Adult Coloring for Beginners: Everything You Need to Get Started

So you bought an adult coloring book.

Now you’re staring at the first page wondering if there are rules nobody bothered to tell you about.

Good news: there aren’t. 😂

Adult coloring is about as easy a hobby to start as you’ll find. You really only need three things.

1. A Coloring Book You Actually Like

Choose something you want to color.

Flowers. Animals. Little villages. Farms. Travel scenes. Landscapes. Whatever makes you want to pick up a pencil.

Don’t worry about finding the “right” kind of coloring book. If you keep flipping through it thinking, Ooh, I want to color that one, you’ve found it.

2. Something to Color With

You don’t need a giant collection of expensive art supplies.

A basic set of colored pencils is a great place to start. Crayons work. Markers can be fun too—just put a spare sheet of paper behind the page in case they bleed through.

Start with what you have.

Trust us, the enormous collection of art supplies you swear you absolutely need can come later.

3. A Little Time

This might actually be the hardest supply to find.

You don’t need an entire afternoon. Try 15 or 20 minutes.

Make some coffee or tea. Put on some music. Find a comfortable spot and color something.

And here’s the important part:

Don’t worry about whether you’re doing it “right.”

There is no right.

Blend your colors. Don’t blend them. Shade carefully. Give the chickens purple feathers.

It’s your page.

That’s Really It

You don’t need art lessons.

You don’t need fancy supplies.

And you definitely don’t need permission to be creative.

You need a coloring book, something to color with, and a little time to yourself.

Pick a page you like and start.

The worst thing that can happen is you don’t like the color you picked.

Milo assures us there are considerably bigger problems in the woods. 🦝

— Milo & the Urban Blue Designs Team