For about a year now I have been tossing around the idea of making adult coloring pages to sell.
Coloring is a restful, meditative and creative endeavor. When I handed out several of my line drawings to adults last summer, they greatly enjoyed the activity. Online, I have found that there is a large community of adult colorers as well. This idea has continued to germinate in me ever since I realized that, in the process of creating my black and whites, instead of filling in the line drawing right away, I could scan it into the computer and let it stand alone as a creative work.
Since my black and whites go through three stages to completion, the first of which is a line drawing in ink, I got the idea to use that drawing for a series of open illustrations which others could color. I looked this up on Amazon.com and found two types of books already out there. First are the many coloring books by Dover Publications. These are pretty flimsy - not what I was looking for. The other types are spiral bound hard covers which focus on a specific type of drawing: mandalas, cubic designs, abstract adventures, celtic designs, etc.After investigating what it would take to put together a self-published book of this sort, I am fairly unconvinced that an entire book would work for me financially, given the larger size, good paper, thin market, etc.
My newest incarnation of this idea is to sell sets of "Coloring Pages," which would be 11x14 pages on good, heavyweight paper, perhaps watercolor paper, backed with a rigid board and enclosed in a cello sleeve -- something more like a gift. This would fit in a standard sized frame and would make a fun activity for someone.
I haven't decided whether they should be sold individually or in sets. What do you think? Any ideas?
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Do individuals and sets. Create themes - the seasons, land marks, etc. - that way they can be displayed, once coloured, as an artistic set that hang together on the wall. The individual option would allow for people to try it out, and give it as gifts, like you said. The watercolour paper idea is also fabulous! Maybe fewwer lines in those images would also allow for blending watercolours, thereby making each piece very unique.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea! I love colouring and painting. I teach and I frequently have those types of activities for students to calmly pass some time when they have finished their class work, or if they need a break from the academics. Adults probably need this more than they'd think! Less TV and more art! I hope this idea takes off for you!