Adult Coloring Books: Complex Designs, Pictures and Patterns for Coloring

Adult coloring books are wildly popular with a wide range of creative types: older kids, ordinary folks like you and me, crafts designers, seniors and yes, artsts all enjoy coloring books with challenging, detailed pictures to color in.

Many artists and illustrators publish reproductions of their art as adult coloring books. Fine art paintings from the great masters are available as coloring pages for adults. My favorite adult patterns for coloring are the detailed design, complicated line drawings and fantasy scene coloring pages with a psychedelic or pop art influence.

Whatever your favorite art topic, subject or genre, you can find an adult coloring book with pictures you'll enjoy coloring in or using to make crafts.

Challenging coloring book topics range from abstract shapes, fantasy pictures, mandalas, paisley designs, kaleidoscopes and geometric designs to realistic scenes from history, fine art reproductions, flowers, plants and animals,costumes, animals,  nostalgia, abstract images, 3D designs and just about any type of picture you could possibly imagine.

Many artists and designers  find inspiration in the fanciful pictures and complex patterns found in adult coloring pages. I like to scan simple patterns and then use various graphic editing tools to make my own iron on transfers, morphed and warped drawings - my own kaleidoscope coloring pages.

Sometimes I combine multiple pictures to create a mural or poster design. I've used coloring pages to make other crafts with fabric, fiber and wood. I like to print a favorite picture from a coloring page onto a shirt or jacket then stitch over the outlines with thread  or embroidery floss by hand or machine to make a unique fiber painting.

I've used coloring pages as iron on transfers for my grandkids to color in on tee shirts and bags with special heat-set crayons and fabric paints. I've even decorated denim jackets with embroidery using a coloring page as the pattern. Coloring pages lend themselves to many different arts and crafts like embroidery, paper piecing or quilting.

Think outside the lines and the paper sheet ... coloring pages offer design inspiration to anyone - not just artists!

Photo: denim jacket free hand embroidery design copyright Lee Hansen, 2008. This design was based on a printable holiday coloring page image I created for my web site in honor of my grandson's birthday - he was born on Groundhog Day in 2007!

Although there are web sites and coloring books that publish erotic or explicit adult pictures to color - suitable for mature audiences only - they're not part of this story. 

When I started to research adult coloring as an arts and crafts hobby, I set out to find the very best G-rated adult coloring books and detailed coloring pages with line art that's challenging, detailed and recommended for grownups, teens and older kids who enjoy coloring.

I've been drawing coloring pages and complex designs for coloring for most of my life - more than 50 years. I've always been a doodler, and many of my doodles become free printable coloring pages that adults enjoy. As an artist, I've discovered many great adult coloring books featuring new and classic art made into coloring pages and posters. I'm sure you'll be able to find interesting adult coloring book pages from the resources I've gathered,  or they'll help you to do additional research and find just the right coloring pages and adult coloring designs to enrich your personal pursuit of coloring pages as an adult.