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Acoloring book (British English:colouring-in book,colouring book, orcolouring page) is a type of book containingline art to which people are intended to add color usingcrayons,colored pencils,marker pens,paint or other artistic media. Traditional coloring books and coloring pages are printed on paper or card. Some coloring books haveperforated edges so their pages can be removed from the books and used as individual sheets. Others may include astory line and so are intended to be left intact. Today, many children's coloring books featurepopular characters. They are often used as promotional materials for motion pictures and television. Coloring books may also incorporate other activities such asconnect the dots,mazes and otherpuzzles. Some also incorporate the use ofstickers.
Paint books and coloring books emerged in the United States as part of the "democratization of art" process, inspired by a series of lectures by British artistJoshua Reynolds, and the works of Swiss educatorJohann Heinrich Pestalozzi and his studentFriedrich Fröbel. Many educators concluded that all students, regardless of background, stood to benefit fromart education as a means of enhancing their conceptual understanding of the tangible, developing their cognitive abilities, and improving skills that would be useful in finding a profession, as well as for the children's spiritual edification.[1] TheMcLoughlin Brothers are credited as the inventors of the coloring book, when, in the 1880s, they producedThe Little Folks' Painting Book, in collaboration withKate Greenaway. They continued to publish coloring books until the 1920s, when the McLoughlin Brothers became part of theMilton Bradley Company.
Another pioneer in the genre wasRichard F. Outcault. He authoredBuster's Paint Book in 1907, featuring the character ofBuster Brown, which he had invented in 1902. It was published by the Stokes Company. This launched a trend to use coloring books to advertise a wide variety of products, including coffee and pianos.[1] Until the 1930s, books were designed with the intent for them to be painted instead of colored. Even whencrayons came into wide use in the 1930s, books were still designed so that they could be painted or colored.[2]
Coloring books are widely used in schooling for young children for various reasons. For example, children are often more interested in coloring books rather than using other learning methods; pictures may also be more memorable than simply words.[citation needed] Coloring may also increase creativity in painting, according to some research.[3]
As a predominantly non-verbal medium, coloring books have also seen wide applications in education where a target group does not speak and understand the primary language of instruction or communication. Examples of this include the use of coloring books inGuatemala to teach children about hieroglyphs andMayan artist patterns,[4] and the production of coloring books to educate the children of farm workers about "the pathway by which agricultural pesticides are transferred from work to home."[5] Coloring books are also said to help to motivate students' understanding of concepts that they would otherwise be uninterested in.
They have been used as teaching aids for developing creativity and knowledge of geometry, such as in Roger Burrows'Altair Designs.
Since the 1980s, several publishers have produced educational coloring books intended for studying graduate-level topics such as anatomy and physiology, where color-coding of many detailed diagrams are used as a learning aid. Examples includeThe Anatomy Coloring Book and subsequent book series, by Wynn Kapit and Lawrence Elson, published byHarperCollins (1990s) andBenjamin Cummings (2000s).[6] There are some examples of educators using coloring books to better explain complicated topics, like programming.[7]
Some publishers have specialized in coloring books with an explicit educational purpose, both for children and for adults. The books often have extensive text accompanying each image. These publishers includeDover Books,Really Big Coloring Books,Running Press, andTroubador Press.
Coloring books have seen wide application in the health professions as educational tools. One nurse, trying to limit the trauma of surgery, described in an academic publication how the use of a coloring book "might help [the child] to understand what was going to happen to him."[8] They are also used in rehabilitation of accident victims to aid recovery ofhand–eye coordination, and they are used withautistic children both for entertainment and for their soothing effect. Coloring books have been used to explain complicated medical conditions to children.[9] One of the appeals of adult coloring books is that they help users relax and de-stress.[10]
In 1962, cartoonistMort Drucker teamed with humoristPaul Laikin in creating theJohn F. Kennedy Coloring Book, a satirical introduction to Kennedy, his family and administration, told from the point of view of his daughterCaroline. The book sold 2,500,000 copies.[11][12]
In 1968 theBlack Panther Coloring Book began circulating in the United States; the book features black men and children killingpigs dressed as police officers. It was argued to have been made not by theBlack Panther Party but by theFederal Bureau of Investigation'sCOINTELPRO program to discredit the organization, a claim which other sources dispute.[13][14]
The term and concept of the "coloring book" was adopted by thefeminist artistTee Corinne as a tool of female empowerment. Corinne made pencil sketches of female genitalia, which she then inked and printed on card stock. She published a collection of them in 1975 asThe Cunt Coloring Book.
