress. When we were kids, we loved coloring books about animals, flowers, anything under the sand that almost has a story at the end. For adults though we need more detailed drawings and patterns to keep us focused in coloring and will make us forget anything else that causes stress and anxiety. Mandala coloring books are a good choice for this type of activity. Mandala patterns have been a choice of many to print out and color, due to their intricate designs that get you all focused. There are a lot of ways to get some good designs out there, you can search the web and print out any design you chose or you can buy intricate mandala coloring pages from Amazon. Most of the designs are good enough to be colored by kids but most of these patterns are hard to color even adults take time and effort to color them properly. Here are some tips that you could do to properly color mandala designs.
- After printing out or buying a book that has intricate mandala coloring pages determine which type of coloring medium you are going to use. In this case we have chosen a box of 12 Faber-Castell’s Watercolour Pencils. This set comes along with a slim paint brush that lets you transform any colored art into a better and more artistic one by blending with the use of water. (That is if you know and you are blessed enough to do that, hehe!) For this project though we are just going to use them coloring pencils as they are… no brushes, no water or whatsoever.
- In coloring mandalas, we do not need to be choosy on colors to use and stuff, just pick on with whatever you want and start coloring.
- Check the coloring pencil first if it is sharp enough to run through narrow areas of the drawing, because we will be starting with the edges. An intricate mandala design needs a sturdy hand and a sharp coloring pen so to not go over the edges ruining your artwork. Start coloring the edges and narrow areas until you feel that the pencil is getting dull. When the pencil is dull you can start filling in the details you outlined awhile ago. You may need a pencil sharpener every now and then to continue on with the rest of the design.
- Just repeat everything while switching between different coloring pencils. Coloring mandala has no rules though when it comes to choosing which color should go with the design… The possibilities are endless. Be mindful though as mandala patterns are too detailed you might want to showcase that by choosing contrasting colors to maximize the design and crank up the creativity points.
Some designs could take up to 3 hours to color the whole page, but it’s more of the fun and relieving stress and anxiety for a while and that should help you recharge.