Tuesday, January 5, 2016

New Hobby - Perfect for RVing

I have found a perfect hobby for a color-loving artistic RVer.

If you have followed my blog from the early years, you know that in my past life, I was a working artist. I produced a line of wildlife sculptures that I sold at art shows, in a San Francisco gallery, and on my own web site. But now that I have retired, I no longer want to be constrained by one product line, nor by having to please buyers.

In the last couple of years I have painted many pictures and created many sculptures in my mind using only my imagination. They cost nothing, and take up no space. Imaginary art is for my mind's eye only.

But, my fingers have not been as happy as they could be. I did a lot of gross needlepoint on plastic matrices with yarn, and found it somewhat pleasurable, but I have nothing left in our Alfa to cover. Well actually, I do have a dashboard cover over half-finished that I will complete soon, but after that I have no inspiration.

When making her Christmas wish list, my 47 year old scientist daughter mentioned wanting an adult coloring book. I first saw them many years ago at a high end hobby shop, but recently they had appeared by the rackfull at all of the craft and fabric stores. So buying one was easy. 

When I went to pick one up for her, I was fascinated. Would this be fun to do? Should I get one for me too? 

I did, and it has been the best new hobby I have ever tried!

I bought the same book for both myself and my daughter so that when I go back for another visit we can compare what we did with the same pages.



The book I chose contains "mandala" designs. There are over 60 printed on good quality heavyweight paper. Each design is almost eight inches in diameter. Some are light and airy, and some have much heavier outlines.

I also bought us each a set of fine point Sharpie pens, and have supplemented mine with some colored pencils.

These are a few I have colored:



Why is this the perfect hobby for an RVer? Because it takes up almost no room, besides the set of pens and the book. It takes hours to complete each design. Once finished, you can simply turn the page.  No stuff to store, sell or give away! Well, I guess you could put your work on the refrigerator.

But really, the fun is in the doing!

I think coloring satisfies some of the same needs as knitting and quilting, but you don't have to buy and store yarns and fabric, nor do you have to find people who need blankets, scarves or sweaters.

So if you want to try something new, consider adult coloring books. The mandalas book costs about $10 at Michael's, and my first set of Sharpies was on sale at Staples for less than $15. 

Anybody can do it!

20 comments:

  1. I saw those at Barnes and Noble this weekend....interesting. I take care of my 15 month old great nephew and that is what I got him for Christmas...his first fat crayons and color book....maybe I should get one of those for me and we can color together...sounds old school to me and that is what I am looking for Henry!

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  2. Water color pencils and a fine tip brush also makes some pretty nice colorings.

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  3. Yes! I've read articles about how therapeutic it is to color and the adult coloring books are a perfect way to be creative at the same time.

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  4. I used to do poster coloring over ten years ago. The results decorated my office at work. I'm afraid I couldn't stay within the lines now days...

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  5. You're not the only one of us out here doing this! Good work!

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  6. Our daughter in Texas has been doing this for several years... satisfies her need to work with color. She even bought her daughter a wonderful set of colored pencils to encourage her to use some of her artistic talents. Looks like fun... but right now I guess I'll stick with knitting socks ;-)

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  7. There are also fun coloring apps for iPad and iPhone.

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  8. I could see myself being interested in something like this at some point.

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  9. I went to Michaels to get some colored pencil and they were sold out! They have the coloring books on display right inside the store, it's the latest fad.

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  10. My son's family got me an adult coloring book for Christmas. Haven't started yet but after seeing what you have done I am afraid I will fall far short.

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  11. The colouring books are a fantastic idea. I got one for my neice and thought of getting one for myself but I have a significant tremor in my hands so it might be very frustrating. I love the ones you've done and hope you keep sharing.

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  12. Joe is sitting here beside me coloring with his colored pencils even as we speak. This particular coloring book is full of military planes.

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  13. You are doing a great job! Have seen those in the stores, but hesitate to buy them, because heaven knows I don't need another hobby!!!!

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  14. Those are great, I have a few and took them to Office Max and had them spiral bound so they could fold open flat, easier to work with :) have fun!!

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  15. I have also just started coloring with an adult coloring book. I love it. Seems to be very soothing.

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  16. It sounds like a good fit for RVers. A friend of mine got some coloring books for Christmas. I was surprised at the intricate designs in the coloring books.

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  17. So funny this is becoming the latest fad. I've always loved to color with old fashioned crayons and coloring books. I picked a lot of adult coloring books while at Amazon. I plan on doing that at the guard shack while killing time on my shift.

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  18. I love these things! I'm completely addicted. :)

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  19. A great new hobby!!.. Have been searching on Amazon for the books and pens!!

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  20. I purchased all the things I needed to do that, and also tangle patterns. (Haven't done much, I have to admit. After reading your post, I might pull them out and try again.) You might really tangling, too. You create your own structured patterns called tangles, and when they are colored in, they are really cool. Or just keep the black and white drawings. Check out this link: tanglepatterns.com There are lots of places on-line to check them out. They are usually drawn on small special papers, but I have a few books with painting/coloring paper and I cut some out and cut them to size. I use a black pen and then colored pens to fill in the patterns. Also very inexpensive and takes up a tiny space. Fun to go from one to the other depending on your mood. Your colored pieces are just beautiful! :)

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