Coloring Archives - Pearl Lewis

Headhunting Calendar for 2018

27 October 201721 October 2017 by Dr Lewis

Daily Headhunting

You have to check a calendar every now and again, right? You might as well derive maximum health benefit from this tedious task. Laughter is good for you, isn’t it? So a healthy calendar might throw some laughs your way. And challenging your mind is good for you, is it not? So a healthy calendar might exercise your mind from time to time with questions and puzzles that stimulate your problem-solving skills. And broadening your vocabulary is not too bad for you either, right? So a healthy calendar might get you thinking about words and idioms that you haven’t thought about in years, or which you have never heard before.

Healthy Calendars

The HEADHUNTING 2018 CALENDAR does all this and more. The wall-sized calendar is illustrated with bizarre “heads” from my HEADHUNTER Collection of line drawings. These large-sized illustrations are perfect for coloring, and will appeal to people of all ages. If you want an extra dose of healthy on top of the good stuff already mentioned, pick up some colored markers and store them near your calendar. (If you keep your calendar on your fridge, you can glue small craft magnets to your favorite colored markers and keep the markers on the fridge alongside the calendar.) Coloring is a relaxing, therapeutic activity that your body and mind can benefit from at any time. Add a bit of color to your calendar while you wait for your first cup of the coffee to brew. Add a bit more as you wait for supper to cook. Then stop by and add yet another dash when you steal into the kitchen for that midnight snack. You are free to take all month to color one head! To learn more about the health benefits of coloring, read this article about the effect of art on healing. If you don’t like color, stick with the uncolored line art, but if you want EXTRA BENEFIT from this calendar, go ahead and color like crazy.

What can you expect to find inside the HEADHUNTING 2018 CALENDAR?

This is a 12-month calendar in the landscape 11″ x 8.5″ format. As you turn the page to each new month, you will encounter a new “head-focused” word or number activity that is integrated with a peculiar (yes, the art may seem a little odd to those who don’t use their imaginations too often) head illustration. If you want to get aHEAD, then you have to get your HEAD into top gear. This calendar is all about helping you do that in a light-hearted, low stress kind of way. This calendar involves the kind of head-scratching that the whole family can enjoy. Challenge each other to use the new words or idioms you discover. See who can solve that month’s puzzle first. And, for those who just NEED to know if they are right (you know who you are), you can find the puzzle solutions right here on this blog. The solutions will be posted in the relevant month. Just relax and take your time, else it may end up feeling like an exam.

Find Calendar Puzzle Solutions Right Here

If you are not in the habit of checking this blog regularly, do yourself a favor and subscribe. There is a SUBSCRIBE button on this very page, so its as easy as clicking a button. Subscribe and you will get the puzzle solutions delivered straight to your email inbox. Ahh… yes! Convenience!

Where to Find the HEADHUNTING CALENDAR

The HEADHUNTING 2018 CALENDAR is already available from the online Lulu Bookstore. Get your Christmas shopping completed early this year. You can scratch everyone off the list in one quick shopping trip. Want to leave your colleagues, parents, besties, neighbors, aunts, and uncles unsure whether they should scratch their noggin or laugh their nut off? HEADHUNTING is for everyone, so join the hunt!

Headhunting 2018 Coloring and Puzzle Calendar by Pearl R. Lewis

BLESSED: New Videos

27 October 201726 June 2017 by Dr Lewis

Blessed Coloring for the Soul Coloring Book for Adults and Teens by Pearl R. Lewis — Blessed: Coloring for the Soul by Pearl R. Lewis

BLESSED Coloring for the Soul Goes to Video

BLESSED videos evolved naturally from the color-filled pages of the scripture-rich coloring book. Pages from BLESSED: Coloring for the Soul have been featured in TWO new YouTube videos. (If you have posted your own videos that feature or include any of my coloring pages, I would love to hear from you.) In case you have not yet acquired a copy of this book, you may be unaware that “BLESSED: Coloring for the Soul” is an adult-friendly, abstract-styled Christian coloring book that uses scripture as its foundation. All the scriptures in this book revolve around blessing and the word “blessed”. This book can be used exclusively as a teen or adult coloring book, but is also especially useful as a Bible study aid for those who prefer a more creative approach to their meditation or study time.

