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April Coloring: Paint by Numbers, but for Adults!
Did you ever do one of those paint by numbers things as a kiddo? I certainly did my fair share and they were just… calming.…
Did you ever do one of those paint by numbers things as a kiddo? I certainly did my fair share and they were just… calming. You didn’t have to overanalyze what you were doing but simply followed along as an image took shape. April Coloring brings that to the modern era with simply amazing pieces of artwork that can be colored in on your iPhone. After spending some time doing it, it takes me back to that serene time coloring out on the living room floor.
April Coloring is a very pretty app. Not just the artwork you color, but the app itself. There’s modern flat iconography throughout and automatic dark mode to let the app take on the look of your phone. The developers but quite a bit of time designing the app, which makes sense when you see how great the art choices are.
Instead of just tapping an area with a color and filling it at once with a paint bucket, April Coloring has you paint the colors in with a brush. Swipe through the areas to fill it with the selected color. It’s been highly optimized for Apple Pencil too if you happen to be on iPad. This provides that more tactile feeling of coloring.
In the base version, there are hundreds of free pieces of art that you can choose to begin coloring. The paid version upgrades this further but many will be satisfied with the free offerings. These are broken down into categories and as you complete them, you’ll earn stars to denote your progress.
This app is an upstanding citizen as well on iOS. I already mentioned its dark mode support but it also happens to support Messages. If you go to the Messages app you can share completed piece of artwork as stickers with your friends. Sure, you just painted by numbers but why not share them? I like any native integrations and while I probably won’t share them too much, it’s always good to see developers take advantage of what Apple makes available.
There are no boring solid colors here with April Coloring. This app is an elevated experience that looks more like watercolors than Microsoft Paint. It’s easy to relax on the couch with the evening sun still peeking in through the window as you paint an expansive seascape for hours. These days, everyone seems stressed. Yoga is one option, I think coloring is another.
But enough about other people's apps.
