Marcia Beckett

Today I am part of a TLC Book Tour for a new coloring book called Inkspirations Fruit of the Spirit. There are a few reasons I decided to be a part of this book tour. 1) I wanted to show you how we have enjoyed coloring books. 2) This is a Christian coloring book and I know I have readers that teach at Christians schools, Bible camps or with church groups. 3) I wanted to show you how I have gotten inspiration from coloring books. 4) I know there are creative ways art teachers have used coloring pages in the classroom and I wanted to share with you a couple of unique ideas. Here is the coloring book that I was gifted to review.

Inkspirations Fruit of the Spirit:
Coloring Designs to Nourish You with Love, Joy, Faith, Peace and More

First, let's talk about the art in the coloring book. The designs are very beautiful, with lots of patterns to color. Each page has Bible verses or sentiments. This would be lovely to use with your own family, a kid's group at church, vacation Bible school or maybe as a free-time option in a Christian school. (Clearly I would not use this in a public or non-religious school setting.)

I could use the elephant image below in my classroom (removing the religious words) by using it as an inspiration for an art project by challenging them to draw their own animal with doodled patterns inside.

Elephant Coloring Page in Book (1200x770)

The lettering on these pages are very fun and creative. If I taught in a religious setting, I could use these quote pictures as examples and have the students create their own lettering design of a Bible verse or song. The book shows many examples of different styles of lettering.

One of my ideas this school year is for students to design their own hot air balloons for a bulletin board about "soaring" or "taking off". This hot air balloon is a nice example with decorations and patterns on the inside.

This image reminds me of a quilt or Kente cloth pattern.

Here are my two cute kids using these coloring pages. When we color, we go all out. Colored pencils, markers, whatever we have laying around. My daughter Daria gets to use my fancy markers because I know she will be careful with them. Desmond gets the cheaper ones.

Here is Daria's page. I think she is quite talented for a 6 year old. But don't all parents? Desmond lost interest after a few scribbles.

Here is one of my finished pages:

Now some of you are probably saying, "Coloring books?? Coloring books are creativity killers!!!" (I have heard art teachers say that before.) You might think that, and you can have your own opinion and I will have mine. I don't subscribe to the belief that coloring books kill creativity. If a child uses a coloring book sometimes and draws on their own plenty too, I think that is fine. My daughter colored in coloring books a LOT when she was 2, 3 and 4. She also drew on her own constantly. She is a very creative little girl and has very good penmanship and ability to draw what she sees. She comes up with all kinds of creative drawings, so I just don't see the correlation between coloring books and un-creative kids. Obviously I don't think an art teachers should just give coloring pages to kids all the time. No way! But at home? For fun? Why not! If you are still skeptical, I wanted to show you these awesome creative artworks put together by using coloring pages (not the ones from this book.) Coloring Book Remix

Amy Carey Stine, an art teacher from Ashburn, VA, shared this lesson on Facebook. With her permission, I am reposting it for you. She said, "After Christmas all my seventh graders wanted to do was color in their new coloring books. If you can't beat them, join them! So, I presented to them, "Coloring Book REMIX." We studied surrealism and Prismacolor technique." They colored in the pictures and then cut them apart to make new collage compositions! Here are her gorgeous results: