Adult coloring books have grown rapidly in popularity over the past couple years. Now one can walk into any bookstore––or just about any store, really––and find a shelf filled with books for adults with beautiful designs and detailed pictures waiting to be colored.

Chickadee Creative Coloring in Southern Oregon published its first adult coloring book in 2016, titled Wild Women and illustrated by Leia Pastizzo. The brainchild of married couple Linda Lowe and Michael Kozak, Chickadee Creative Coloring spurned from their own love for adult coloring books. “We wanted to offer a book that had hand-drawn illustrations and  printed on 100# artist grade paper with a spiral binding so that the book lays flat for coloring,” says Lowe. “The thicker paper allows for many forms of media used to color the art.”

December of last year, they released Creatures of the Deep, illustrated by Southern Oregon University student Andrew Youngblood. “We liked the idea of using students since they are a largely undiscovered source of talent,” Lowe says, “and we wanted to use local students as much as possible to support our community.”

When it comes to the books, she says, “Our books don’t have any words in them, but they do tell a story in their own way. Creatures of the Deep shows the beauty of the sea’s ecosystem and the creatures that call it home. Wild Women lovingly shows women from many backgrounds with nature, animals, and flowers and the women are expressing themselves with joy and passion.”

She explains how the artists choose the theme for the books, based on what they’re passionate about.

She says the company’s next upcoming book “Amazing Animals is going to portray many different animals, showing them as beautiful creatures in their natural settings or shown in the friendships that they form with each other, just like humans.” The book will feature several artists, including Youngblood.

“We wanted to publish hand-drawn art instead of computer generated images. We just wanted to put out a high-quality product that would inspire people to de-stress and lose themselves in coloring.”

More information about Chickadee Creative Coloring and its books can be found at chickadeecreativecoloring.com.