So it’s been a real surprise, to see the category bloom.” My intention was just to make a book I would like to have. I was thinking simply that people like me would like to do it. I drew up the first story and they thought, ‘Let’s go for it’. “I had a kids’ book commissioned and I told them I would like to do one for grown-ups. The illustrator, who lives in Aberdeenshire, has been astonished at the reaction since she released Secret Garden in 2013. Now it is socially acceptable, it’s a category of its own. So many people have said to me that they used to do secret colouring in when their kids were in bed. For many people, a blank sheet is very daunting with a colouring book you just need to bring the colour. “I think it is really relaxing, to do something analogue, to unplug,” said Basford. The Mindfulness Colouring Book pushes this perspective particularly strongly, with its publisher telling readers that it is “filled with templates for exquisite scenes and intricate, sophisticated patterns, prompting you to meditate on your artwork as you mindfully and creatively fill these pages with colour”, and urging potential colourers to “take a few minutes out of your day, wherever you are, and colour your way to peace and calm”. It really took off for us – selling the anti-stress angle gave people permission to enjoy something they might have felt was quite childish,” she said. It sold strongly and reprinted, but it was last year that it all really mushroomed with Art Therapy, in June. “The first one we did was in 2012, Creative Colouring for Grown-Ups. Basford’s titles are in second and eighth place - that’s half of .uk’s top 10 taken up by colouring books for adults.Īt independent UK publisher Michael O’Mara, which has sold almost 340,000 adult colouring books to date, head of publicity, marketing and online, Ana McLaughlin, attributes the craze to the way the category has been reimagined as a means of relaxation. In the UK, Richard Merritt’s Art Therapy Colouring Book sits in fourth spot on Amazon’s bestseller lists, Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom – detailed pictures of animals to colour – sits in seventh, and a mindfulness colouring book sits in ninth. Photograph: Johanna Basford and Laurence KingĪnd it is not just Basford who is reaping the benefits of the hordes of adults who, it turns out, just wanted something to colour in. The intricate outlines of adult colouring books.
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