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.
原本用来启发孩子创造力的涂色书现在却成为不善绘画的大人们的新宠。
“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.
据英国《卫报》上月的报道，苏格兰插画师约翰娜•贝斯福德为成人设计的一本涂色书《秘密花园》登上了亚马逊畅销书百强榜的首位。
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.
《秘密花园》是一本黑白画集，读者可为其上色。就像寻宝一样，书中的花园里“藏着”各种生物：甲壳虫、鸣禽、蝴蝶……甚至还有鲨鱼。据《纽约时报》报道，自2013年问世以来，这本书已被译成22种语言，总计销售140多万册。
Not only this, half of Amazon.co.uk’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.
不仅如此，成人涂色书已经占据了英国亚马逊图书前十强的半壁江山，这些涂色书的主题从自然动物到经典画作，吸引着各行各业的成年人。
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.
很多明星也沉迷涂色书。今年35岁的美国女演员佐伊•丹斯切尔就曾在自己的脸书上和粉丝们分享过一个关于《秘密花园》的链接。拥有160万粉丝的27岁韩国偶像金基范也曾在Instagram上晒过这本书的图。
Part of coloring books’ appeal is their anti-stress benefits.
涂色书的魅力之一就是可以减压。
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.
《卫报》曾评价《秘密花园》有着“特别的治愈功效”。而CNN（美国有线电视新闻网络）则指出，艺术的治愈效果并非新鲜事，医生们早已经将其用于治疗各个年龄的病患。
“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.
“当我关了手机、电脑和电视机，集中精力选择合适的蓝色色度，当我放下小说创作，涂完整张纸，我所有的烦恼就会一扫而光。”现居住在伦敦的小说家麦特•凯恩在《卫报》上如是写到。
For those who are not good at drawing or painting, coloring books are a way to be creative.
对于那些不擅长绘画的人而言，涂色书则是他们的“创作”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.
贝斯福德在接受美国国家公共之声采访时表示：“（有了涂色书）你就不用坐在一张白纸面前，苦思冥想‘我能画些什么？’（书中）所有的轮廓都已经勾好，接下来的几个小时你只要静静地上色就好。”
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.
至于如何上色，你只需根据自己的喜好挑选不同颜色的铅笔、蜡笔或是马克笔就好。其中，尤其推荐使用蜡笔。
“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.
西班牙卡通画家安东尼奥•夫拉瓜斯在接受《赫芬顿邮报》采访时说：“不管你有多大压力，都不要用满是酒精味的马克笔。蜡笔才是首选。”