Believe without Seeing Graphics

Believe Without Seeing is the first BLESSED video posted by Epsiwel. It focuses on one of the scriptures used in the book: John 20:29 – “Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; BLESSED are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (NIV) This video uses two of the images from section three of the book – there are ten sections. The background image is presented in different colors throughout the video, while the framed scripture image remains uncolored for contrast.

Believe Without Seeing Soundtrack

The music for this video (Duet 91 from the Celebrations CD) was written and recorded by Eddie Lewis. The track is available as a single from CD Baby.

FRUIT of the SPIRIT Kindness Video

6 March 201810 June 2017 by Dr Lewis

The FRUIT of the SPIRIT Colouring Book is featured in a new video. The video showcases a single page – the page entitled KINDNESS. In the video, you will see multiple variations of the coloring of this KINDNESS page. All of the colored pages used for this video are the result of digitally coloring the KINDNESS e-page (available from this website’s store). The physical paperback (with its easy to color 11″ x 8.5″ sized pages) is available from Lulu.

BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS

The illustrations for FRUIT of the SPIRIT COLOURING BOOK are largely hand-drawn. If you look closely at the magnified images in the video, you may notice small variations in the line density and width of the black outlines in the illustration. These inconsistencies are consistent with the use of a real ink pen on physical paper for the original drawings.

Computer-generated coloring book pages tend to show perfectly formed lines. You will not see thickness variations. There will be no wiggles and squiggles that typically come from moving a real pen across real paper. Even high quality paper that appears smooth to the naked eye offers the rough terrain of tiny furrows and hillocks for a pen tip to traverse. No paper (unless it is virtual) is perfectly smooth.

The human hand does not exert perfectly uniform pressure as it moves a pen across a surface. As the pressure we apply to the pen and the paper changes, so the line quality. The result is a flow of ink that narrows and widens ever so slightly in response to the pressure changes. While computers can be set to mimic hand-drawing (with all its inherent quirkiness), many coloring book illustrators who design digitally opt for the computer’s default: PERFECT lines with no apparent human flaws.

COLLECT ALL THE FRUIT of the SPIRIT

If you are interested in any of the other individual FRUIT of the SPIRIT page packages, you can find them in this website’s store or use the links on the spiritual fruit below:

PEACE

SELF-CONTROL

LOVE

LONGSUFFERING

KINDNESS

JOY

GOODNESS

GENTLENESS

FAITHFULNESS

GALATIONS 5:22-23

The FRUIT of the SPIRT Colouring Book is a creative interpretation of the FRUIT of the SPIRIT mentioned in Galations 5:22-23. Each characteristic (e.g. goodness, joy, etc.) is associated with a unique, imaginative piece of fruit shown in cross-section (i.e. imagine a strange fruit sliced open just as you might cut an orange in half). What might this new fruit look like inside? This INSIDE VIEW of each fruit is what is captured in the almost abstract line illustrations that invite a relaxing, meditative colouring experience. There is detail galore for those who like it. While this book was created for adults, it is suitable for colouring enthusiasts of all ages. With it’s almost “retro-abstract” feel, the book is a great way for teens and older children to explore this scripture passage in a creative and colorful way.

Add your own splash of colour to full page, abstract illustrations focused on LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL. Each of the nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit also has a dedicated Bible study page (which comes free with the individual e-page package) where you can add colour while you explore scriptures that will deepen your understanding of the fruit of the Spirit. Turn your personal, family, or church group Bible study into a colourful, creative adventure with this FRUIT of the SPIRIT Colouring Book.

CAPE TOWN Video

6 March 20188 June 2017 by Dr Lewis

The “Cape Town: Colour the Rainbow Nation” coloring book has a new promo video. This is a short video focusing on only two themes from the book: the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden and the Kaapse Klopse Street Parade.

