Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults Vol. 1, 2 & 3 by Colourtation

23/8/2015

This trio of books has been created with the intention of changing your brainwaves from being in a state of stress- Beta- to the more relaxed state of Alpha. We all know that focusing on one enjoyable task will relax us- stress relief is probably the biggest reason why adults have started colouring- but the purpose behind these particular books is to really look at the psychological effects colouring can have on a pressured mind.

After saying all that, I'm probably going to surprise you now by saying that in my personal opinion: the illustrations in these books stress me out MORE than what I was before I started thinking about colouring them. As you all know I dislike geometric, monotonous, repetitive patterns. What relaxes me most is illustrations with a theme or content that means something, rather than lines, boxes and random objects.. It's just boring more than anything, and a lot of the pictures in these books are sharp angles, or the same thing overlapping each other hectically... it's just all too busy and too tedious to make me enjoy what I'm doing.

It would be unfair for me to say that these are 'bad' books, because they're not. The colouring pages are perfectly well drawn, with crisp good quality line work... but it all feels too digital, mathmatical, and basic for it to interest me. As for relaxing the brain, as I said before the illustrations to me are just too patternful and frenzied to calm me.

The thing is, as with everything in life, different strokes for different folks. The person next to me might look at these books and think, 'hell yeah, groovy geometrics, cuboids, lines... love it!' so if that's your bag, I guarantee you'll love these books and recommend you try them.

The paper quality is not bad. I used stabilo felt pens and there is very little bleed through to the other side unless you press down hard. Each book contains around 25 drawings and an introduction telling you all about the scientific Alpha/Beta brainwave system and how colouring can manually 'change the gears' of your mind's state.

Here's an image I coloured from the first book. I don't like how narrow the lines were as I ended up going out of them a few times!

These books were given to me in exchange for an honest review. You can find them on Amazon, here:

Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults Volume 1

Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults Volume 2

Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults Volume 3

1 Comment

Cindy Gillespie

23/8/2015 08:59:26 am

I read your blog on the Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults and so agree that sometimes if the patterns are too geometric they are not quite as enjoyable and you feel as if you need to try harder rather than relax. I, like you, prefer illustrations. Also, perhaps the fact that at the start of the books it tells you about the scientific brainwave system makes it feel more like an experiment or exam rather than just enjoying the pattern and colours.

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Anti-Stress Colouring Book for Adults﻿ Vol. 1, 2 & 3 by Colourtation