Many seniors will like any of the coloring books we have featured on the site already, however, some either because of vision, dementia or fine motor control issues may need to have coloring books for seniors that are better suited to them.
Coloring Books for Seniors
Kimberly Garvey Books for Senior Citizens
This review says it all “This is a wonderful coloring book. I’m 36, but I have severe arthritis, chronic pain, and several other health issues that lead to my hands being very shaky. Also, when I have to concentrate on the very small designs in some other coloring books, it often gives me a headache. This book is one of only 2 or 3 “simple” coloring books for adults out there. But, really, the designs are not “simple” at all, the areas to color are a bit larger than most you find in adult coloring books. This would be good for anyone: adults who might prefer their coloring areas not be so intricate, those with arthritis or other health problems like me, older adults, and even, perhaps, adults with Alzheimers or bad eyesight. To the author: please, please think about doing more of this kind of coloring book! There is such a need for less intricate books like this. I’ve posted it to the RA website (there is a post that talks about coloring) and also recommended it to friends who are also registered nurses (as I once was) to use in their assisted living centers and nursing homes.”
Simple Designs – A Laid Back Coloring Book by Kimberly Garvey
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That reviewer got her wish. Kimberly has created a few books directed at seniors
Simple Designs II – Another Easy Coloring book for Senior Adults
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My Sweet Home Coloring Book for Seniors
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100 Amazing Patterns by Jade Summer
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SUPER Simple Designs: An Adult Coloring Book with EASY Designs
This coloring book was designed specifically for seniors, beginners, disabled people and those with various other issues that require MUCH easier coloring pages. Or maybe you just like simpler books. This is a simplified version of the Simple Designs book above. Many of the drawings are similar but simpler than Simple Designs. It is drawn with bolder lines to help those who have vision problems. Also, this book is great for beginners or anyone who feels like kicking back with an easier picture to color. This book has 36, one-sided, SIMPLE pages to color. A perfect coloring book for seniors, disabled, those with rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety, It seems to have calming, relaxing, and anti-stress characteristics.
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Advanced Style Coloring Book
Ari Seth Cohen is the author of this unique book featuring stylish seniors dressed in high fashion. The senior ladies on your gift list are really going to enjoy the illustrations in this book and the celebration of women “of a certain age,” indeed we are fans of celebrating women of all ages. The paper is your basic Createspace quality and it contains only 30 illustrations, a bit thin for the price but it is still a great buy for that perfect person.
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Norman Rockwell Classics from the Saturday Evening Post
The subject matter of these two coloring books makes them perfect for seniors, both by Creative Haven so expect single-sided images on perforated white paper.
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The Saturday Evening Post-American Coloring Book
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Harmony of Nature: Unwind Create Color by Japanese artist Mihoko Kurihara
This pretty nature book was personally recommended by Ruth, one of the members of the Facebook group as a fantastic coloring book for seniors, and I agree with her. It’s perfect! Simple designs yet more realistic than Kimberly Garvey’s, particularly if you are a nature and bird lover.
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I’ve recently been introduced to this coloring book illustrator Aisling D’Art and her series of books Bold and Easy Coloring Pages. She has several versions and they are designed to be colored by those with mobility difficulties, vision issues or hand-eye coordination.
Bold and Easy Coloring Pages 1 by Aisling D’Art
The designs in this book include simple, relaxing mandalas, easy kaleidoscope drawings and calming, repeating patterns with two copies of 25 patterns.
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She has several others in this series below. This coloring book is also a Left-Handed book
Grandma’s Quilts Coloring Book for Seniors
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Coloring Book for Seniors: Anti-Stress Designs
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Coloring Books for Seniors: Nature Designs
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Coloring Cafe Books by Ronnie Walter
Ronnie Walter’s coloring cafe books are spiral bound filled with biblical and uplifting verses and messages with simple designs perfect for seniors to color in.
Colorful Blessings
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Kindness Matters
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Color My Heart Happy
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Large Print Color By Numbers: Butterflies, Birds & Flowers
What a great idea! This is the first of these I have seen with the color by numbers with spaces big enough to see. Even in my 50’s I have a hard time with the adult color by number books but this one looks great. If anyone has seen it in person, please let us know what you think.
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Even though we are grown-up, coloring things that remind us of our past glory days is particularly satisfying. They call it “retro” but to baby-boomers, it might feel like yesterday.
My favorite thing about going to the doctor when I was a kid was the kids books. I particularly loved Highlights.
Highlights Hidden Pictures®: A Coloring Book for Grown-Up Children
This iconic coloring book features a nostalgic collection of intricate, challenging black-and-white Hidden Pictures puzzles for a grown-up audience. Helping to re-discover a beloved childhood pastime.
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Fun Coloring Books for Seniors by Thaneeya McArdle
Thaneeya’s books are fun and have simple large areas to color, as well as examples for colors to use both in the front and the back of her books. Kemberlee, one of our reviewers pointed out that lots of seniors were once 60’s & 70’s hippies so they might really enjoy these books even though they aren’t targeted specifically to senior citizens.
Good Vibes
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Christmas Coloring Book – Coloring is Fun
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Live for Today – Coloring is Fun by Thaneeya McArdle
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Day of the Dead Coloring – Coloring is Fun
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Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Coloring Book Treasury: Color Your Way To A Calm, Positive Mood by Thaneeya
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More Good Vibes: Coloring is Fun by Thaneeya McArdle
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Nature Mandalas
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Happy Campers – Fun to Color Coloring Book
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Free Spirit Coloring Book
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Any of Thaneeya McArdle’s books would be great for seniors
Mandala’s for Seniors
Angie Grace also has mandala coloring books for those that have vision issues or prefer larger spaces to shade in with pencils or pens. These books with larger spaces may be better for seniors or younger children that find Angie’s patterns too complex and intricate.