CAPE TOWN: the Mother City

Cape Town, the Mother City of South Africa, has roots that extend back to the seventeenth century. While its history is preserved in centuries-old architecture, the city continues to grow, evolve, and make new history with each passing year. As a culturally diverse city, Cape Town has much to offer its visitors and locals. Consider the majestic mountains, pristine beaches, vibrant music scene, art galleries, theaters, shopping, and opportunities to indulge in exotic foods, and it quickly becomes obvious why Cape Town is the most popular tourist destination in Africa.

CAPE TOWN: the Coloring Book

“Cape Town: Colour the Rainbow Nation” is a colouring adventure for those who love to explore. Whether you are a proud Capetonian or have yet to visit the city, “Cape Town: Colour the Rainbow Nation” is your opportunity to explore and make memories in the most colourful of ways. In addition to a few factual titbits and the odd urban legend, you will find a variety of themed colouring pages. Cape Town has so much to offer that this book only captures a few of the city’s many highlights:

Table Mountain

Lion’s Head

Devil’s Peak

Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden (see VIDEO)

Cape Town City Hall

Castle of Good Hope

Cape Town’s Suburbs

Table Mountain’s Aerial Cableway

Ethnic Art

Mountain Baboons

Cape Peninsula

Cape Town on the Map

The Kaapse Klopse Street Parade (see VIDEO)

COLOUR the RAINBOW NATION

“Colour the Rainbow Nation” (#ColorTheRainbowNation) is a celebration of all things South African: the people, the places, and the experiences that help us remember the past while we continue to plant seeds of hope for the future. Nelson Mandela once described South Africans as being as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld. Whether you are rooted in this beautiful country or just wish you were, “Colour the Rainbow Nation” invites you to celebrate South Africa with your own splash of colour.

The paperback and the e-book (PDF) versions of CAPE TOWN: Colour the Rainbow Nation are available from Lulu and a variety of other online book sellers.

Four Ways to Use Coloring Pages this Christmas

6 March 20185 December 2016 by Dr Lewis

Turn your MERRY CHRISTMAS family coloring pages into gift wrap paper - #ZisubuArtique Coloring is nice to do, but what do you do with your masterpiece when you have filled the page with a rainbow of color? Do you throw the page away? File it in some dark drawer never to be seen again? Keep it visible in the hopes that someone will notice your artistic genius and compliment you? You invested a lot of effort into filling the page with color, so it only seems right to do something creative with your masterpiece. But what?

4 WAYS to USE COLORING PAGES

Here are FOUR ideas that will work for using and/preserving any colored page, but are particularly well suited to Christmas themed paper such as the MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY COLORING PAGES from Zisubu Artique. Have fun celebrating the countdown to Christmas with these easy-to-implement ideas.

1 – MAKE TABLE PLACE MATS

Many local office supply stores offer lamination as a service. Take your family’s masterpieces and have them laminated in the heaviest coating your budget will allow. (Don’t forget to ask each family member to sign and date the back of their page before you take the trip to the store. That way, next year when you pull out the placemats for December, you will be able to reminisce together about your masterpieces.) The laminated pages make unusual and festive place mats for your dining table throughout the year, but especially at Christmas.

2 – MAKE CHRISTMAS GIFT WRAP

A letter-sized (or A4) page is just the right size for gift wrapping a tiny gift. If you are giving small items (e.g. plastic gift cards or small candy bars or toys), they can easily be wrapped in a colorful page. Turn the unwrapping session into a fun guessing game, by getting each gift recipient to guess who colored their wrapping paper. If you are only wrapping BIG BOXES this Christmas, consider wrapping the boxes in simple kraft or other monotone paper. Cut the undecorated border away from the colored region of the page. Glue the vibrantly colored part of the page onto each of the six sides of the plain-paper covered big box to produce unusually decorated gift wrap.

3- MAKE A STRING ART GALLERY

Remember those strings strung above the fireplace on which people would hang the Christmas greeting cards they received in the mail? Borrow from that idea and create a string gallery for your family’s Christmas greeting masterpieces. Use colored clothespins to hang the pages from a line, and create a festive “art gallery” in your living room.

