啓發孩子創造力 治癒的塗色書
Coloring books used to be an entry point into creativity for kids. But now they are becoming a viral craze among grown-ups who, similarly, don’t think they can really draw.
原本用來啓發孩子創造力的塗色書現在卻成爲不善繪畫的大人們的新寵。“Secret Garden”, a coloring book for adults designed by Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford, topped the charts of Amazon’s Top 100 book list in the US, The Guardian reported last month.
據英國《衛報》上月的報道，蘇格蘭插畫師約翰娜•貝斯福德爲成人設計的一本塗色書《祕密花園》登上了亞馬遜暢銷書百強榜的首位。
Secret Garden is a collection of black-and-white drawings you can fill with color. Like a treasure hunt, the book features all kinds of creatures, including beatles, songbirds, butterflies and sharks hidden in a garden. Since its release in 2013, it has sold more than 1.4 million copies in 22 languages worldwide, according to The New York Times.
《祕密花園》是一本黑白畫集，讀者可爲其上色。就像尋寶一樣，書中的花園裏“藏着”各種生物：甲殼蟲、鳴禽、蝴蝶……甚至還有鯊魚。據《紐約時報》報道，自2013年問世以來，這本書已被譯成22種語言，總計銷售140多萬冊。
Not only this, half of ’s top 10 has been taken up by coloring books for adults. With themes ranging from nature and animals to classic paintings, coloring books have attracted adults of all professions.
不僅如此，成人塗色書已經佔據了英國亞馬遜圖書前十強的半壁江山，這些塗色書的主題從自然動物到經典畫作，吸引着各行各業的成年人。Celebrities are crazy about coloring books as well. American actress Zooey Deschanel, 35, once shared a link about Secret Garden with her Facebook followers. Also, 27-year-old South Korean pop star Kim Ki-bum posted an image from the book on Instagram for his 1.6 million followers.
很多明星也沉迷塗色書。今年35歲的美國女演員佐伊•丹斯切爾就曾在自己的臉書上和粉絲們分享過一個關於《祕密花園》的鏈接。擁有160萬粉絲的27歲韓國偶像金基範也曾在Instagram上曬過這本書的圖。Part of coloring books’ appeal is their anti-stress benefits.
塗色書的魅力之一就是可以減壓。Secret Garden is “terribly therapeutic”, commented The Guardian. It’s nothing new that art has therapeutic benefits, and practitioners have used it with patients of all ages, CNN noted.
《衛報》曾評價《祕密花園》有着“特別的治癒功效”。而CNN（美國有線電視新聞網絡）則指出，藝術的治癒效果並非新鮮事，醫生們早已經將其用於治療各個年齡的病患。“If I switch off the phone, computer and TV and concentrate solely on choosing the right shade of blue, avoiding going over the lines and slowly filling up my page with color, all my other concerns, I’ve discovered, fade to nothing,” the London-based novelist Matt Cain wrote on The Guardian.
“當我關了手機、電腦和電視機，集中精力選擇合適的藍色色度，當我放下小說創作，塗完整張紙，我所有的煩惱就會一掃而光。”現居住在倫敦的小說家麥特•凱恩在《衛報》上如是寫到。For those who are not good at drawing or painting, coloring books are a way to be creative.
對於那些不擅長繪畫的人而言，塗色書則是他們的“創作”良方。“You don’t have to sit down with a blank sheet of paper or, you know, have that scary moment of thinking, ‘What can I draw?’ The outlines are already there for you, so it’s just something that you can do quietly for a couple of hours,” Basford told US-based NPR.
貝斯福德在接受美國國家公共電臺採訪時表示：“（有了塗色書）你就不用坐在一張白紙面前，苦思冥想‘我能畫些什麼？’（書中）所有的輪廓都已經勾好，接下來的幾個小時你只要靜靜地上色就好。”As for how to color the books, just pick up any colorful pencils, crayons, or markers at your disposal. But it’s recommended you use crayons.
至於如何上色，你只需根據自己的喜好挑選不同顏色的鉛筆、蠟筆或是馬克筆就好。其中，尤其推薦使用蠟筆。“Despite how highly stressed you may be, the most important thing is to not use pen markers with alcohol that go through the paper. The proper thing is to use crayons,” Spanish cartoonist Antonio Fraguas told The Huffington Post.
西班牙卡通畫家安東尼奧•夫拉瓜斯在接受《赫芬頓郵報》採訪時說：“不管你有多大壓力，都不要用滿是酒精味的馬克筆。蠟筆纔是首選。”
