Adult Coloring Books for Men: our Top Ten

Adult Coloring Books for Men: they exist, dude, and they rock!

Who doesn’t love a man with a gel pen? Guys who color are just plain sexy!

Of course, there’s no absolute rules about adult coloring books for men or for women. Anyone can happily color any book. But adult coloring books have mostly been targeted at women. These books often have fairy or floral designs, or edgy, arty styles, but women are the main users. Even making art itself is sometimes labeled as feminine.

But men, too, need to work off stress, and society is starting to realize this. So, more adult coloring books for men are hitting the shelves, and more men joining the fun. In fact, many amazing adult coloring book artists are men.

I spent hours combing through ones I thought would please the guys in my life. Some are hilarious. Some just have amazing art. And let’s not forget… muscle cars. These books could be for gifts for men or teens, or gifts by men.

Here are Color Planer’s top picks for the best adult coloring books for men.

Doodle Invasion

Kerby Rosanes’ work is bound to please those who enjoy sci-fi, space, and humor. You could spend hours trying to find all the things in these 50 pages of doodle art. The amazing detail, adventure stories, worlds within worlds, and sci-fi vibe by Zifflin (writer) and Rosanes is sure to get a guy diving into galaxies of color.

Did someone say mechanical Hadron Collider mandala? Fantastic Machines harnesses the energy of retro and futuristic machinery in a coloring book perfect for men who geek out on the inner workings of things. 58 pages of art rev up your senses. Retro and futuristic meet here. Pinball, airplanes, space stations, and circuit boards bring out the artist/enginer in you. Beautifully illustrated by bestselling author/artist Steve McDonald.

 

#DADLIFE: A Manly Adult Coloring Book

Arr, matey. What’s more manly than carrying the heir/heiress to the throne in a flowered  baby sling? Dads everywhere will hide in their man caves for hours with this tongue-in-cheek coloring book of fatherhood.

 

American Muscle Cars, 1960-1975 (Dover History Coloring Book)

Artist Bruce LaFontaine’s perfect renderings of 44 legendary Muscle Cars puts you in the driver’s seat for a trip down memory lane. These were the coolest rides you could cruise in in the early 1960s and ’70s. From the T-bird to the Trans Am, relive the Mad Men days with these most macho vehicles. Each is shown in a setting such as in a neighborhood or business district. The book includes captions with interesting factoids.

The Official A Game of Thrones Coloring Book

Fans of the fantasy series no longer have to settle for watching its sumptuous colors on TV–now they can put them on paper. Meticulous, intricate drawings capture the universe of Game of Thrones. Famed illustrators including Tomislav Tomic, interviewed on our blog, contributed art. This book is a collector’s item with 45 exclusive pages. So guys, get out your red and gold pencils and dive into fantasy.

 

Color Me Drunk: A Drinking and Drawing Activity Book

This hilarious drawing/activity book even comes with a set of beer goggles. It has coloring plus more, so might be the perfect gift or coffee (beer) table book. Activities include decoding drunkenly sent texts, doodling regrettable tattoos, drawing a straight line drunk as well as sober, and “Wino Bingo.” Color Me Drunk is a perfect way to while away that hangover or night in the slammer.

Colin Thompson Funtastic 72-Page Adult Colouring Book (Ravensburger)

This whopping 72-page book brings the art of Colin thompson, prolific writer and illustrator and one of the world’s top puzzle artists, to your home. It has grayscale art, giving the images extra dimensionality. Designs are on both sides of the page, so you may want to stick with colored pencils. The binding is not glued, but sewn, so you will be able to lay it flat. Amazing architecture, machines, and more. Check out all of Thomson’s works!

Grimm’s Fairy Tales Adult Coloring Book (Zenoscope)

Like comics? This book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales has a bunch of sexy ladies drawn by top Zenoscope comic book talent. Truly a treat for comic book lovers and men who like a bit of sauce with their fairy tales.

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Unicorns Are Jerks: A Coloring Book Exposing the Cold, Hard, Sparkly Truth

Artist Nicole Lorenz has grabbed this cool humor trend by the horn. Filled with rainbows and irony, it will make your man learn to love purple fur. It’s also great for people who aren’t into coloring complicated designs. Better than a Starbucks Unicorn frappe.

 

This Bronx cheer of a book will have him laughing. This popular adult coloring book has pages with drawn text with charming sentiments such as “Meh” and “Let That Sh– Go.” The designs are fairly simple, so they can be colored quickly. Cheaper than professional anger management!

 

Coloring Is The New Meditation 1st Edition: Beautiful, Intricate, Hand-drawn Illustrations for an Absolute Immersion in Coloring Relaxation

On a calmer note, patient, sensitive guys will love these amazing odes to nature and the spirit by artist Kent Chua. Adult coloring books for men are often simpler in style, but this is an exception. Chua creates complex, puzzle-like patterns out of scenes such as a mass of butterflies or treetop. The artistry here is in the stratosphere. Great for guys who love art and the natural world–thank goodness there are men like that.