4 – CREATE A JUNK JOURNAL

Junk journals (also called dream diaries, keepsake albums, traveler notebook, etc.) are fun books that you can fill with all sorts of ephemera (that’s scrapbook talk for odds and ends that mean something to you e.g. newspaper cuttings, ticket to the first movie you ever watched with your husband-to-be, recipes, quotes you love, dreams you cherish, etc.). You can think of a junk journal as a scrapbook with none of the OCD rules of real scrapbooking. Create a junk journal to document this Christmas countdown and cover your journal with one of colored pages. Use other colored pages to make unusual interior pages for your journal.

COLORING IS AN INVESTMENT

Coloring is good for you, but it is also a time investment. Don’t toss your colored pages in the trash. Invest a couple extra minutes this festive season, and turn your coloring efforts into something useful that will start conversations and bring back memories in years to come.

Colorizing CHRISTMAS with Ready-to-Color Christmas Greeting Cards

6 March 201824 November 2016 by Dr Lewis

CHRISTMAS IS BUSY

Christmas is coming. Oh, don’t we know it! One look at the calendar got me thinking about our family’s Christmas card list – not an email list, mind you, but an old fashioned list of names and addresses. This paper list brings together people we like to bless with a genuine paper Christmas card. That, in case you don’t know, is the kind of card that required a tree to sacrifice its life, so it’s a special thing.

It is astounding how quickly people ditched this tradition of sending paper cards in lieu of a generic email one-liner sent at the last possible moment. Yes, postage isn’t free (but you could trade one cup of Starbucks coffee this year for quite a few stamps). Yes, some places have unreliable postal services (and perhaps some of your greeting cards may not be delivered, but what is life without a wee bit of risk). No, you don’t have less time in the day than anyone else. Everyone everywhere is BUSY. (If you are not busy most of the time, take a moment to share your secret for extra hours in the day in the comment section below – I know we all need to find more time in the day.) Here is my challenge for you this Christmas: how about embracing a new thought this festive season?

Consider this idea: This year I will spare a few minutes to send a physical greeting card to someone I care about. Is that a crazy idea?

READY-TO-COLOR CHRISTMAS GREETING CARDS

For those creative folk who have a few extra minutes to invest in others, as well as in their own sense of well-being, ready-to-color greeting cards are ideal. Buying a few packs of ready-to-color cards should definitely go on your “Christmas preparation list”. (Santa could use an efficient “list” person like you on his staff!)

Ready-to-color Christmas cards are a lot like traditional greeting cards. The big difference is that the color in the feature illustration is applied by you, and not by a printing press. You can use paint, markers, or pencils to add color to printed coloring cards. With digital coloring cards, you will use software to fill spaces in the digital card with color, and then you can print your finished work.

NEW CHRISTMAS DESIGNS

Recently, I was busy working on a new range of coloring card designs when a customer approached me to ask for Christmas versions of the cards. I had not initially planned to release any coloring Christmas cards this year, but the customer’s request got me thinking about how Christmas coloring cards could be more than just greeting cards. I imagined how a Christmas card coloring activity could provide hours of fun for families, friends, church groups and more. So I put aside my planned designs for a while, and improvised some Christmas designs for cards. Zisubu Artique now stocks sets of coloring Christmas cards.

PRINT AND COLOR GREETING CARDS

For those who like to do all their crafting from scratch, there are the “print and color” Christmas cards. You simply print the PDF card pages on cardstock – each page has two cards – and you are on your way to making hundreds of Christmas greeting cards (or just a few, if your Christmas list isn’t too long).

Not everyone likes to wrestle with their home printer – I know mine is rather temperamental about processing card stock. (Some days is plays nicely, and others it makes a big mess of the card projects I try to print.) If you don’t want to waste time loading cardstock one page at a time, printing, cutting the cards, going shopping for envelopes, and then FINALLY sitting down to relax with a coloring activity, the “ready to color” Christmas cards are perfect for you. The price of the “ready to color” cards includes all the craft work, so all that is left for you is to open your box of crayons and start coloring.

START A NEW TREND

Start a new trend in your family or business this year. Send Christmas cards that are colored by your family, your friends, or your business’ staff members. Or send an uncolored coloring card with a little note that encourages the recipient to sit back, relax, and enjoy coloring as they count down to Christmas Day.

