Colouring 101

As a little girl, one of my favourite pastimes was colouring… and you can bet I worked hard at colouring inside the lines. I would spend hours carefully choosing which crayon to use and would do my utmost best to create that perfect picture.

The Crayola box of 64 colours was my favourite. Suddenly, our choices weren’t limited to 8 or 16 or even 24. A new box meant fresh crayons with no torn paper and sharp new points. They were in neat rows, all the same height in four sections of rainbows. There was even a sharpener on the back of the box. Sadly though, some of my crayons never lost their point because I didn’t use them. I favoured the pinks and purple, a couple of the greens, browns and, quite sparingly, the yellow. But raw umber? Not likely.  Ochre? No thanks.  Definitely not Salmon. Ewww!

The possibilities {or so we thoughtt}  were endless!

These days, I don’t use actual crayons or colouring books… I have a colouring app on my iPad.  

My app has a variety of patterns and with a tap of my finger I colour in the sections on the design I’ve chosen and there’s oh so many more than 64 colours to choose from. If the colour isn’t what I want, with a quick click, another colour appears. It’s fun to try new combinations and learn which shades complement each other and which ones are flat out ugly. 

Art is subjective, of course.

Colouring is one way I practice self-care. It’s a grace I’ve given myself. It’s one simple way for me to decompress. I find that when it feels like the world is moving too fast, colouring is a great way to slow life down and enjoy the freedom there is in creating something beautiful. 

How about you? Did you use all the crayons in the box?

Take Care