 

 

Of course, if you’re looking for there are plenty of those on Amazon (warning: whimsical but very much for adults!). Coloring books take on pretty much any subject!

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Free printable grayscale coloring page – fairy

Please enjoy this free printable grayscale coloring page of a beautiful fairy surrounded by flowers and trees, specially made for Color Planer readers. It’s OK to share it and link to it but please don’t use it commercially or distribute it en masse.

Thumbnail of free fairy grayscale printable

Click link to download hi-res PDF: fairy_grayscale

See our article on grayscale coloring books for adults

 

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Butterfly coloring pages for adults or kids: free printables

Butterfly coloring pages: free printable PDF downloads

Please enjoy these free coloring pages of butterflies for adults or kids specially made for Color Planer. Coloring pictures of butterflies are great whatever season! Enjoy a high level of detail in this vector art.

Here you can see the thumbnails.  Click on the text links (they say butterfly coloring page 1 and 2) to download the high-res PDFs (8.5 x 11″).

 

 

download:
butterflycoloringpage1

 

download:
butterflycoloringpage2

 

 

 

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Grayscale coloring books for adults: our top picks

What is grayscale coloring?

Most coloring books have black-and-white line drawings where you fill the white space with color. Grayscale coloring books are done in shades of gray. Instead of white space, you have tones. They may look like a black-and white-photo, or black-and-white TV, if you remember those. The shades of the grayscale coloring pages go from white to black. The idea is similar to doing an underpainting in traditional oil painting.

Artists can use grayscale coloring pages to get very realistic effects. In traditional Western painting, realism is attained through tonal relationships. Objects closer to use may appear darker, and farther objects fade into the distance. You can instantly perceive space with tones alone. If you studied art, you were probably asked to paint or draw grayscale tonal studies. Grayscale is a great way to understand how paintings work to express space.

Grayscale coloring books for adults

Grayscale coloring books tend to be more “realistic” than regular coloring books. They are nearly always aimed at adults or older kids. The goal is often to make more realistic-looking art. But it’s not a paint-by-numbers kind of thing. You can experiment with colors and learn a a lot. It’s a lot easier to have textures in the finished product, which can be challenging with black-and-white.

Colored pencils and marker work best for greyscale coloring pages. You don’t want something too opaque, as letting the gray values shine through will really pull together the final image. Opaque pens are good for accent areas. For marker, remember to put a card under the sheet to avoid bleedthrough.

These books don’t do that well with watercolor. It’s best to practice grayscale painting techniques on thicker paper. You can copy the pages onto heavier watercolor paper to do that if you wish.

The darker the gray tones, the less color you need to add.

I favor adult grayscale coloring books and pages that are expressly made by the artist to be used with grayscale, rather than made from a photo. However, some of the photo-derived books can lead to fine results. I’ve tried to find a balance here between realism, whimsy, and fantasy.

If you want to try one out, we have one right here (the second image). Free grayscale coloring page

Here’s grayscale coloring tutorial by artist Nikki Burnette on using colored pencils for grayscale coloring. Her YouTube channel has lots more grayscale coloring techniques.

Here are 8 of Color Planer’s favorite grayscale coloring books for adults available on Amazon.

 

A World of Fairies – A Fantasy Grayscale Coloring Book for Adults: Flower Fairies, and Celestial Fairies by Molly Harrison Fantasy Art

 

Gorgeous fairies, including flower and celestial fairies grace this magical book. You’ll be pulled into their delicate world. Twenty-five fairy images should keep you busy. Try some gel or glitter pens in areas you want to highlight or for accents. Once you get done, check out Molly Harrison’s other books.

International Amazon

 

Spellbinding Images: Grayscale Coloring for Beginners

Nikki Burnette’s Spellbinding Images is bewitching fun. Aimed at beginners, the tones are darker here, therefore you need very little color over them. This is meant for beginners. There’s another version of the book with lighter grayscale tones for more advanced colorists.

International Amazon

 

Funny Animals Grayscale

Wide-eyed cats, flappy-eared elephants and wacky snails fill 25 pages and will give you many hours of fun. My favorite is the chubby chicken. Try wild colors, like the pink elephant. If you’re a humor and animal lover, Funny Animals by Alena Lazereva is not to be missed.

International Amazon

 

Mandalas in Grayscale

Mandalas, with their long history as contemplative, spiritual art, are a mainstay in adult coloring books. This collection of grayscale mandalas by Jack R. Plaxe will give you a whole new way to think about color for them.

International Amazon

 

 

Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures by Nicole Stocker is a photo-derived book with carefully chosen photos that make great grayscale coloring pages, with various textures. You can try to replicate nature, or go your own way with the colors. This book has 48 images and is printed on premium paper that’s 100-lb. and acid-free, so if you’re careful you could try some watercolor. Pages are perforated for easy removal.

