It’s easy to see why many people take up adult coloring as a hobby. It’s relaxing, it’s fun, and it’s a really good way to calm your mind. But beyond the obvious benefits of coloring in your spare time, there is one factor that is often overlooked: coloring books for adults make great creative outlets.  Sure, real artists would dismiss it as nothing more than just filling in some pre-drawn images. But not all of us are “real artists”. Besides, it would be foolish to say that it takes no skill whatsoever to come up with great results.

You need to have a good eye for design if you want to pick out the right colors that will match perfectly, and you need a steady hand to stay inside the lines. And who says you can’t be even more creative than that?

If you want to prove the naysayers wrong by coming up with stunning coloring pages, then you’ve come to the right place. Today we will give you a couple of ideas that will help you make your adult coloring pages “pop” right out of the books! Hopefully, by the end of this handy guide, we will have inspired you to pour out your passion into this wonderful activity. So without further ado, here are three of our beginner-friendly tips that will make your coloring pages pop.

Use a Piece of Scrap Paper

Even if we’re only coloring a bunch of intricate designs, we should still be careful about how we handle our artwork. Do it like a professional artist and handle every inch of your coloring page with care. This first tip isn’t actually focused on just making one page of your coloring book pretty – it’s about making sure that all of your adult coloring pages will come out looking nicely!

And that is why the first advice we can give to adults who color is to take a piece of scratch paper and put it between your coloring pages. To be more specific, you must put it directly underneath the image you are coloring, right as you color. This one seems pretty obvious, but plenty of people forget to do it.

This is a good way to prevent the image on the next page from getting ruined. This is especially important when you’re using markers to color. The colors bleed through the paper and gets all over the next page. Get in the habit of keeping a scrap piece of paper in your coloring books, to preserve the beauty of the next images. The beauty of it is that when you use the same scrap paper for every image you color, it begins to become more beautiful on its own! Try it out and see for yourself.

Use Color Pairs

This is one surefire way to make your pages more interesting. By pairing up colors and using them on specific parts of a design, you can make incredibly artistic portraits! The great thing about this technique is that you can use complimentary colors, or even colors that contrast!

As long as you use them in a pattern (alternately, for example) you should be on the right track. It’s as easy as 1-2-3. Repeating color patterns can have such a soothing effect for your eyes. It’s a great way to amp the relaxation factor. 

Make a Color Sample Chart

This is a simple technique that will encourage you to pick the right colors at the right time. Take a piece of paper, write down all the names of all the colors you have and then scribble in a little sample, so that you know what exact shade it gives you. It will then serve as your guide, so you can easily pick out which one you think will look best on certain details of the drawing.

Trust us, it makes life easier.  The reason we love adult coloring is because it gives us no pressure. You can’t finish coloring a page? No one will bother you. You want to choose colors that don’t exactly match? Who cares? It’s a hassle-free way to clear up your thoughts while having the freedom to do whatever you want.