No other name seemed really to fit, although the word "cunt" was not one with which I was particularly comfortable. The alliteration, though, was nice. I also liked the idea of combining a street term for genitalia with a coloring book, because both are ways that, as children, we get to know the world.[15]
In August 2011, American publisher Really Big Coloring Books releasedWe Shall Never Forget: The Kids Book of Freedom detailing specific drawings in the accounting ofSEAL Team 6 shootingOsama bin Laden in his home. The book was criticized by some for portraying Muslims in a negative manner. The company has also publishedThe Tea Party Coloring Book for Kids,Ted Cruz To The Future (2013) and a book about PresidentBarack Obama'sfirst inauguration (2008).[16][17]
Photographer Jno Cook produced line drawings based onRobert Frank'sThe Americans, and in 1983 published them in a limited edition asThe Robert Frank Coloring Book. In 1994, theNational Gallery of Art used the images asparty favors for writers working on the catalog for a retrospective of Frank's work.[18]
Coloring books are a form of adulttherapy that saw a growth in popularity in the 2010s. They reportedly bring people a sense of theirchildhood,[19] and help with developing fine motor skills and vision, reducing anxiety and creating focus, and relieving stress and anxiety in a manner similar tomeditation.[20] Concentrating on coloring may facilitate the replacement of negative thoughts and images with pleasant ones.[21][22] Coloring books can be used in daily activities.[23] The books are also a way to get away from technology, which some may regard as beneficial to people's health.[24] They can also be used by people who aren't as comfortable with other extremely expressive forms of art.[20]
While coloring books for adults were popular in the early 1960s, those were satirical works rather than the therapeutic works that define the adult coloring book form today.[25] The first commercially successful adult coloring books were published in 2012 and 2013,[20] and began increasing in popularity in 2015. In April of that year,Johanna Basford brought out two coloring books titledSecret Garden andEnchanted Forest, which became the top sellers atAmazon.[26] By November it was reported byAmazon.ca that the books were the most top wished for items with nine of the top ten consisting of such books.[27] Also that monthCrayola began offering its own line of adult coloring books.[28] Publishers also began packaging some of their colouring books with pencils andCDs to support the enjoyment of this activity.[29] Sales in the US continued to grow in early 2016, but began to fall by the end of the year, with fewer newcomers trying this pastime.[30]
Adult coloring books are offered digitally, via ebooks, digital apps,[31] and coloring pages that can be colored online or downloaded. Users' digital work-products can be saved and shared.[10][32] Dominic Bulsuto theorized that the trend of digital purchasing helped the spread of the genre, noting that the relative anonymous nature of the act allowed customers to feel more secure perusing books they would be embarrassed to buy in real life.[26]
By 2016,Faber-Castell, a worldwide color pencil supplier, was reported to have trouble keeping up with demand for their products due to the craze,[33] whileBlue Star Coloring sold over a million titles in one year.[34]
AuthorSusan Jacoby has criticized adult coloring books, along with the popularity among adults ofyoung adult fiction, as "an artifact of a broader cultural shift. And that cultural shift is a bad thing".[35] She believes theGreat Recession has contributed to this shift, as adults unable to find employment have moved home to live with their parents. New York Cityfuturist and blogger Dominic Basulto describes adult coloring book fans as "stuck in The Shallows, mindfully coloring books to counter the existential angst of living in a digital society". He goes on to say that "...the endless Internet parade of silly cat photos, infantile comments and adolescentmemes has dumbed us down". However, Basulto ultimately sees the trend as a good thing, noting that adults are increasingly buying books they want to buy, rather than books they are supposed to buy.[26]
Coloring books can also be found digitally in the form of coloring book websites and applications. Coloring book software often has features such as color mixing,flood filling, and paintbrush tools that allow for more accurate and detailed drawings than regular coloring books.
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