International Amazon

 

Adorable Animals

We think these animals and settings by Jane Maday are sweet and adorable. Classic traditional, cheery scenes bring you to a calm and innocent place where kittens roam. The fine textures in this are a great opportunity to have fun with surfaces such as fur, wood, and metal.

International Amazon

 

Beautiful Fairy Tales

The delicate style of these drawings by the prolific Ruth Sanderson caught our eye. Fairy-tale princesses never go out of style, and the sumptuous costumes, interiors, and lighting give your coloring a good workout. You’ll end up with a magnificent picture storybook.

International Amazon

 

Dark Skies

International Amazon

If you’re more into the morbid side of things, these fun, stylish grayscale images by Teri Sherman may have you adding lots of black. A great Halloween choice, or perfect for any time, if you’re in that kind of mood. Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses, zodiac, and mythical beasts adorn and haunt these most interesting pages.

So don’t delay, color your world with a grayscale coloring book today!

 

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Coloring book review: ME TIME by Leska Harmaty

Interview with Nicholas Filbert Chandrawienata

Hello adult coloring fans! Today we bring you interview with the creator of adult coloring book called Fantasia! I’m sure you already know who we are talking about. An artist from Jakarta, Indonesia! Meet Nicholas.

 

Q: First of all tell us little something about yourself.

Hi! My name is Nicholas Filbert Chandrawienata, an illustrator from Indonesia, I have published some coloring books such as Fantasia and Lets Color Love!

Q: How did you start to color? When did this attraction begin?

I started drawing since I was really young, until now I worked as an illustrator. So it came naturally for me.

Q: Do you use coloring as a small getaway from the real world?

Drawing and coloring has always been part of me pretty much my whole life, so I do not see it as a getaway but rather a way of life.

Q: How do you prepare before coloring?

I try to prepare my mindset before anything else, I always remind myself to have fun!

Q: Where do you get the ideas? What inspired you?

I get inspired when I travel to different places around the world! It is so refreshing to see a lot of stuff that we have never seen before!

Q: Describe your illustrations in three little words

It is a hard question! Probably Delicate, Gentle, and Classy

Q: How would you describe your workplace?

Really messy!

Q: Do you work with a team? If so, how many people you work with?

It depends on the project, I worked in a studio before, so most of the project are team based, but now as a freelance illustrator I mostly work solo.

Q: In your opinion, why does your illustrations appeal so much to adults?

I thinks this question is better asked to people that liked my work But for me personally maybe it is because I give 100 percent to every picture I draw.

Q: What are your favorite supplies for coloring? Do you always use the same or you like to experiment with it?

For my illustration projects, I mostly color my project digitally in Photoshop.

Q: Why do you prefer working with digitally as opposed to pencils?

For the industry there are some advantages for working digitally, for example it is easier to edit the picture to the client’s preference but for my personal project I prefer to work traditionally

Q: Do you have special techniques and color mixes that you’d like to share with us? Any tips and tricks?

I am not the best colourist myself   But based on my experience in the industry is to learn the basics of colour, but most importantly is to enjoy the process because it will reflect on the result

Q: What challenges (if any) did you face in making your coloring book for adults and can you give other artist any tips for solving similar problems?

The challenges would be to keep the high quality in each and every pages of the book, my tips is to keep yourself interested and loving what you do, and for me personally its by travelling.

Q: Do you test your illustrations on a specific group of coloring community members before publishing?

I did not do that because there will be a lot of feedback that will influence the result of the book, for me, as long as you work your best and have fun, people will share the same feeling and enjoy your work

Q: If you could choose only one of your finished coloring page which one would it be? And why?

To be honest, I have never coloured my own coloring book haha!

This is colored by Kim Mazyck – read the interview here. 

Q: What’s your favorite thing from your latest coloring book?

My favourite thing is to see a lot of people enjoying my work, to see coloured images of your drawings from around the world is really out of this world.

 

Q: How do you feel about the success of your coloring books for adults?

Nothing but happiness, when I started creating my first book, all I want is people to at least enjoy whenever they colour my book.

Q: What drives the adult coloring trend according to your experience?

Because most people draw or color from their early age, and we cannot separate ourself from art. And this trend is another art form. It can be done pretty much anywhere, anytime and most importantly it is really fun!

Q: Do you have a favorite coloring book author? How did he/she earn your admirations?

I would like to say I love Kerby Rosanes aka Sketchy Stories work because I can feel his enjoyment in his work!

 

Q: What would you like to see more in adult coloring book world?

More appreciation for this art form, because I think its really enjoyable and it can still grow

Q: And last but not least, where can we find your artwork?

I am currently still working on my website, so for now you can find me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickfilbert/?hl=e

 

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Here is the Flip Through of  Fantasia by Nicholas Filbert Chandrawienata

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You can order your copy on Amazon: Fantasia: Adult Coloring Book

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Hope you like the interview and coloring book!

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