Coloring supplies for adults: a starter kit at $25, $60 or $120

What a coloring kit needs

Prices below are Ohuhu's own or Amazon US listings checked on October 28 and 29, 2026. They move weekly and drop before the holidays. We have not tested these products ourselves: picks come from what colorists use on camera and say in their videos.

Bobina Loves Portraits' budget for a new colorist: 12 to 48 colors, under $100 all in. All three kits below stay inside that.

The $25 kit

Pencils are the cheapest good start. A 72-color soft-core set costs about the same as a sandwich, works on copy paper, and doesn't bleed. A colorist on r/Coloring recommends cheap pencils for bold-and-easy pages anyway, so you don't wear down good ones on big floors and skies.

Prefer markers at $25? Two routes. Ohuhu Maui 60 water-based ($22) plus a Letter clipboard ($5): 60 colors that rarely bleed, fine on copy paper, but they don't blend like alcohol ink. Or an Ohuhu Honolulu 24 ($25) with a brush tip, and add a pack of cardstock when you can. The Ohuhu guide explains the lines.

The $60 kit

This is the kit most cozy colorists would recognize. A 48-color alcohol set with a brush tip is what you see in nearly every color-with-me video, and 65 lb cardstock is the cheapest paper that handles it.

If you color with an inkjet printer, print in Draft or grayscale and let pages sit for a day before coloring: alcohol ink can drag inkjet lines. Laser lines are safe. Details in the printing guide.

The $120 kit

The $60 kit, plus the tools colorists add once they are hooked: pencils on top of markers for blush and soft shading, heavier paper, a board to color on the sofa, and a second white pen.

Combining the two is a standard method: marker base first, then colored pencil for shading, texture and blush; a white pencil softens the edge of a highlight (Thaneeya McArdle, Art is Fun). The colored pencil guide compares sets.

The three kits side by side

Times are rough: Coco Wyo calls its bold-and-easy tier a 30-minute page, Chloe Rose Art took a little over an hour on one with markers, and pencils take about three times as long.

The small things that matter

A blotter under every page

Coloring Dojo's advice: cardstock, chipboard or 3 to 4 scrap sheets, replaced once soaked, because a wet blotter can wick ink back up. Not glossy magazine pages, tissues or paper towels. Colorists also use a thick watercolor sheet (Caro's Art Studio) or a piece of a cardboard box. Plastic alone makes ink pool on the page. More in the printing guide.

A swatch chart

Marker caps are not reliable: Thaneeya McArdle found an Ohuhu cap lighter than its ink. Markers also dry to a different color and look different on different paper, A Pictured Purpose shows. So swatch every marker on the paper you color on. Ohuhu offers blank color cards to download; Etsy sellers charge EUR 7 to NZ$13 for printed charts of the Bobbie Goods set.

A board or clipboard

Coloring on a sofa or in bed needs a firm surface. A 13 x 17 in drawing board ($8 to $10) holds a Letter or A4 page with room for your hand and a blotter underneath; a plain Letter clipboard costs about $5. Graying With Grace recommends a lap desk or clipboard for older colorists too.

Somewhere to keep it all

Ohuhu's carrying cases have no slots for single markers, so they get jumbled (Thaneeya McArdle). Store alcohol markers lying flat. A $6 to $8 zip pouch holds pencils, gel pens and a sharpener.

Pages

Books are lovely, but their paper is the main complaint: Coco Wyo's Amazon-printed books are about 80 gsm and alcohol markers bleed through. Bookstore (Penguin) editions use thicker paper for $8 to $10; Bobbie Goods books cost $22. Printing your own pages lets you choose the paper and reprint a page that went wrong. Ours are free PDFs in US Letter and A4 with 1/2 in margins, no sign-up.

Coloring gift ideas for December

Coloring sets are a December gift: searches for the Bobbie Goods Ohuhu set roughly quadruple in November, and the set sold out in under 24 hours on its first run. Buy early. Ideas by budget:

Cozy Christmas Living Room

Kitten in a Christmas Stocking

Snowy Cottage with a Chimney

Supplies for seniors and shaky hands

Thick lines and big spaces are easier to stay inside, which is why many older colorists and people with tremors or arthritis prefer bold-and-easy pages. For tools, Graying With Grace suggests:

• Jumbo, easy-grip, non-toxic pencils or crayons, or foam grips slipped over normal pencils.
• Chunky dual-tip markers, which need less pressure than pencils.
• A lap desk or clipboard, so the page doesn't slide.
• Thicker pages; spiral-bound books instead of staples, or single printed sheets.

The Alzheimer's Association asks carers to keep art activities on an adult level, avoid anything childlike, and allow time: a page doesn't need to be finished in one sitting. Our bold and easy pages use adult, everyday subjects (cafes, cottages, animals at home) with a 1.7 mm line.

What not to buy for a first kit

• Copic. About $5.85 to $7.99 a marker against under $1 for Ohuhu. Lovely, refillable, not needed for these pages. See Ohuhu vs Copic.
• A 120 to 320 color set. You can't learn which colors you use from 320 of them. "300+ markers for this is kinda wild" is one of the most liked comments under Bobina's video.
• A fine + chisel marker set when you wanted a brush. Read the tips on the box.
• Watercolor or mixed-media paper for markers. It soaks up ink, pills and wears out nibs (Thaneeya McArdle, Baylee Jae).
• "Bleed-proof" promises. Bleed depends on the paper and what is underneath. Coco Wyo and Bobbie Goods both tell you to put scrap paper behind the page.
• Very detailed "adult" books for someone who wants to relax. The most liked comments under the big bold-and-easy videos are from people who found detailed books overwhelming.
• No-name 60-marker sets as a main set. They sell by the thousands, but quality varies by listing and none of the colorists cited here uses one.

Put the kit to work

Print a page with big shapes and color it tonight. Our Christmas pages and bold and easy pages are free PDFs that print at Actual size on Letter or A4. With markers, read how to color with alcohol markers first: ten minutes on keeping a wet edge saves a streaky first page.

Cat Wrapping Christmas Presents

97 spaces · Medium

Cat Hiding in a Gift Box

60 spaces · Easy

Teddy Bear Opening Christmas Presents

74 spaces · Easy

Christmas Cookie Jar with Mittens

99 spaces · Medium