They (“They”) say coloring is a form of meditation. I’m not really sure why, except that I suppose it’s a narrow focus, but anyway, it turns out that what I really want from a coloring book is pages and pages of my childhood obsessions, in this case ElfQuest.
I’ve had the book three weeks and I’ve done four pictures, which doesn’t sound like all that much, but most of them are pretty detailed and also I keep having to stop because my writing callouses are so diminished that coloring for hours with pencils hurts my fingers. Last night I did two thirds of the last picture here and thought maybe I could finish it all in one night and be proud of myself and then I was like, “What am I, five?” :)
Anyway, I’m sufficiently pleased with myself that I went and scanned in the pictures I’d colored, although it turns out my scanner bed is just a little too small for the images. The color came out pretty accurately, though, which was a kind of nice surprise.
Leetah has a lot of hair, especially when you don’t have one pencil that’s the right color and it all has to be done twice. I was very grateful for page four not having Leetah on it. Neither does page five. (Page six, though…) I’m contemplating going to buy More Colored Pencils and Also A Box Of Crayons That Are For Me Not The Actual Five Year Old because, um, I’m enjoying this far beyond reason. Now if I could get coloring books full of covers and splashes from (especially) the Jim Lee run on X-Men/Uncanny X-Men I WOULD BE IN HEAVEN.
(I actually reactivated my pinterest account, and I hate pinterest, so I could browse for downloadable pictures to color. I found a lot of Mucha-inspired stuff that I could spend months coloring. NOT THAT I DON’T HAVE MANY VERY LOVELY ELLEN MILLION COLORING BOOKS, and not, realistically, that I’m going to start coloring in dozens of random downloaded pictures, but apparently it’s the Bright! Shiny! Principle! Of! The! Thing!)