LOOK INSIDE the COLOR THE TRUMPET CAROLS Christmas Coloring Book

6 March 201822 November 2016 by Dr Lewis

LOOK BEFORE YOU BUY

Who buys a book without looking inside? I like to know what I am paying for, especially if I must place my order online. So it wouldn’t surprise me if you also prefer to know ahead of time what to expect when your order arrives in your mailbox. If you are one of those people who loves surprises, DON’T watch this video. Just go right ahead and order a bunch of these Christmas gifts, because they will make great stocking fillers for your family and friends. (Your family is probably tired of finding socks in their stockings – be different this year – try a new type of stocking filler that won’t be so easily forgotten.)

LOOK INSIDE BOOK VIDEO

If you like a little more certainty in your life, there is now a video (see below) which will let you flip through the coloring book part of the #ColortheCarols COMBO. The video also includes a few clips from the Christmas carol album (Unadorned Trumpet Carols by Eddie Lewis) which forms the music part of the #ColortheCarols COMBO. Use the comment section below to let me know what you think of the coloring book and the music.

COMBO vs BIG COMBO

You can buy the COLOR the CAROLS COMBO (which includes the COLOR the TRUMPET CAROLS coloring book AND the UNADORNED TRUMPET CAROLS album on CD) from the online Tiger Music Store. This store offers a regular COMBO and a BIG COMBO, which includes all the things you need to get started with coloring – like a box of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, a ready-to-color Christmas card/envelope.

Colorable Christmas Cards in the Color the Carols BIG COMBO

26 October 2016 by Dr Lewis

Colorable Christmas Cards in the Color the Carols BIG COMBO Christmas Gift Set The Color the Carols BIG COMBO is a sensory experience that focuses on coloring and listening. This COMBO includes a colorable Christmas card, in addition to a Christmas-themed, adult-friendly coloring book. This post addresses some of the questions asked about the Christmas cards included in the BIG COMBO.

1. How many Christmas cards are in each BIG COMBO?
The BIG COMBO packs are created by including ONE A2-sized colorable card from a set of my Christmas designs. Although the theme is still Christmas, these designs are not repeats of what you will find in the COMBO’s COLOR the TRUMPET CAROLS Christmas coloring book. Each BIG COMBO has a randomly selected card design, so there is no way to guess which card is in your pack until you open your package.
Is there a message inside the card?
Each card design incorporates a Christmas-focused scripture on the front, and the card is left blank inside so you can add your own personal message. The designs are easy to color, so feel free to pass the coloring task on to one of the younger members of your household, if you don’t have time to fill the card with color. You might even twist the little someone’s arm to write the message inside for you. Seeing your child’s handwriting in a greeting card can make the experience of receiving a card in the mail an extra special experience for a loved one.
“What will the design on this mystery card look like?”
I thought it best to let the set of six designs speak for themselves. Two of the six designs are in landscape format, and four are portrait styled designs. There are angels, Mary with the baby Jesus, word play abstract designs, the wise men, and a three-panel nativity scene. The COLOR the CAROLS BIG COMBO will only contain one randomly selected, colorable card. If you would like to purchase the complete set of cards, they are available from my ETSY store. (I packed six designs in the set, so the whole family could sit around the kitchen table and color together. If your family has more than six members, order a couple of packs, invite the neighbors, and turn it into a coloring party. Or cut costs by printing a set of colorable cards on your home printer. )

National Color Day – 22 October

22 October 2016 by Dr Lewis

Happy National Color Day! Today we celebrate color, how it influences us, and how it allows us to express ourselves. Ditch the black and white outfit for today, and wear something vibrant – choose a color that says, “I am alive and loving life!” Then take another bold step and use color to be creative. #NationalColorDay is a day to indulge in activities like painting or coloring. If you have never colored as an adult, today is the ideal day to give this relaxing activity a try. You can try your hand at coloring, and it doesn’t need to cost you a cent. Feel free to download a FREE coloring page here, pull out that dusty box of crayons, and fill spaces with crazy blends of color. Perhaps share the LOVE – invite a friend or family member to color with you.

