I color to relax and to make sure that I have some deeply quiet moments during my day. For me, my coloring is rarely about the finished picture.
I start with a couple of colors that just happen to look especially pretty to me today. I used to test out each marker shade before I actually used it in the picture – but eventually I stopped being so particular about my colors and now I usually choose them by the marker cap color. The color on the paper might be a little bit different but it’s OK if there are a few little color surprises.
The next step in my coloring process involves changing my mind and changing color direction. My first thought when I stopped and paused to look at my progress so far was that this looked like it was going to turn into a Valentine and I didn’t really feel like coloring a Valentine in the middle of June. Time to grab a sunshine yellow marker and add a touch of summer to my picture.
If you look closely you can see the lighting change while I color. Now it’s mid afternoon and my husband just brought me a cup of tea. Between slow coloring and setting my coloring aside so that I can get some real work done once in a while, it can take me a long time to color a picture. Thanks for the tea, honey!
I like to draw hard-boiled eggs slices into my drawings sometimes, but when I get around to coloring them it’s kind of a game to try to color them in a way that they look like anything but a hard-boiled egg. For some reason I thought it totally amusing to color the white part of the egg in an egg-yolk color and then to make the egg yolk a very non-egg color. I’m sure this has something to do with a desire to rebel against the rules.
Often while I’m coloring, I’ll try to see if I can color one full shape without my mind drifting away to other thoughts. You’d think that this would be easy to do. The shape isn’t that big. Just look at the marker, look at the paper, look at myself coloring and not feel any need to think about anything else. I got halfway through this shape and start thinking that I should take a picture and tell you all about the deep inner conversations I have while trying to color one itty-bitty shape.
Put more colors in more places and the picture is starting to hint at its final form. Time to grab a different color! I like that small, uncomfortable feeling when the path is not predictable. Can I add another color and still end up with a picture that looks somewhat coherent?
Shape after shape, each one another chance to see if I can let my mind go quiet and focus on nothing but coloring that one single shape. And then this happens.
A fully mindful moment of coloring. (This picture is a re-creation of that moment, lol.) One little pink space, and my mind fully focused on my marker and my ink and my paper – staying completely focused from the very beginning of the shape until it was completely filled. It was getting later in the day and the light was changing again. You can see the shadow of my marker, but I could see so many little shadows from the slightly rough surface of the paper. I treasure moments like these when I can bring my attention so completely to my present moment. The self congratulatory photo afterwards kind of broke the moment but it’s getting easier and easier to reenter the coloring zone.
My mind getting quieter and my relaxation getting deeper as I color…
and sip tea…
and see the shadows getting longer…
and each shape brings another opportunity to slow down, be still, and observe .
The quiet lingers after I finish, and I look at where today’s coloring path has led me – all the way from pinky Valentines to long shadows and the embers of sunset. A last sip of cold tea. Another page completed.
(Today’s coloring was from Balance For Crayons And Wide Tipped Markers.)
(Colored with these Copic Marker Shades.)