Colouring book for adults with a desi touch

An avid doodler and a great admirer of Indian folk art and traditions, Priyadarshini loves to experiment with simple quirky things that happen in everyday life. The city-based visual artist has come up with an interesting adult colouring book based on the theme India. In a candid chat with us, the youngster opens up about her book and how the adult colouring book has become a popular remedy for stress relief.

“For my final graduation assignment, I decided to illustrate a colouring book for adults and went looking for the same. I found plenty of illustrations around the theme of countries like China, Japan and Australia, etc., but not a single book illustrated on the theme of India. That’s how I came up with the colouring book titled This is India Only,” says Priyadarshini.

The book consists of 22 hand-drawn illustrations inspired purely by quirky things that happen only in India. “The book revolves mainly around four themes — Indian wedding, decorated trucks, decorated animals like elephant, horse and lastly, doodles based on signages, Indian cuisine, architecture, etc. I have also tried to bring the humour of life in the illustrations,” she explains.

Each page from the book can be detached and framed and the paper used is of a very high quality and is friendly with almost all the mediums like watercolours, colour pencils, sketches, markers, etc. The colouring book is also rich in its artistic form – each page is inspired by Indian folk art forms like Madhubani, Pichwai, Gond, Pattachitra and Kalamakari.

The youngster, who is currently interning with DakshinaChitra, likens colouring to a form of meditation. “It does not require any special skill.

It’s just something which we have done throughout our childhood. But now as we are getting busy with our everyday life, only the nostalgic memories of colouring remain. Remember how much joy we received when our KG teachers used to appreciate our colouring and drawing with a ‘star’ or ‘good’ remark? Colouring helps you relax and keep calm, when you are back home after a tiring day at work, or when you are bored and in need of a stress-buster. It will also help you explore your inner creativity and make yourself more efficient and can be used as a detox against gadget addiction. Scientifically, it has been proved that colour therapy helps to rejuvenate your brain and make you more active,” Priyadarshini remarks.

Apart from colouring books, she has also put her illustrations on to colourable mugs and canvases.

“I am planning to launch more products which will revolve around the theme of colouring. Also, I am in search of textile printers where I can launch colouring shirts, scarves, pouches, etc,” sums up the artist.