Centered by Angie Grace
Click to Order Centered – for Crayons and Wide Markers
Transcend – For Crayons And Wide Tipped Markers: Angie’s Gentle Mood Menders
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Balance – For Crayons & Wide Tipped Markers: Angie’s Gentle Mood Menders – Volume 1
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Breathe Easy Mandalas
For Crayons & Wide Tipped Markers: Angie’s Gentle Mood Menders – Volume 3
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Coloring Books for Seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease
The Best Alzheimer’s Products website says that Stained Glass Coloring Books are particularly good for seniors because of the thicker black lines that are fairly simple to stay within.
Amazing Angels Stained Glass Coloring Book
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Art Nouveau Windows Stained Glass Windows Coloring Book
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Wild Animals Stained Glass Coloring Book
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Cats Stained Glass Coloring Book
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Coloring Dreams
One of the members of the Facebook Coloring Book Addicts group has been sharing her pages from this book and it looks perfect for seniors. It is 8 1/2 x 11 printed on 1 side of the paper. It is a Createspace book.
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Happy Coloring Easy Flowers
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We will be adding to this article as we come across new recommendations. Please feel free to ping us on our social media accounts if you have suggestions or leave them in the comments below.
Swear Word Coloring for Grandmas
Granny Swears Coloring Book
Adult Coloring Book with swear words that Granny would say. “Well Bless Your Little Heart,” or “Son of a Biscuit!” Another pretty cuss word coloring book for you.
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Granny Swears Black Edition Coloring Book
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How Gramma’s Swear Coloring Book
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Grandma Approved Curse Words
This book has phrases like “Gee Willikers! What the devil are you doin’? Get your crapola off the flippin’ floor, shut your pie hole, and help me with these cotton pickin’ children you lazy jackwagon!”
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Coloring Supply Recommendations for Seniors
Because arthritis and reduced vision often are issues for seniors, we recommend using coloring materials that are easy to get color out of without pressing too hard. The senior friends in my coloring group seem to prefer gel pens and markers over colored pencils.
My favorite non-bleeding marker to use in coloring books are the Artist Quality Faber Castell Pitt Pens.
This set of 24 Faber Castell Pitt artist brush pens come in a handy slide-out case
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There is a gift box set of the BIG Brush Pitt Pen Markers with 15 colors. It says it’s for stampers but these are Pitt Pens at a decent price. These would be really nice for seniors with arthritis because of the bigger size barrel.
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The other option for non-bleeding markers is these Staedtler’s recommended by Johanna Basford.
Triplus Staedtler Fine Line Markers – I adore these markers and usually have them in my coloring bag. The 24 pack has a cool stand-up case which is perfect if you like to take your coloring with you.
- Triplus Staedtler Fine Line Pens 36 Colors US
- Triplus Staedler Fine Line Pens 36 Colors UK
- Triplus Staedler Fine Line Pens 36 Colors Canada
This is the smaller Staedtler selection of colors with the portable stand up case.
Staedtler Markers Set of 20 Amazon US UK Canada
If you are coloring on one-sided paper then good old Crayola Supertips are perfect and you can’t beat that price point for 100 gorgeous colors. They DO bleed but if you just put a scratch piece of paper behind your picture, you will be fine.
Set of 100 Crayola Supertip Markers
Gel pens, particularly the glitter and metallic ones are also a favorite because they give such vibrant color with little effort. Gelly Rolls are still my favorite of all that I’ve used, they are just consistently great and last for years! I had some stashed in my scrapbooking supplies from the 90’s and they still write! I even have some colors that aren’t available anymore so win/win for me.
Gelly Roll Gel Pens
Sakura’s Gelly Roll Glitter Pens come in several different types of Gel Pens for Coloring
- Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust Meteor Pen Set which includes: silver, marine, copper, pink, green and blue. Click to Order Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada
- Sakura Stardust Galaxy Set which includes: rose, sky, lime, purple, golden and red.
Click to Order Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada - Metallic Gel Pens -1.0 Metallic: 2 Gold, Silver, Copper, Blue, Purple, Pink, Green, Teal, and Red
Click to Order Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada - White Gelly Rolls – These are really fun to use for special effects over your pencils or to highlight or dot however we actually prefer the Signo White Gel Pens for that purpose.
- Clear Glitter Gelly Roll Pens – Perhaps our favorite of them all is the clear glitter because you can apply it over the top of the pencil and some markers to get any color of glitter you want. Very effective for fairy wings or crystals.
Click to order: Amazon US ~ UK ~ Canada - Classic Gelly Roll Pens
Click to order: Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon Canada - 75 piece Gelly Roll Artists Collection of Pens. Of course, the granddaddy and the best value, if you are splurging, is this pack with all of the pen!
LolliZ Gel Pens are a great price point and are often on sale
These set of gel pens contain 6 standard inks, 6 neon, 6 swirl, 12 glitter, 10 metallic, 8 milky.
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LolliZ just introduced this set of 70 unique colors
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You can explore more about using gel pens including tutorials here.
If you want to use colored pencils for shading I do strongly recommend artist quality pencils because getting the pigment out of the stick is just SO much easier. I love my Prismacolors and my Polychromos so really it’s a matter of preference of more waxy or more oily, lightfast ratings and the price point. My very favorite budget pencil that although it isn’t artist quality but gives fabulous results is Marco Raffine.
- Faber Castell Polychromos Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada
- Prismacolor Colored Pencils Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada
- Marco Raffine Colored Pencils Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada
- You might also want to explore the watercolor options detailed here.
There are so many book deals to explore on Dover / Creative Haven Books and Book Depository.
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