Coloring in the Dots

There is a new craze under way. Grown-ups are now coloring in colouring books, like they did when they were kids. They are finding it relaxing and fun. I loved coloring with my daughter when she was younger. I personally find that I have the ability to blend my colors better now than I did when I was a kid and 20+. 

Adults coloring is not news to Monkeying Around. We discovered that once solved, our dot-to-dot books magically turn into colouring books. Years ago we had a customer return three of our puzzles, all colored in. Many of our customers have told me they color the puzzles after solving them, or they let their kids and grand-kids color the final images. With National Coloring Book Day coming we decided to use our dot-to-dot puzzles to exercise our coloring skills.

Customer colored Greatest Dot-to-Dot puzzle

  Customer colored Greatest Dot-to-Dot puzzleCustomer colored Greatest Dot-to-Dot puzzle

 

 

 

 

 

 

The puzzle I chose to color was from our Original Greatest Dot-to-Dot Book #1. I thought I would choose a puzzle that had less detail than our Super Challenge puzzles. It is amazing what shading can do to an outline image. I use a Pilot Frixion Pen to solve all of the puzzles David makes. It gives a nice thin crisp line AND if I make a mistake, I can erase it.  🙂 Did you notice it was a toucan before I solved it? One of the unique qualities about David’s puzzles is that final image is hard to see before the puzzle is started.

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I went online with my smart phone to find a reference picture. Since David Kalvitis uses his own photos or draws the images using many different references I had no way of finding an exact photo. Instead I found a toucan photo that was in a similar position with the colors I liked. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I grabbed my watercolor dish, a water-pen and a large piece of cardboard, then selected colors from my water color pencils. By placing the cardboard under the page I kept the water from soaking into the rest of the book.  And I didn’t go crazy trying to find a piece of cardboard, I just went to my recycling bin and got a cereal box.CAM02516~2CAM02517~2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I’m a bookkeeper, a “left-brain” as some would say. My final colored image of the toucan is nowhere near the coloring quality of the customer’s pages (above) that were mailed to us. I just felt the need to say this, in case there were others out there that felt they couldn’t “color” as well as a professional or art hobbyist. It’s not about the perfection, it’s about having fun and relaxing.

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So, go and get one of our sample puzzles, solve it and color away. You can also check out the National Coloring Book Day website. They have several Dover Publication colouring pages for free.  🙂 

 

Happy Dot-to-Dotting and Coloring!

 

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