Or turn over a new leaf today, and invest in your wellbeing. Challenge yourself to 30 days of coloring, starting today. Download a meditative, scripture-inspired coloring book that lets you soak up inspirational scriptures while you start your journey into the world of colorful expression. Or take a moment today to place an order for a physical coloring book – for yourself or as a gift to inspire someone else.

How we experience life is often the result of how we to choose to see it. You can choose to view the world as a miserable, unkind, grey world – or you can choose to paint over the greyness with your choice of vivid colors, and learn to LOVE LIFE. You choose.

To celebrate #NationalColorDay, here is a video (MOVING in MIRACLES by Eddie Lewis) that let’s you flow with a river of color:

MERRY CHRISTMAS Family Coloring Pages

6 March 201821 October 2016 by Dr Lewis

Coloring is not just for kids PLUS it’s good for your health. How many times have you heard that said recently? You know it’s true, but your nine-year old is adamant that he is too old to color, and dad… well, dad thinks he outgrew crayons before the turn of the century. Then grandma wants to color, but she says the adult coloring books are too detailed for her eyeglass prescription strength. The solution?

FAMILY TIME

The MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY COLORING PAGES were created to bring families together around the kitchen table (or on the lounge floor if you don’t have a big table). The set of pages uses just one basic illustration built on the words: MERRY CHRISTMAS. The basic illustration is further evolved to include three additional skill levels. The result is an easy-to-print, coloring activity that is suitable for the whole family. Print one page for each member of the family. Choose the page that is appropriate for each person based on their age, attention span, dexterity, and ability to take on a challenge.

BEGINNER LEVEL

BEGINNER (Level 1): This is a basic, broad-lined illustration built on the words “MERRY CHRISTMAS”. There are large open areas to color, and the shapes are a mix of gently rounded and facetted. This illustration can be comfortably colored with wax crayons and colored pencils or markers. This illustration is best for the youngest members of the family or those with impaired eyesight.

INTERMEDIATE LEVELS

INTERMEDIATE I (Level 2): The BEGINNER illustration is upgraded to include some smaller areas. The use of wax crayons may become more challenging with this illustration. This illustration is best for colorists who are comfortable with staying inside lines and need a little more challenge than a BEGINNER colorist does.

INTERMEDIATE II (Level 3): The BEGINNER illustration now has many small regions begging for color. Fine pointed pens or pencils work best for this illustration.

ADVANCED LEVEL

ADVANCED (Level 4): This page takes the BEGINNER design to new heights. You will find LOTS of small details to color on this page. The small, open areas seen in the other illustrations now boast small patterns and embellishments. If you have a family member that thinks coloring is for little kids, THIS is the page you hand to them. This is a very detailed page and likely to be overwhelming for the youngest members of the family.

MAKE IT A GAME

Get the family together, open that extra big box of colored pencils (or invest in a couple of 12-pencil sets so there is no fighting at the table), and distribute the page assignments. The entire family will be working on the same illustration, just in varying degrees of detail, so everyone can feel that they are part of the same project. The activity can be made more fun by adding restrictions for the older family members. For example, let the youngest colorist choose the colors of the letters. Everyone else must stick to this color choice for their bases colors, but are challenged to use their imagination to integrate those colors in a creative and eye-catching way. If you have ideas for creative coloring restrictions that make this activity more enjoyable for the teens and adults, please add them in the comment section below.

CHRISTMAS BOOT CAMP

Coloring together stimulates conversation. Have you been longing for family chats, but have a family that is too glued to their phones to remember the archaic activity called conversation? Announce a Christmas Preparation Boot Camp (just don’t call it “boot camp” or they may take to the hills) for the family, set aside two hours after a weekend dinner (those “I am so bored” rainy days work best for families that are new to coloring), and just do it. Inevitably, conversation will flow. It’s difficult to maintain silence for a couple of hours when you are using your hands for more than just “swiping and clicking”. It might start with “stop stealing my red crayon!“, but eventually the debate about which color to use may lead to other more interesting topics. Give it a try. Download your MERRY CHRISTMAS FAMILY COLORING PAGES from Zisubu Artique.